By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday afternoon, President Bob Iuliano sent a campus-wide email informing the community of steps that the College is taking in light of the incident in which a racial slur was cut into the body of a student at an on-campus informal social gathering.
Iuliano began his message by acknowledging and thanking the Black Student Union and Gettysburg African Student Association for holding a community meeting to address the incident last Thursday.
“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,” wrote Iuliano. “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.”
Iuliano expressed that he wants the College to make progress in “the process for notifying students when an identity-based incident directly impacts our campus community.”
He announced that he has asked Vice President of College Life Anne Ehlrich, Chief Diversity Eloísa Gordon-Mora and Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Jamie Yates to “convene a working group of staff and student leaders to put such a process in place.” This group is set to begin meeting next week.
Further, Iuliano announced that the College has retained Jason Craige Harris of the Perception Institute, 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.”
The organization’s mission statement reads: “Through research, strategy, and advocacy, we aim to create a world where people of every race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity and gender expression, age, ability, and socio-economic or class status thrive and experience a profound sense of belonging.”
Iuliano said that Harris will work with the College to facilitate dialogue addressing the incident and how the College should move forward.
“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,” wrote Iuliano.
His work will start with small-group discussion, and Iuliano wrote he anticipates that larger community meetings will be held with Harris’ help.
Next, Iuliano wrote that he has heard student’s calls for better communication to affinity groups and that the College is working to address these concerns.
“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,” he wrote. “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?”
Iuliano said that he has asked Title IX coordinator Amanda Blaugher, the College’s human resources and Gordon-Mora to “further maximize educational and awareness programs related to bias awareness, similar to what we have done for our Title IX efforts.”
Additionally, the Provost’s Office is partnering with Gordon-Mora, faculty, staff and students “as [the Provost’s Office] plans educational efforts to reduce bias and increase awareness.”
This will involve the Provost’s Office “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 to enhance their focus on 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.”
Additionally, the Provost’s Office will 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.”
Concluding the email, Iuliano said that the College is not defined by the incident, but instead by the response to the 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,” concluded Iuliano.
