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Message from the Vice Provost & Dean
Dear Student Affairs Colleagues:
The tragic incidents with people of color recently in Minneapolis, New York, Georgia, and elsewhere remind us – unfortunately, yet again - that our efforts to confront injustice and unapologetically promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, are desperately needed. Although these incidents occurred far away geographically, similar situations have previously occurred much closer to home, and often lie just below the surface of daily interactions throughout our community.
I write to express my profound sadness that we live with this ugly reality. I do not want us to become comfortable that incidents like this are occurring elsewhere. I acknowledge these confrontations affect each of us disproportionately. And, I ask us to redouble our efforts to become disarmingly uncomfortable with a status quo that seeks to stifle or harm people who do not share someone else’s narrative; to create diverse programs and increase support for students and colleagues who too often find it challenging to be fully who they are; and to not allow our increasingly common remote working and learning mode to make us remote from each other or societal wrongs. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
When so much pain exists, when so much wrong has occurred, it is sometimes hard to know what the right response should be. Dig deep – you’ll discover it. And, if you need a think-starter, consider this 2017 article about confronting racial injustice. If you feel particularly pained by these or other recent events, I hope you will let me or someone else you trust know how to help. Finally, I appreciate your efforts for others in our world – please think about what we can do more of for those who are most often wronged just being in it with us.
Loren
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