By Vincent DiFonzo, Editor-in-Chief
On Thursday afternoon, President Bob Iuliano sent a campus-wide email with updates on steps the College has taken since the racist incident in which a racial slur was cut onto another student in early September.
First, Iuliano reported that there will be a dialogue session open to all students, faculty and staff on Nov. 21 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. as part of the Conversations for Change initiative. This meeting will take place in the College Union Ballroom and will also be livestreamed.
“One of the fundamental goals of Conversations for Change is to expand our ability to listen and ask questions, so that we may better understand one another’s perspectives and move forward together as a community. We strongly encourage all students and employees to attend,” wrote Iuliano. “The November session is aimed at deepening mutual understanding; raising awareness of how bias, racism, and prejudice affect those around us; strengthening campus relationships; and, importantly, exploring pathways that are designed to result in lasting change.”
Next, Iuliano outlined updates on other initiatives the College has taken.
Vice President for College Life Anne Ehrlich and Chief Diversity Officer Eloísa Gordon-Mora have been working with a feedback group of students to improve how the College reports bias incidents to the community.
“The group agreed that the Chief Diversity Officer will email the community when such an incident is likely to have significant bystander impact, and the affected party agrees that an email may be sent,” wrote Iuliano.
Iuliano also announced that Gordon-Mora will now update the College’s Bias Response and Education Protocol website on a monthly basis. She will also send a campus-wide email detailing a “summary of progress made on bias education and response initiatives” at least once per semester. Iuliano thanked the student leaders who helped the College “identify this need.”
Next, Iuliano wrote that College Life will work with students and faculty “to deliver more robust and mandatory bias-awareness, belonging and bystander intervention education” during first-year orientation.
Iuliano stated that recommendations by Title IX Coordinator Amanda Blaugher and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, College Life and Human Resources are currently under review. These offices made recommended changes after a request by Iuliano last month.
Next, Iuliano wrote that the Provost’s Office is organizing events aimed at “[building] bias awareness and [strengthening] inclusion and belonging in the academic division” among faculty and staff. The Provost is working with East Asian studies professor Junjie Luo, director of the Johnson Center for Creative Teaching and Learning.
The first session as part of this initiative by the Provost, called “Inclusive Curricula,” is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 4 p.m. in the Pennsylvania Hall Lyceum. This session will involve philosophy professor Nathifa Greene and sociology professor Alecea Standlee.
Additionally, the Provost has partnered with the political science department for a series of events “in which faculty research on various forms of bias will be shared with the goal of identifying how the research can inform our community.” These sessions will be open to all students, administrators and faculty.
On Jan. 15, Michelle Schmidt from the Provost’s Office, in conjunction with Jamie Craige Harris, will hold a “mid-year workshop” which will “focus on building greater community and belonging through countering and addressing racial and other biases.”
The Provost’s Office is also “giving weight in the next round of tenure-track faculty hiring to the potential for new faculty to contribute courses toward the race, power and equity component of the new Gettysburg curriculum,” according to Iuliano. Additionally, the Provost will partner with Gordon-Mora to “hold orientation sessions within faculty committees on the importance of bias awareness during their decision-making work.”
Finally, the Provost will work with Human Resources and Gordon-Mora to “evaluate and update the Inclusion partner Program used in [the College’s] hiring practices.”
Concluding the email, Iuliano thanked “the many people who are working on these efforts.” He also acknowledged that some of the initiatives “will have an immediate impact, while others will take longer but are designed to strengthen our structures, processes and education.”
He wrote that the College is “seeking to create a unified plan — one that will be shared with the community — integrating these new initiatives with the many other activities already in progress across campus.”
The email concluded, “I look forward to talking with you more about these initiatives at the Nov. 21 meeting. Thank you for your commitment to fostering a more inclusive and respectful community.”
