Message from Provost Liesl Folks June 26, 2020
Dear campus community members and friends of the University of Arizona,
Last week I shared a statement regarding concerns and questions over a number of alarming racist social media posts from current and incoming University of Arizona students. My message to the campus community and beyond elicited a number of welcome responses. Many eloquently made the point that it seems very unfair that those whom anti-Black racists would choose to oppress, or do active harm to, should need to share the campus with those who use hate speech, and thus potentially be made to feel anxious or afraid while they seek their own education.
Painfully, as a society we don’t have a solution to that inequity, in the case of anti-Black racists any more than we do for other known oppressive individuals and groups that exist in our communities, including on our campuses.
The hard question we all face is how to change the hearts and minds of people who have been conditioned into anti-Black racism and anti-Black violence? If they don’t go to college and are not exposed to views from outside their insular communities, there is a much-lowered chance that these damaging and dangerous views can be changed. In particular, it is unlikely that an understanding of the systemic and institutional supports of racism will be developed. Unchanged, racism will continue to be communicated within communities, perpetuating the harm.
Our challenge at the University of Arizona is to build real strength into the educational process, into our student support structures, into our reporting processes, and into our disciplinary processes, to provide real protections for our BIPOC students, to bolster the strength that comes when we witness that our community will not tolerate anti-Black racism. On this front, we have much work still to do, and I look to our students, staff and faculty to actively inform that process and to guide our path forward. I have optimism that we can work together to find ways to channel our anger into building better systems that serve to reduce racism at the University of Arizona and across US society.
Seizing this moment in history, our faculty, staff and students are already strengthening our efforts in action-oriented ways, including voter registration and education, campus gatherings to discuss controversial issues, protocols that increase a robust pool of candidates and hiring of diverse faculty and staff, utilizing our existing data and shared experiences to inform proactive change regarding the student experience, and intentional consultation with the Shared Governance organizations that are committed to the success and transformation of the University that reflects our core values, our Land Grant charge, our Hispanic Serving Institution designation and service to the State of Arizona.
We owe it to our local and regional community, and to our nation, to seize this historic moment to be better and to serve our students better. Change is hard – always – but now is the moment.
Bear down, Wildcats.
Liesl