Demands from the Executive Board of the Goucher Black Student Union

As of June 25th, 2020

Updated: September 30th, 2020

If you would like a copy of the previous versions of these demands, please email us at umojagoucher@gmail.com to make that request.

Following the recent events of the police murders of Black lives and Goucher College administration proving their unreliability, the Goucher Black Student Union (GBSU) Executive Team is calling for immediate changes within the Goucher community. The team has revised the list of demands from 2014 and 2018 relating to the areas Black students need to see improvement in. The GBSU is tired of seeing our necessities be continuously pushed aside. If President Devereaux, the Board of Trustees, the Goucher Administration, and the rest of the community do not act now, then the next generation of Black students will have to endure the same grievances. We need action, not empty promises.

President Kent Devereaux and Goucher Administration, we are demanding that you:

Administration

  • Start the practice of cultural sensitivity, which can begin by having Presidential statements on race proofread before being sent out as mass emails to avoid the harm they inflict upon Black students and other students of color.
  • Communicate the administration's timeline for how you will address the systemic racism issues at the college, such as but not limited to events curated by the President and his cabinet members.
  • Make an immediate change to the institution’s mission and vision statement by specifically affirming the school’s commitment to fighting anti-Blackness and systemic racism.
  • Form official partnerships with Morgan State University, which the college proudly claims John Goucher was one of the founders of, and work collaboratively with students, faculty, and staff to brainstorm ways to do so; communicate those ideas to the Goucher community and take action on said ideas.
  • Publically address the removal of the college’s marketing point about the institution being in the Baltimore area during the 2015 Freddie Gray protests.
  • Discontinue the use of photos from student protests in marketing materials until the college takes action to address systemic racism in all forms on this campus.
  • Release a statement of support of student protests, as the institution has done in the past https://www.goucher.edu/news/students-peaceful-protests. Include your support of faculty and staff that want to support student activism.
  • Stop requesting that Black students relay information to the greater student body without compensation.
  • Refrain from asking for key points on how to address systemic racism; the burden should not be placed upon affected students, faculty, or staff unless there is adequate compensation for their efforts.
  • Stop prioritizing the input of demographics who are not directly affected by a particular event as was done in the Juneteenth email.
  • Recognize that the GBSU is not a monolith and begin making a conscious effort to invite and consult ALL Black Goucher students for feedback on how to address systemic racism at Goucher.

Black Caucus

  • Create a Black Caucus on campus that includes: Black faculty/staff members; Black students, not limited to those who are a part of various clubs, teams, organizations, and affinity spaces; Black alumnae/i
  • Any information pertinent to Black students should be relayed to this Caucus.
  • Direct connection and meeting with administrations.
  • We hope this creation will encourage other faculty/staff, alumnae/i and students of color to create their own caucuses.
  • Caucus members will hail from different academic disciplines; these roles are not permanent and are subject to change.
  • Black Caucus members will solely be responsible for the structure of the caucus and its proceeding.

Education

  • Integrate the First Year Summer Reading into WRT 181 courses for students to apply the critical reading and writing skills they’ve developed through the course to the text.
  • Expand and stratify the curricular requirements of the RPP program to 2 courses to ensure that students can have more prolonged academic interrogation of race and power.
  • During students’ travels abroad they will create a record (it can be a journal, a vlog, a picture diary, etc.) that showcases how they’ve considered how race functions on a national level.
  • Structure the Last Year Requirement of RPP in the vein of the College Writing Proficiency requirement so students reflect on previous submitted work as a foundation to demonstrate a thorough understanding of race and identify how they can contribute to social justice through antiracism.
  • Devise a plan to hire more Black staff and faculty across campus to help Black students feel more visibly represented on campus.
  • Consult and utilize a more professional and consistent source for teaching the importance of acknowledging racial identities within the First Year Experience.
  • Educate individuals on the detailed history of Black people and our experiences at Goucher College, starting with the first Black student, Jewell Robinson and her reasons for transferring to Howard University, and Goucher’s first Black graduate, Marguerite Barland (Class of 1960).
  • Research can reference the work of Black students (if credit is given to them), but the institution must coordinate research on their own. (ie: Victoria Awkward’s “The Natural r Project”; Yabsera Faris’ “Black at Goucher” and “My Racist Goucher” projects)Hai
  • Presentations must be visible and accessible to people inside and outside the Goucher community.
  • Decolonize our syllabi (reading materials, textbooks, various forms of media, etc.) and include ideas/perspectives from works by Black people and other people of color in our classwork and class discussions; this work will be done by the administration, faculty, and staff.

