As Seattle Central Community College (SCCC) prepares to evict Occupy Seattle from its campus, ballsy SCCC professor Jeb Wyman sent out an email to students and faculty pushing back on the administration's claims that Occupy Seattle has brought nothing but a nest of rats and needles to campus. It's a (long) must-read. Here's a choice excerpt, compliments of Slog tipper Phil:
For sure, rats are a cherished institution at our institution. Theyâve been crapping on my desk for years. Rats and the college go back a long ways, a Tom and Jerry kind of thing. Some old-timers might even remember a City Collegian article about rats in the culinary dept. kitchen, nibbling through flour sacks. (Funny, admin stamped out the 42-year-old student paper shortly after. Wonder why!)
Of course, if you spend much time at Seattle Central, youâll get cozy with needles, too. Since 1994, Iâve parked in the lower level of the garage. On most mornings I detour around a puddle of sour pee (that bracing odor wakes you up!) in the stairwell. Iâve stepped over many a hypodermic needle on those stairs. And over broken gin bottles, stolen purses, beer cans in paper bags, empty plastic baggies. My car has been broken into three times. The garage was once equipped with security cameras, but they wereâyou canât make this up!âstolen years ago.
A few years ago, the campus president locked up all first-floor bathrooms after too many homeless took sink baths and too many overdosed dope addicts were found sprawled in the stalls.
And in mid-Octoberâthatâs, uh, a few weeks before Occupy moved inâour facilities director put out an email blast (with great accompanying pix!) bemoaning that graffiti, vandalism, trash, needles, and âcleaning up the feces, and urine, and vomit left almost daily at our doorstepsâ cost the school about $200,000 a year.
Sorry to gross you out, but Iâm just quoting directly.
