Many thanks for signing and distributing the petition. Several persons asked for more information on progressive stacking. Professor Candela provides an explanation below. There is a longer statement and how it has been attacked here.

"Progressive Stacking was born out of the Occupy Movement, or at minimum it was popularized by that movement. It involves a recognition of the inequalities that shape public spaces of discussion, or in this case the classroom, and who feels empowered to participate versus who does not. Progressive stacking is a technique for arranging the order of speakers to ensure that the voices of the more marginalized members of our society are given priority and ample opportunity to speak, so that their voices can be heard alongside those of others. It often involves asking those who feel more empowered to speak or those vested with more social power to hold off and wait a bit longer for their turn so that we can mix in the voices of other folks. That sometimes even means pausing and sitting in silence a bit to see if other folks might raise their hand to participate. Conscientious teachers do this quite regularly anyway, but by naming this practice and naming the social inequalities that mark the classroom at the beginning of the course, progressive stacking forces us all to face the way we embody distinct forms of power and privilege or do not. What it does not do is refuse anyone the right to speak. It merely disorders the usual arrangements of who gets to speak first and most.

When it works really well, as I have seen in my classes, students with greater privilege and power in the classroom learn to self-reflect on the ways in which they tend to hegemonize the conversation and learn to respectfully wait and give others priority. This requires creating the conditions for self-reflection, and that means naming the structures of power at the beginning of the semester and on the syllabus so that when I ask students to hold off, over and over, they start to get it because they make the connection to the forms of power they might embody, frequently whiteness and masculinity. I don't have to explicitly identify them as white, or as men, or as white men, or as anything else. I can merely prioritize giving space to those who speak less, who wait longer in making contributions, or who have never spoken before. Other students benefit by beginning to raise their hands and take risks in speaking, particularly as they begin to see that their voices will be heard and perspectives given consideration. As instructors we can do all of this without ever naming the structures of inequality in the classroom, but in refusing to name those inequalities we fail to create the conditions for self-reflection and liberatory self-empowerment in the classroom."