These professors support the 'progressive stacking' policy that prioritizes students' comments based on race

Over 900 people have signed a petition in support of a Binghamton University sociology professor who considered a student’s race and gender before calling on them in classroom discussions.

Campus Reform reported on Ana Maria Candela’s “progressive stacking” participation policy, which was codified in her syllabus. 

The policy instructed white male students to wait until “non-white folks” have an opportunity to talk first.

A university spokesperson informed Campus Reform that Candela was asked to remove the questionable section from her syllabus because it violated the school’s 2021-2022 Faculty-Staff Handbook.

William Martin, a member of the New York university’s sociology department, created the Change.org petition supporting Candela and her “inclusive classroom.” 

The petition has 903 signatures as of Mar. 4. 

“As colleagues and students of Professor Ana Candela we are deeply dismayed at the attacks upon her by Fox news [sic] and the failure of the SUNY-Binghamton administration to support her,” the petition reads, referencing the national media attention Candela received after Campus Reform broke the story. 

It also reads, “We need more Professors like Dr. Candela.”

The petition garnered support from many of Candela’s colleagues in the Binghamton sociology department. 

Gladys M. Jiménez-Muñoz commented on the petition that she signed it “because the classroom is the space for us to challenge students to examine social inequalities in a concrete way. Dynamics, such as this one, is a pedagogical tool in the context of academia.”

“What Binghamton University is doing is caving into racially motivated attacks on education disguised as efforts to uphold academic freedom,” Walden Bello, a sociology adjunct, commented. 

Bello also argued that “Fox News is doing all it can to fan the counterrevolution against the movement to transform institutions that have been historically distorted and disfigured by white supremacist power and ideology.”

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Similarly, Kelvin Santiago-Valles pledged his support to Candela, commenting, “I’m signing because universities do not exist apart from societal structures and patterns but, rather, inherently reproduce such structures and patterns---including those that enable ongoing social disparities.”

Other Binghamton professors outside of the sociology department signed the petition. 

“I support Ana candela and cannot fathom why anyone would attack her except we seem no longer to live in a democracy, but in some tight lipped oligarchy. She has my full support,” Joseph Weil, an English professor, wrote. 

Ingeborg Majer-O’Sickey, a member of the school’s German and Russian studies program, is another signee in support of Candela and progressive stacking.

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“I am on board with the princuöipals underlying the petition,” Majer-O’Sickey wrote. 

Leo Wilton, a professor of human development, signed and stated that he stands with Professor Candela.

Assistant Professor Jakob Feinig shared the petition on Twitter, accusing Fox News of “attacking” Candela. 

Sean Harrigan, a student in Professor Candela’s class, believes it is “concerning” that his professor and her participation method has a backing.

“It is too bad that other professors on campus believe that discriminating against students based on sex and race is “inclusive” and that they are making a petition for it, or claiming that this policy is morally good,” Harrigan told Campus Reform.

Campus Reform reached out to Ana Candela, along with William Martin, Gladys M. Jiménez-Muñoz, Walden Bello, Kelvin Santiago-Valles, Joseph Weil, Ingeborg Majer-O’Sickey, Leo Wilton, and Jakob Feinig for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

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