Last week, graduate students at the University of Missouri at Columbia protested President Tim Wolfe’s poor handling of racism and racial issues on campus. The University’s football team hosted a sit-in, and a student went on a hunger strike until the President and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin chose to resign. On Wednesday, a student at the University of Missouri at Rolla posted a threat on the social media app Yik Yak. On Oct. 28, Yale University’s Intercultural Affairs Council urged students not to dress in offensive Halloween costumes, and in an email, Prof. Erika Christakis expressed that it was inappropriate for the University to censor students costume choices. How do you react to the events at the University of Missouri and Yale University, and how do you think universities across the country should foster a more inclusive environment for minority students?

Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) 

It is not enough for college presidents and administrators, however genuine they may be, to simply profess a commitment to diversity or inclusivity.  Creating campus environments that are conducive to productive learning and healthy social experiences for underrepresented students requires acknowledging historical legacies of exclusion and persistent structural inequalities that are reinforced on a daily basis, in and outside of the classroom.  In particular, students of color are often treated as a monolithic “problem” that must be addressed, usually through the development of a diversity strategic plan, task force or long-term study.  Such approaches become more about process and public relations than genuine efforts to understand the complexity of students’ lives and their full humanity.  Without a sense of immediacy and moral urgency on the part of university leaders, issues of social inclusion, physical safety and cultural respect for underrepresented students will continue to persist.

Prof. Chad Williams (AAAS) is an associate professor of African and Afro-American studies and chair of the department. 


Cynthia Jackson ’16

The recent events at the University of Missouri and Yale University make it obvious that American universities have not done all they can to provide welcoming environments for their students of color. Millions before now have pushed for the American public to want diversity and their actions laid the foundation for real change. So why have we not seen it from our colleges, places that are usually the driving forces behind cultural revolutions? Universities claim they want diversity in all its forms, but their actions fall short of their words. If universities want to achieve a safe environment for all students, they should give more support to cultural organizations and boards already established on their campuses. University presidents, deans, and other faculty should take the time to attend events and meetings organized by their students of color, and they should use the information they learn to improve policies campus-wide.

Cynthia Jackson ’16 is an undergraduate departmental representative for the education department. 


Alex Montgomery HS ’17

The events at University of Missouri, Yale, and Ithaca College are just recent developments in a long history of oppression that permeates academia. Students of color consistently experience aggression and discrimination at colleges around the country: Bigoted faculty and administration. Offensive Halloween costumes. Racial slurs. Assault. These instances are rarely covered by media and often go unpunished. Students are afraid to report them and when we do, we are often ignored, silenced, or threatened. Instead of collegiate camaraderie, we are met with hostility and resentment. This is how racism perpetuates on college campuses. Racism is entrenched in academia, and the culture must be completely restructured in order to affect change. Institutions must prioritize diversity in the student body, among faculty and within pedagogy, curriculum and research. They must re-examine student recruitment and how institutions can actively support students, faculty and staff.  They must provide culturally-competent sensitivity training for campus communities and install institutional structures that will support, track and hold accountable promises made. We must demand this from our institutions.

Alex Montgomery HS’17 was one of the organizers of “BLACKOUT: In Solidarity with Mizzou.”

Prof. Derron Wallace (ED, SOC)
We are witnessing a crisis of leadership in US higher education. Given the current political zeitgeist, leadership challenges in relation to diversity and inclusion are not easily concealed. The organized protests at Missouri and Yale are informed, at least in part, by the #BlackLivesMatter movement, as students note the relationship between racial violence in our society and racial animus in our schools. Better, more inclusive leadership is needed at elite colleges and universities, and students are proposing the terms: countering curricular limitations by infusing issues of diversity throughout the curriculum rather than delegating them to a select few departments; advocating for greater institutional accountability for the recruitment and retention of minority faculty; and recruiting leaders of color trained deeply in institutional transformation not only as vice presidents for Diversity and Inclusion, but as university presidents and for multiple senior management team posts. It is time for increased representational and substantive diversity at predominantly white institutions, recognizing that diversity should not be reduced to an act, an event or a moment, but understood as an ever-evolving process necessary for academic and leadership excellence in the 21st century.
Prof. Derron Wallace (ED, SOC) is an assistant professor of education and sociology.