When a beloved professor was denied tenure, these students took action.
One Ivy League university isn't doing well on the subject of diversity.
In May 2016, Aimee Bahng, an assistant professor at Dartmouth College, was denied tenure — despite unanimous support from her colleagues and glowing recommendations from her students.
Image via Dr. Su Yun Kim, used with permission.
In addition to being beloved on campus, Bahng is also said to be a brilliant teacher with a wide range of expertise. She specializes in Asian-American literature, feminist science and technology studies, and queer theory. But she is perhaps most well-known on campus as a community organizer who brings students of color together.
She helped found — in response to the death of Michael Brown and the failure to indict Darren Wilson — the Ferguson Teaching Collective at Dartmouth and teaches a popular course centered on Black Lives Matter.
Image via Gerry Lauzon/Flickr.
The denial of her tenure — especially considering Dartmouth's stated commitment to make its faculty more diverse — was especially troubling.
"Once we sort of got past the anger, we were kind of shocked," Melissa Padilla, a Mexican student attending Dartmouth, told The Associated Press. "We didn't understand why the college would not take this opportunity to keep a professor of color on campus that is not only providing the academic prestige they want but is also mentoring students of color."
Dartmouth is bound by confidentiality when it comes to discussing the tenure process. But some believe the decision to deny Bahng tenure is due to the advisory committee's inability to evaluate her experimental work and service responsibilities.
Bahng said she would appeal the school's decision. However, she can't officially start the process until she receives an official letter from the school explaining her rejection. Tricky.
Image via Institute for Humanities Research/Vimeo.
The decision struck students as uncalled for and unfair. So they decided to take matters into their own hands.
Students started using the hashtags #Fight4FacultyOfColor and #DontDoDartmouth on social media in order to spotlight the story as much as possible. And the effort is paying off.
The movement has spread. Students from around the country are uniting as one to express their support and are fighting the good fight with Bahng.
This is all the way across the country in USC. Image via Kaitlin Foe, used with permission.
The students also banded together with teachers to start a petition directed at the higher-ups.
They rallied to spread Bahng's story on Change.org and now have over 3,600 signatures supporting the cause. They also gained some powerful words of encouragement from the public.
Screenshot via Change.org.
Students even rallied together to organize a symbolic "funeral," mourning the loss of their departed teachers.
It was a bold move, but it sent a powerful message across campus.
Image via Mariko Whitenack, used with permission.
Whatever the outcome, it's inspiring to see the student community working together to create real change.
We've seen students demand their school take down a symbol of oppression. We've seen students come together to help end sexual violence. And we're seeing students across the country stand up for more diversity among faculty and speak out against what they perceive to be unfairness.
Whatever happens with professor Bahng, one thing is clear — there are many students out there who care deeply about important issues and will continue to fight for what they truly believe is right.
Loudly. Together.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.