Dear Students, Colleagues, and Friends,
As members of the Diversity Committee and as faculty members and staff at Hastings College, we recognize that all of us in the Hastings College community are knitted together by many threads, but none so strong as the thread of our shared commitment to seeking, speaking, and witnessing truth, no matter the difficulty involved.
The past week has brought into glaring relief the racial injustices that continue to exist in our world. The tragic killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, James Scurlock, and many others, remind us once again of the persistence of systemic racial injustice in our nation, our state, and our local communities. We grieve for those whose lives were wrongly cut short. We grieve for the fresh pain and trauma unleashed by these events. We acknowledge that these and other acts of racial injustice reveal our country’s ongoing history of systemic racism against Black people and against other people of color, and how much work there is to do to address discrimination, intolerance, and barriers to justice at every level. We believe that Black lives matter.
Yet, individually and collectively, we can and must do more than just grieve, acknowledge, and believe. We have an obligation to actively reflect on these events and on ourselves, to commit to our own and others’ education surrounding these events, and to take concrete actions to address the systemic problems and failings we have found within our campus and broader community.
We acknowledge that systemic racism means that we, as individuals and as an institution, have racial biases that we may not fully recognize or understand. The faculty and staff of Hastings College will work with diversity professionals, starting in August, to address racial bias within ourselves and the institution. We are committed to making real change to show that Black lives matter at Hastings College, and to working with student leaders and organizations that represent minority populations. We believe that it is important that Black students and other students of color, staff, and faculty have a voice to shape our response—we invite members of the community to share with us the support they need and what we should address moving forward. See this page for links for providing anonymous feedback, as well as resources for everyone’s education and action.
Finally, in our role as educators, we take seriously the Hastings College mission to help students become curious and caring citizens of their local and global communities. We believe this is a moment that calls for practicing and deepening our curiosity–serious inquiry into even the most difficult realities of our history and society–and deepening our care–engendering a concern in all of us for every member of our community. We, the Diversity Committee and the Supporting Faculty, Administrators, and Staff, stand with you in our commitment to seeking, speaking, and witnessing truth as part of this educational mission, and the action this moment requires.
Hastings College Diversity Committee
Dr. Ali Beheler, Dr. Moses Dogbevia, Dr. Jessica Henry, Dr. Phuvadon (Ben) Wuthisatian
with assistance from Dr. Stephanie Furrer, Dr. Laura Logan, and Dr. Amanda Solem
For a Google doc with faculty, staff and administration signatures, click here.
