By KAYLA DEMICCO and EMILY PAOLICELLI
Co-Executive Editors
In response to the protests against police brutality and systemic racism that have surfaced around the world following the death of George Floyd, a campus wide conversation to address social and racial injustice was held over Zoom on June 10 at 7 p.m.
“Now is the time to gather, reflect, and take action as a community,” said an email from the Student Association on June 9 regarding the event. “The goal – identify areas of concern on campus and begin to create action steps towards change.”
The conversation was organized and facilitated by Cherèva McClellan, director of Student Life and coordinator of Family Relations, George Lopez, assistant director of Student Success and Engagement, Myles Clendenin, assistant director of Housing Operations, Angela Ledford, professor of political science, Joan Horgan, director of Spiritual Life, Yolanda Caldwell, director of the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network and Shai Butler, vice president for Student Development and Chief Diversity Officer. Risa Faussette, associate professor of history and political science, also helped plan the event but was unable to attend.
A total of 155 people attended the event, listening in and participating in the conversation which ended around 9 p.m. A variety of people, which included current students, alumni, faculty and staff, voiced their thoughts of things they felt were wrong within the campus community and ways that it could be fixed.
According to McClellan, the conversation was given two goals by the organizers, “to reflect on what they are experiencing and witnessing in terms of race and injustice, especially in the aftermath of Mr. George Floyd and Ms. Breonna Taylor’s murder [and] to create a forum where students and alum could voice their concerns related specifically to our Saint Rose community and create action steps to tackle these issues.”
Participants were given the opportunity to voice their concerns regarding racism and injustice that they have witnessed or experienced in campus, and to propose some actions that can be taken to address these issues in the future.
Attendees used the Zoom chat function to express how they were feeling at the moment with everything going on. “Overwhelmed” and “frustrated” were common emotions among the people who shared.
As an active member in the Saint Rose Community, Jaysalee Salcedo, interim president for Student Association, said there were many things Saint Rose needs to do to affect change.
“Being inclusive and diverse is more than putting someone’s face on a poster,” said Salcedo during the conversation. “There should be more that’s being done to support the students of color…to make them feel more included and comfortable.”
Multiple students spoke up about problems within their majors and how they are failing to implement inclusive curricula and hire diverse faculty.
An anonymous comment was read by Lopez that asked if there were any classes on ethnic studies and Ledford said while there is an African American studies minor, there are not ethnic studies classes. Classes that are offered that focus on the topics of educating diversity are mainly within the Political Science and Sociology majors.
Philosophy professor Laura Weed listed a few ethnic studies courses available in her department.
“The Philosophy and Religious Studies Department has several ethnic studies [classes] every semester. This Fall, we have courses in Race and Religion, The Holocaust, Women and culture, Native American Religions, and World Religions,” wrote Weed in the chat.
Based on what people vocalized, verbally and in the chat function, Caldwell and Ledford will put together action items for the college. Suggestions from attendees included having students be more involved in the faculty and administrator hiring process; having better communication with the Albany Police Department and Saint Rose security; more engagement and outreach with the Albany community beyond Saint Rose and the Pine Hills, especially the South End community; more inclusive curricula across many majors; and more support for minority clubs.
Resources were shared with listeners on where to seek help if they wanted to learn more about what they can do for the Albany Community. On a local level, Lopez recommended people look into Citizens Action of New York, the Capital Region chapter and Power Breakfast Club. Clendenin recommended In Our Own Voices, as he mentioned the importance of remembering black LGBTQ+ voices.
“[The] conversation is just the beginning of forming committees to draft action steps that can be taken by our community. Now is the time for action and solidarity,” said McClellan via email.
With the suggestions for action steps collected by the organizers, the next steps they will take are to compile resources that will be more supplemental to the education on racial, system, and social injustice and to address the concerns brought up.
“We hope this does not end tonight and the momentum continues,” said McClellan during the meeting. “We value you, we hear you and we stand with you.”
Update as of June 26, 2020:
On June 18, McClellan sent out a follow up via email to those who attended the Zoom meeting, which included the action steps they have collected from feedback by students.
“On behalf of the event organizers, we appreciate your openness, honesty, and advocating for change to improve our campus community,” said McClellan in the email. “Your experiences and perspectives are necessary to be heard in bringing about long standing change to our campus and the world. As we talked about during our conversation, we are following up with resources and actions steps.”
Those who did not attend and are interested in getting involved can contact McClellan at MCCLELLC@mail.strose.edu
Links to the resource guide and actions are attached below
Resource Guide<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_ZiLGiq1uyOJtf7-8XQEZm2y8aYuOcSIDaThJxGR-Og/edit?usp=sharing>
Action Steps<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eM_rhu2M3abNzLAX2z6gI39JUB_i4AmTV4bDD6l9Bw0/edit?usp=sharing>