Hallowed Ground Project

  • End the tokenization of The Hallowed Ground Project when referring to Black affairs on campus.
  • Organize a meaningful and funded memorialization of the project when it’s completed (such as a Black Entrepreneurial Day to highlight and celebrate Black owned infrastructure).

Campus Policies around Hate Speech and the Bias Education & Response Team (BERT)

  • Place a clawback on the salaries of faculty and staff members caught using slurs, such as a non-Black faculty/staff member saying the word “nigger” (whether it is directed at a Black person or not), in a discussion.
  • Reprimand as well as educate students when they have BERT reports filed against them.
  • Create a more organized way for students to gather information on BERTs, student code of conduct violations, and other processes to report insensitive conduct carried out by members of the Goucher community by:
  • Making the information more accessible, detailed, and visible.
  • Automatically sending copies of BERT reports to the email of the person who filed them along with a receipt for the time of submission.

Gardaworld

  • Immediately end the institution’s contract with Gardaworld and remove their presence from the campus due to the threat they pose to the Black students, staff, and faculty.
  • Have the President and the Cabinet host and attend discussions with faculty and staff to discuss a better option for GardaWorld.
  • Retain the employment of all campus safety individuals who decided to stay with Goucher despite the shift to GardaWorld.
  • Ensure that when the college removes GardaWorld, all campus safety individuals have the opportunity to maintain their position.

Robinson-Barland House (RBH)

  • Give financial assistance that will go towards events for residents, group activities, furnishing lounge-areas on each floor, and refurnishing the common room of whatever building RBH is placed in.
  • Establish partnerships between the house and three offices of the college:
  • The Admissions Office establishes an official overnight program, tour visits of the house, and notifying incoming students about the existence of the residency and the history behind it.
  • The Alumni Office hosts an official ceremony honoring Jewell Robinson, the first Black student at Goucher, and Marguerite Barland, the first Black Goucher graduate, for whom the house is named after. Also, they need to notify alumni about the creation of this house.
  • The Communications Office publicizes information about RBH to incoming students and those interested in donating to the house.
  • Prioritize a relationship between Black faculty/staff and RBH to coordinate events.
  • Renovate Gallagher Hall, which includes the bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry room, lounge areas on each floor, the common room including the kitchen, and an elevator.
  • To hold the administration and Residential Life accountable, mandatory monthly meetings with the RBH co-heads and their residents will be held so they can voice their contributions to the floor plans and designs for the new, refurnished look.
  • Create an RBH Affiliate in the First-Year Village to allow interested incoming students to get a chance to experience a miniature version of RBH which will aid in the house’s growth by building relationships early on.

Black Student Space

  • Establish a Black Student Space that is spacious, visible, accessible, fosters fellowship and provides resources for all Black students.
  • There will be a working kitchen with cabinets, a community fridge, a stove, an oven, and microwave. The space will have 2-4 meeting/study rooms, a lounge area, resources, and a computer center to help with their academics and projects. Also, the tables and chairs will be adjustable to make it easier to organize more space for events.
  • Even when construction of the physical Black Student Space is completed, this is a growing space and will serve the needs of Black students of that time. The space is not limited to the aforementioned features.
  • The space will be located in the Heubeck Multipurpose Room and the former Heubeck Dining Hall.
  • A new staff with Black-identifying members hired to run the space in a similar capacity to Hillel, OSE, and CREI. There will be paid student work opportunities for Black students interested in working in the space.
  • Utilize Pinkard, located on the fourth floor of the Athenaeum, as a temporary space until the construction of the Black Student Space is completed.
  • Hold the institution accountable with mandatory planning meetings hosted by a committee that will include faculty/staff members and Black students who are involved in clubs/organizations, athletics, dance, student workspaces, and those who are not a part of either of these groups. Especially Black first-year students and sophomores.

Scholarships, Alumnae/i, Grants, and Funding

  • Initiate a scholarship fund for Black students funded by alumnae/i contributions.
  • Provide the Africana Studies department with an adequate amount of funding from the institution.
  • Engage with federal, local, and national organizations that value the advancement of Black education with the goal to build a sustainable relationship for current Black students and Black alumni to benefit from.
  • Allocate a portion of the institution’s endowment towards the building of a Black Student Space.
  • Provide Black faculty who offer the necessary requisites for tenure what they are entitled to.

To co-sign to these demands, please click here.

Sincerely,

 

Nae Jefferies, President

Kai Miller, Vice President

Avery McCorkle, Treasurer

Joshua Miller, Historian

Lalissie Eteffa, Marketing & Outreach

Samuel Onumah, Ambassador

Shamira Morgan, Secretary

The Executive Board of the Goucher Black Student Union