Black leaders highlight issues, call for changes on campus
Two Instagram pages and the school’s plan to be more welcoming to Black students
Tyler Pugmire/News Editor
After the Black Lives Matter movement sparked a national awakening to the realities that Black people face in the United States, the @blackatusd Instagram page was created on July 2 to highlight the voices of Black students and their experiences at USD.
This started after the creation of @dearpwi, an account created in order to express the experiences of Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) at predominantly white institutions. This account was attempting to fuel social change, and to let other students know that their racist actions and words had been heard. Students that had experienced racist behavior now had a voice.
Another way that voices were amplified during this movement came from the school’s Black faculty, who wrote a letter on July 10 to the USD administration calling for an institutional and cultural shift on campus. They listed 13 main recommendations for the school to show that they are making real change to appeal to Black students and faculty. The first has already been implemented by the school, which includes a module that educates students on racism in the community.
Jillian Tullis, Ph.D., professor of communication studies and signee of the letter, explained its inception.
“The idea of writing a letter addressed to the academic arm of the administration came directly from the experiences of faculty on campus,” Tullis said. “In the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery and subsequent BLM protests many of us couldn’t help but think of the culture at USD and how we might use the moment to inspire some changes.”
One of the most important notes from the letter concerned virtual community interactions. The faculty stated there must be a policy in place, covering all members of USD, to mitigate social media posts and online communication that are racially motivated and intended to harass others. It also asks for a way to report any racist online comments from a fellow student, faculty, staff, or administrator.
Tullis spoke about the experiences that Black faculty face at USD.
“Some Black faculty have had students in their classes who engaged in anti-Black racist behavior during class sessions or even in assignments,” Tullis said. “There don’t seem to be very good mechanisms in place to address these issues in a way that corrected the students’ behaviors and supported faculty. These personal experiences, combined with the global movement for Black lives seemed the perfect opportunity … to work for changes on our campus.”
This is currently a main concern for much of the school, for when the @blackatusd page began to gain more than 2,000 followers, another page emerged — @whiteatusd, a short-lived account that posted hauntingly racist statistics and filled its feed with anti-Black propaganda. The account has since been suspended and an investigation is underway, as announced by USD President, James T. Harris III, D.Ed..
Other colleges such as UC San Diego and the University of Southern California have also experienced the creation of similar Instagram accounts countering their university’s version of @dearpwi Instagram accounts.
One of the ways that Tullis stated that USD could become a better place was if the school came out as actively anti-racist.
“When the message gets out that racism and intolerance are unacceptable and that there are consequences for such behavior, bigots will know this is not a place where they are welcome,” Tullis said. “While we are educating ourselves we can also elevate and celebrate Black scholarship and culture, and not just one month out of the year during Black History Month.”
After the letter from Black faculty was released, Carmen Vasquez, vice president of student affairs, spent a few minutes during the COVID-19 Q&A on July 9 discussing the new policies developed on campus in order to appeal to Black students and faculty. Vasquez addressed the letter’s request for a module to teach anti-racism, but beyond that, it seemed as if the school took a different turn from the letter’s recommendations.
USD turned toward providing funding for the Center for Educational Excellence and hired a chief diversity officer, in order to facilitate opportunities for more inclusion on campus. The College of Arts & Sciences will also develop an interdisciplinary pop-up course on racism and inequality in the fall.
USD has taken steps to address racism on its campus, but Tullis said there’s more work to be done.
“The letter doesn’t stop with challenges faculty sometimes face in the classroom, but a range of issues including hiring, promotion, and increasing Black intellectualism on campus,” Tullis said.