One organizer of a protest over racial discrimination at Dominican University in March knows it will be a while before she sees systemic changes.
But Dominican student Clinee Hedspeth says the group of protesters have since spoken to the university’s president several times, and Hedspeth thinks the administration is open to exploring new ways to make the school’s policies and practices live up to its mission.
In March, nine black students stood at the doors of the Rebecca Crown Library with tape covering their mouths before marching to President Donna Carroll’s office and reading a statement to her about racist incidents they had experienced on campus. Hedspeth said after the “blackout” that something needed to be done to make the institution accountable.
She joined the Campus Climate Committee, which consists of students, faculty and staff. It is in the early stages of planning its programming for the year. Hedspeth said she hopes the committee can make the student body understand that tolerating each other’s differences is not enough.
“When we talk about tolerance, it means you can just be here,” she said. Instead, Hedspeth would like to see the development of comprehensive classes that explore racism and oppression. She said Carroll was very receptive to hearing not only the students’ concerns but their suggestions for ways certain departments can work better with students of color.
Hedspeth said she received emails from students thanking her for staging the “blackout,” which added energy to the movement. Of the participating students who have since left the university, some cited poor treatment as part of their reason for leaving, Hedspeth said.
Carroll said the group she met with in the spring was sincere and courageous in voicing their concerns, and she wanted them to know she would listen. This year, Carroll said the committee that Hedspeth joined will join the university’s governance structure. Instead of being an ad hoc committee, it will be a standing committee of the university’s academic council, which means its decisions will have a bigger impact within the school.
Carroll said there was recently a town hall meeting about racism and diversity, and diversity dialogues are taking place among the faculty right now.
“We’ve really tried to be more intentional and thoughtful about our diversity initiatives and response in general,” Carroll said last week. She said she had just returned from a strategic diversity webinar.
Carroll praised the actions of the students in the blackout because they helped the administration focus and “gave us more urgency in terms of our own planning. … It made us, in general, much more sensitive to the student experience.”
