Dear Colleague,
The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement officially began in 2013 in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager. In 2014, BLM evolved to a national protest against police brutality after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Protests and riots continued for months, yet nothing changed.
In the years since, countless other acts of racism, discrimination and brutality have occurred, including most recently the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer on May 25. We have been called to action once again and it is time for change.
Educational institutions have historically been uniquely poised to be agents for positive change in our community and have often been at the forefront of attempts to progress racial justice. It is our responsibility to take action. This morning, we received the list of demands from the Black Student Union (BSU) and we look forward to meeting with them to discuss how we can work together to create a more equitable and anti-racist environment at our college.
Together, we can make a difference. Here’s how we are getting started.
- On Saturday, June 6, BSU organized a demonstration where our community came together for a free exchange of ideas and to decry the social injustices of racism that continue to pervade our community. These brave students joined their voices with faculty, staff, administrators and members of our community to call for change. It was an event that President’s Cabinet was proud to endorse.
- Because we believe that it is vital that our community engage in open and timely dialogue on the topics of diversity, inclusion and anti-black racism at the college, all employees are invited to an SRJC Community Conversation on Wednesday, June 17, 10:00am-12:00pm. The invite for this event is attached to this email. We ask that you join us in solidarity with our Black and African American community members by participating in this important discussion.
- The Zoom link and additional information will be provided in a future email.
- Topics covered in this community conversation will also be included in the New Faculty Learning Program for all new faculty hired at SRJC.
- The Zoom link and additional information will be provided in a future email.
- The Embracing a Culture of Inclusion (ECI) program is currently in discussions about additional engagement and training opportunities on topics such as identifying and addressing systemic racism, unconscious bias, micro aggression, the SRJC Culture of Inclusion and others.
- The college has created a resource guide for racial solidarity through the SRJC libraries. All employees and students now have digital access to the following books at this link: https://libguides.santarosa.edu/racialsolidarity
- How to Be an Anti-Racist
- White Fragility
- Becoming a Student-Ready College
- Fall PDA Day will shift the focus of the plenary session and select PDA Day workshops to center on how SRJC is responding to our community’s call to action.
Institutional change
- Vice President, Academic Affairs Dr. Jane Saldana-Talley and instructional deans are meeting with the Administration of Justice and all Public Safety Training Center managers and coordinators to better understand SRJC’s public safety curriculum, including how it was originally developed, regulatory limits, local flexibility and more. They will be discussing how these programs incorporate content into the curriculum that addresses implicit bias, racism, community relations, and ways in which program graduates can affect day-to-day interactions with the public.
- The SRJC District Police department has begun a review of all department policies and have discontinued the usage of the carotid restraint, effective June 5, 2020. The District Police support President Barack Obama’s Police Use of Force Project and continue to incorporate the principles of The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
- SRJC is committed to ongoing improvement in the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, staff and administrators by implementing best practices, such as:
- Working alongside the Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee and Academic Senate to:
- update job announcements to allow for better assessment of candidate sensitivity to diversity and to provide more detail on how the SRJC community supports a diverse range of individuals in order to attract more diverse applicant pools.
- encourage committees to modify preferred qualifications that may discourage applicants from diverse populations.
- revise faculty hiring procedures to promote equitable hiring practices in order to attract a diverse pool of candidates.
- update job announcements to allow for better assessment of candidate sensitivity to diversity and to provide more detail on how the SRJC community supports a diverse range of individuals in order to attract more diverse applicant pools.
- Continuing to enhance training for the fulltime faculty hiring committee orientation by incorporating additional curriculum on unconscious bias, the importance of equity minded instructional practices and other related topics.
- Working alongside the Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee and Academic Senate to:
- On Tuesday, June 9, the Board of Trustees passed Resolution 15-20, in Support of Solidarity with the Black/African American Community and Commitment to Greater Equity and Anti-Racism, which calls for:
- Implementation of actionable policies that will address campus climate, support inclusive classrooms and anti-racism curriculum review, promote diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring and retention, and require review of equity plans and procedures.
- Advocacy at the state level for system wide review of law enforcement officer and first responder training and curriculum and the resources to support college action plans.
- Implementation of actionable policies that will address campus climate, support inclusive classrooms and anti-racism curriculum review, promote diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring and retention, and require review of equity plans and procedures.
- The board of trustees has formed an ad hoc committee to address Black and African American students and employee demands.
- I am also convening a Presidential Advisory Committee on Black and African American Social Justice in order to help advise college leadership and to provide recommendations on creating a more equitable and just environment at SRJC.
- We will also be collaborating with other key organizations in higher education to advocate for change. This includes groups such as A2Amend, APAHE, and Colegas, which have combined in order to form “The Coalition.”
Finally, I’d like to recognize the many voices who recently provided statements of solidarity with our Black and African American community. I will be collecting the formal statements of solidarity on behalf of departments, programs and college organizations on a webpage within the SRJC President’s Office site at president.santarosa.edu in order to display these statements publicly. If your area has not yet provided a statement and would like to, please email it to Zehra Sonkaynar at zsonkaynar@santarosa.edu to ensure that it is included. I hope to have this webpage up within the coming week.
While I realize that these efforts are simply the beginning of a long road to creating a culture of anti-racism, the words of solidarity that our many SRJC colleagues have expressed for this cause give me great hope.
I look forward to walking alongside you as we strive to reshape our words, actions and policies in a way that provides greater equity for the Black and African American members of our community.
President/Superintendent