Dear President Daniels,

Today, we write to you with extreme disappointment in response to the communication sent to affiliates of the Johns Hopkins University on May 31, 2020. Your statement, in reference to the ongoing protests for the respect of Black lives and nationwide outrage at the backwardness of American society, was not only delayed but insufficient. Johns Hopkins continues to perpetuate and exacerbate its legacy of anti-Blackness and has played a leading role in the proliferation of structural racism in the city it calls home. This legacy includes the illegal harvesting of Henrietta Lacks’ cells, the continued destruction and forced displacement of Black communities through East Baltimore Development, Inc., the exploitation of predominantly Black staff members through poverty wages, medical debt lawsuits that disproportionately target Black patients, and union-busting efforts against nurses and contracted security workers.

A few months ago, the university sent out an email elaborating on all the steps they would be taking to address the economic loss due to the pandemic. The email was beset with several measures to save money - you suspended retirement contributions, and laid off university workers, including 188 cafeteria workers, in the middle of a pandemic, despite being an institution with a $6 billion endowment and $10 billion in assets, which continues to profit off of Baltimore while avoiding taxes. Now, in response to the trauma being faced by Black people in America, including Black students and staff members at your university, you provided a wholly inadequate response. Your statement lacks concrete commitments that suggest you truly value “diversity and inclusion” or care about “the brutal truth that the African American community still remains vulnerable to senseless violence.” Now and in the past, Hopkins has consistently buttressed systemic and structural oppression of Black and minority communities on its campuses and in surrounding neighborhoods. The university has shown time and time again that it values donors and predominately white students over others.

For the past two years, students have been demanding that you put a stop to the formation of an armed, private police force. 71.07% of the students who responded to an SGA referendum on the police initiative, surrounding neighborhood associations such as Abell Improvement Association, Harwood Community Association, and Greater Remington Improvement Association, and organizations such as the NAACP, the ACLU and unions UNITE HERE Local 7 and SEIU 1099 all opposed its formation because of concerns for the safety of our Black students, faculty, staff, and community members - the many instances of police killings in just the past month alone emphasize this. After a year of community resistance in the face of paternalistic attempts to justify its plans, the university forced SB 793 through Maryland’s state legislature using suspicious campaign contributions and spending $581,000 in lobbying efforts. Our voices were lost to your eagerness to secure donations from wealthy alumni. In reaction, students and community members engaged in an act of civil disobedience during the Garland Sit-in and Occupation. The university, once again, showed disregard for student voices and involved Baltimore police, leading to the arrests of seven students and community members.

As a world-renowned institution and a powerful economic entity in Baltimore, you have a duty to protect Black lives on campus and across Baltimore City. Hence, we demand that Johns Hopkins University:

1. Abolish plans for the creation of a private police force. You put the lives of students, affiliates, and members of the Baltimore community at risk through its implementation.
2. Reinvest funds for the armed private police force ($50 million) into providing resources for BIPOC, as well as first-generation, low-income, students at Johns Hopkins. This means supporting the Office of Student Success, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Africana Studies Department, the Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, and programs such as HOP-IN, JUMP, HOPE, and more.
3. Provide reparations in the form of financial and other direct material support for Black faculty and staff to be used at their discretion.
4. Cut all ties with BPD, as the University of Minnesota did with MPD. End all contracting with BPD for university events, and the current practice of hiring off-duty BPD officers.
5. Advocate for accountability for victims of university police and BPD brutality, including Tyrone West, Freddie Gray, and Korryn Gaines, among others, and for the immediate release of Keith Davis Jr.

Your proposed symposium does nothing to address institutionalized forms of structural racism and violence against BIPOC. Your letter was insulting. We demand Johns Hopkins University forge an equitable, just path in the future. We demand you stop exacerbating the violence experienced by BIPOC communities. We demand that those leading our institution promote racial equity in Baltimore. DO BETTER.

In solidarity,

Hopkins Feminists, Environmental Health and Engineering Student Group, JHU OLE, JHU Hindu Student Council, JHU SASH, JHU JOSH, JHU Voices of Color, JHU’s Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance, Rho Omega Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Sigma Sigma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Beta Zeta Chapter of Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha, Inc., JHU Kranti, Mu Psi Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Sudanese Student Union, Knotty By Nature, JHU Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, Johns Hopkins Democrats, The JHU Melanotes, JHU Circle K, JHU Students Educating & Empowering for Diversity, JHU Korean American Students Association, Eritrean & Ethiopian Student Association, JHU Stand-Up Comedy Club, JHUnions Student Programming Board, Zeta Chi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta, JHU Female Leaders of Color (FLOC), Arab Student Union, JHU Habitat for Humanity, JHU Mock Trial, JHU Chinese Students Association, Throat Culture, JHU Sharing Languages, Gamma Tau Chapter of Phi Mu, Jaywalk Dance Team, Johns Hopkins Entertainers Club, The Sirens at JHU, Lambda Chapter of Delta Xi Phi Multicultural Sorority, Inc., JHU Zinda, Dil Se, Baltimore- South Asian Dance Competition, Theta Delta Chapter of Theta Tau, Vietnamese Student Association, Real Food at Hopkins, Blue Jay Bhangra, JHU Students for Environmental Action, Hopkins Organization for Pre-Health Education - Minority Association for Pre-Health Students, The Johns Hopkins African Students Association, Shakti, Lambda Epsilon Mu, JHU Inter-Asian Council, Maryland Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi, Youth Library Tutorial, JHU Splash, Witness Theater, JHU Women’s Rugby Football Club, Women’s Club Basketball, Johns Hopkins National Society of Black Engineers, Women’s Pre-Health Leadership Society, Refuel our Future, Wings JHU, JHU Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, the JHU Barnstormers, Caribbean Cultural Society, Women in Business, Partners in Health: Engage, Hippocrates Medical Review, JHU Triple Helix, JHU Eclectics, JHU Kulanu, JHU SARU, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers at JHU, Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority Inc., JHU Filipino Students Association, JHU Hawaiʻi Students Association, Sunrise Hopkins, JHU Nu Rho Psi, JHU Humming Jay, Out in STEM at Hopkins, Circle of Women at JHU, Kappa Mu Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega