Anti-Racist Work Accelerates, Framed by Student Demands
In an email to campus last summer, Provost and Dean of the College Eric Boynton wrote about how the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and resulting activism had renewed the college’s sense of urgency.
Boynton is leading an anti-racist liaison team in conjunction with Atiera Coleman’10, associate dean of Student Success, Equity, and Community, and Erica Daniels, executive administrative assistant in the President’s Office. Working closely with Dean of Students Cecil Youngblood, college senior staff, key faculty members, and leaders of Black Students United, the group is using demands made by BSU in June to frame the group’s action plan and develop measurable goals and timelines.
The team shared this set of goals in September:
- To improve the college’s successes in recruiting and retaining Black faculty and staff in the short and long run.
- To improve the college’s successes in recruiting and retaining Black students in the short and the long run.
- To strengthen and deepen the place of anti-racism within the curriculum and co-curriculum.
- To provide ongoing anti-racism education and training for all campus constituencies including the board, senior staff, faculty, staff, and students.
- To make the physical campus more inclusive.
- To review the college’s hate act and bias incident policy.
