The board of trustees for Oak Park’s library issued an apology to the community late Thursday night amid the internal yet controversial actions the institution’s leadership took over the handling of a Palestinian cultural event and staffing changes.
“We apologize for the relationships that have been compromised during our tenure as a board, we take accountability for this harm in our community, and we thank the community for your patience while we work on best steps toward repairs,” the seven board members said in a joint statement sent by email at 9:40 p.m. Thursday night.
The apology comes two days after a four-hour board meeting during which more than two dozen community members and former staff members pushed back against Executive Director Joslyn Bowling Dixon’s and Deputy Director Suzy Wulf’s management of the event, as well as Dixon’s elimination of two positions, one of which involved diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
They accused some members of the leadership team of treating that event differently from others held at the library, and questioned whether the motivations of the actions were racist and reactionary as the Israel-Hamas war deepens.
The event was sponsored by Oak Park Neighbors for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel and the Oak Park and River Forest High School Middle Eastern/North African Student Alliance in January, and it celebrated Palestinian culture, drawing more than 400 attendees. But during the early planning stages, Dixon and other staff changed its designation to “community” from a “library” event. A library event connotes official sponsorship and has the advantage of promotion through the library — a distinction even internal staff say was never made clear to them.
One former employee, Tatiana Swancy, reported that Wulf criticized the community engagement team for misleading community members about event promotions, saying it was the wrong time to support the event because “there was a war going on over there.”
At the meeting, commenter Dima Ali, an Arab-American woman, said the library’s actions made her feel unsafe.
“We are not terrorists,” Ali said. “I am ready to challenge the racists in the community.”
Dixon, who is a Black woman, told the Wednesday Journal she takes concerns about racism seriously and would never want anyone to feel unsafe.
In the second incident, Dixon eliminated two positions as a result of budget contraints, she said, yet offered the employees lateral moves. However, Swancy, whose position was affected, served as the restorative practices coordinator on the community engagement team, and said she felt she could not do that work in the new position.
Dixon, citing policy, also banned employees at the center of the imbroglio from speaking with the press so that they could defend themselves in public. Several of those employees told the Wednesday Journal they fear for their jobs.
“I will say that the Oak Park Public Library is a clear defender of the First Amendment and would not let staff members go simply for speaking to the media,” said spokeswoman Jodi Kolo.
Neither board president Matthew Fruth nor the six other board members responded to repeated requests for comment by publication.
“My role was one of the few at the library that was explicitly dedicated to amplifying marginalized voices and modeling anti-racism and equity,” she told Wednesday Journal.
In its statement, the board acknowledged the harm done to staff and to the community.
“We stand ready to repair those relationships,” they wrote. “We also intend to honor our shared commitment to restorative justice in our pursuit of this reparative work.”
They said such work is ongoing, but listed three broad areas where it has begun. They said they’ll look for ways staff can provide anonymous feedback and are doing so to include their voices in the leadership’s evaluation process. They said they extended the timeline of that evaluation process.
They also said they held a conversation with “staff leadership” Feb. 28 “about specific restorative practices expectations.”
Finally, they said they are setting up a special board meeting before its next regular board meeting to continue steps forward “in service to our community.”
None of those details, however, are clear. Several requests have been made for comment.
The statement has been posted on the library’s website and Facebook page. You can read it in full:
“The Board of Library Trustees acknowledges there have been multiple examples of damage caused to the Oak Park area community, to our community partners, and to members of the Oak Park Public Library staff, and that we have much work to do to rebuild the broken trust. We apologize for the relationships that have been compromised during our tenure as a board, we take accountability for this harm in our community, and we thank the community for your patience while we work on best steps toward repairs.
All seven trustees of the Oak Park Public Library Board are grateful for everyone who attended the Tuesday, February 27 library board meeting, and everyone who has sent their thoughts to us in other ways. We are all deeply affected not only by the sheer number of those that reached out, but also by the resounding call to mend strained relationships between library leadership and members of library staff, members of our community, and community partners (specifically those that organized the event, A Day of Celebration of Palestinian Culture, and the Friends of Oak Park Public Library). We stand ready to repair those relationships. We also intend to honor our shared commitment to restorative justice in our pursuit of this reparative work.
It is important that we proceed with thoughtfulness and intention so that we can be confident that the steps we take next are in service of true and meaningful change. We also appreciate that, at the same time, there is an urgent and growing concern about Oak Park Public Library’s ability to maintain the standards of excellence, openness, and equity that it is known for. We are trying to balance both this deliberativeness and urgency as we determine the best ways to move forward.
While we are still working on our full plan forward, the board has initiated some steps.
- We are pursuing a process to open avenues for anonymous staff feedback through an external service provider. We are doing this to include staff voices in our evaluation process of leadership.
- We have extended the timeline of our evaluation process to include this input.
- Board leadership held a conversation with staff leadership on Wednesday, February 28 about specific restorative practices expectations.
- We are also considering how the board can meet our commitment to accountability to the community. We will be setting a special board meeting between now and our next regular board meeting to continue our steps forward in service to our community.
We recognize the engagement of the community and staff as an expression of love for our library and our community as well as voicing high expectations of our library. We on the board share those sentiments. Please continue to hold us accountable, as we do our due diligence to understand and take action on these critical matters at hand. We welcome your comments sent to board@oppl.org.”
Editor’s note, March 4, 2024: This story has been updated to add comment from spokeswoman Jodi Kolo, who said staff members would not be fired for speaking to the news media.
