October 03, 2024
Dear Campus Community,
Last Thursday, the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Gettysburg African Student Association (GASA) hosted a powerful meeting underscoring the urgent need for the College to take concrete action to ensure that this campus is a full home to students from historically underrepresented groups. Although arising from the recent racist incident, the meeting was about much more than that: a history of experiences within our campus and community that have distinctively affected underrepresented groups, the rightful sense of frustration that those experiences persist, and a call for the College to act now with purpose, substance, and pace.
I write today to thank the BSU, GASA, and the many members of the community who came out in support and shared their stories. But, more importantly, I write to convey my commitment to meet that call to action.
I want to make immediate progress on one of the issues students have identified: the process for notifying students when an identity-based incident directly impacts our campus community.
To that end, I have asked Anne Ehrlich, Vice President of College Life, together with Eloísa Gordon-Mora, our Chief Diversity Officer, and Jamie Yates, our Chief Communications and Marketing Officer, to convene a working group of staff and student leaders to put such a process in place. The group will begin meeting next week.
Additionally, the College has retained Jason Craige Harris of the Perception Institute. Perception defines itself as a think-tank of researchers and strategists who work to achieve dignity, belonging, and fairness through solutions that can transform how institutions function and how we engage each other. Jason will work alongside me, Dr. Gordon-Mora, and the full community as we tackle the work ahead. With his deep expertise, Jason will help bring every facet of campus to the table—from the student body to College leadership. He will offer advice and facilitate small and large group gatherings to help us make tangible progress on our goal to foster a more inclusive and responsive campus through cross-identity dialogue, with a particular focus on accountability and repair. His work will start with small-group discussions with several affinity groups. We anticipate larger community meetings may follow. Jason will also help us to examine our structures, policies, procedures, and culture.
In the meantime, we are also taking two other steps:
- Bias Awareness and Education: In addition to hearing from students about the need for better communication to affinity groups in times like this, I also have heard a resounding call for increased bias awareness and education. Over a year ago, Dr. Gordon-Mora organized a working team of students, faculty, support staff and administrators to overhaul our pre-existing bias procedures into a best practice Bias Response and Education Protocol. As the comments at last Thursday’s meeting underscored, more education about our bias protocol is still needed. The members of the swim team who reported this incident did the right thing by reporting it, but how can we ensure that every member of our campus community knows what to do in bias situations as a bystander? I have asked Amanda Blaugher, Title IX Coordinator and Director of Civil Rights Compliance and Education, to work with Dr. Gordon-Mora, College Life, and Human Resources on how to further maximize educational and awareness programs related to bias awareness, similar to what we have done for our Title IX efforts.
- Provost’s Office Initiatives: Incidents on campus and in the world rightly find their way into our classrooms as faculty help students and the community as a whole make sense of events. It is important to offer the tools and resources to navigate these conversations inside and outside the classroom as effectively as possible. The Provost’s Office will partner with Dr. Gordon-Mora, faculty, staff, and students as it plans educational efforts to reduce bias and increase awareness. Options include supporting departments/faculty who wish to share their equity relevant research and expertise with our community, partnering with the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and Learning (JCCTL) to enhance their focus and offerings on inclusive pedagogies, organizing faculty to lead sessions on curricular and departmental considerations for inclusive practices, and planning a January Institute to engage in important work on race and other biases. The Provost’s Office will also offer bias awareness education for committees that have decision-making power on faculty and student issues in the academic division and take other steps to increase awareness of and educate about responses to bias.
I will end by referring back to a prior note I sent to the campus, where I observed that the College will not be defined by what happened at an informal social gathering but by what we do as a community in response to that incident. The actions of the team captains, the leadership of our BSU and GASA students, the continued support offered by the Office of Multicultural Engagement, and the many other responses across the campus are evidence of a community committed to advancing the values that matter to us. We know we have much more progress to make, much hard work ahead, but the actions outlined above—while just a starting point—are important steps in that direction as we seek to balance immediate progress with long-term sustainable change.
Sincerely,
Bob Iuliano
President