Standing behind student voices
This is a letter to the editor from the Joint Faculty Senate Committee on Inclusion, Equity, and Justice.
The Joint Faculty Senate (JFS) Committee on Inclusion, Equity and Justice writes to support our students, such as Liam Miller, Ugbad Abdi and Fardusa Ahmed, who raise their voices (see February 24 articles in The Record) to demand real commitment to DEIJ at CSB/SJU. Both editorials take issue with current surface level efforts and challenge us to match our words with actions. BIPOC students and their allies are rightfully frustrated by slogans on websites and social media, such as “Community Always,” which are not realized on the ground.
Some members of our community have sought to prescribe the “right” and “wrong” ways to fight injustice. Both of the students’ editorials rightly call on all students, staff and faculty to make space to hear the voices of our BIPOC community, educate ourselves and include them in discussions about possible solutions.
Talking about race is uncomfortable for white people who, as Ojibwe scholar Anton Treuer shared with students and faculty last month, may be out of shape when it comes to thinking and talking about race.
Along similar lines, Robin DiAngelo’s lecture last year outlined how white fragility leads white people to get stressed out when people of color—exhausted by microaggressions and lack of institutional change—choose not to protect white people’s feelings when challenging white supremacy.
Those of us who are white, and are the majority, need to engage in continuous self reflection of our own biases and racial privileges as we engage in creating more welcoming and inclusive campuses for all our students. We stand in solidarity with our students who are speaking truth to power. We call our colleagues to sit with discomfort (as we often ask our students to do), to listen, hear and be deeply hospitable to our students, their experiences and their arguments—however they are communicated—and to act to transform our institutions.We need to meet students where they are, recognizing that it takes effort to speak up when you are marginalized.
As faculty, we need to empower and encourage students to speak for themselves. On March 1, the Joint Faculty Assembly (JFA) reaffirmed their commitment to the Faculty Statement on the Murder of George Floyd, developed in response to the demands of the Student Senates. The JFA also voted to require annual mandatory DEIJ training for faculty.
We urge our colleagues to take these JFA actions as reminders of the immense work of antiracism that we all need to be engaged in on a continual basis.
We can transform CSB/SJU as antiracist campuses when each and every one of us recognizes and practices antiracism inside and outside the classroom.