Members of the College’s Ad Hoc Anti-Racist Campus Task Force, established last November, shared updates on its progress since its creation in interviews with the Record.
In fall 2022, buildings and monuments throughout campus were graffitied with racist words and phrases, including Confederate graffiti on the Soldiers Monument outside of Griffin Hall, a racist slur written on a chalkboard in Sawyer Library, and racial slurs drawn in the dust of car windows. As a result, on Nov. 10, 2022, in an email to the College community, President of the College Maud S. Mandel announced the creation of an ad hoc task force to address race-based bias. The task force, which was established by Mandel and Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leticia S.E. Haynes ’99, met for the first time on Feb. 10, 2023.
During that meeting, Mandel said, the task force set three main goals: First, understanding the nature of racist incidents, both those reported to the College and those that have gone unreported; second, reviewing how the College responds in those instances and ask the whether the right steps were taken to support the community; and third, ensuring that all members of the College community feel supported and safe through broad examination of the College’s racial equity and anti-racism work.
On Nov. 6, 2023, the same day the task force met for the first time for the 2023-2024 academic year, the Record interviewed several of its members.
In the November interview, Mandel said she believed that the group was able to make progress on their first two goals but that the third is more of an ongoing project. “You don’t stop talking and thinking about how racism can potentially affect the community,” Mandel said. “We hope other people outside this group continue to talk about how we address [racism] systemically, not just in a reactive way each time.”
Co-Director of the Davis Center Bilal Ansari added that the first goal — “to understand the nature of racist incidents that have gone officially reported” — is also an ongoing project. “We’re still trying to think through that,” he said in November. “We feel that we’re doing the right thing, but we want to broaden our table to see what more steps … that we can do.”
In November, Haynes told the Record that she understands and appreciates that various responses to bias incidents may be necessary. “Racism takes many forms, discrimination takes many forms,” she said. “There’s not always a cookie-cutter fix or response to something that happens.”
On Apr. 29, Mandel sat down again with the Record to reflect on the work the task force undertook during the 2023-2024 academic year. The group met eight times during this academic year and — as Ansari, Mandel, and Haynes emphasized during the November interview — the task force continued their work towards progress on all three goals.
To understand the nature of racist incidents, Mandel said the task force conducted a five-year historical overview of both informal and formal bias reports on or in the vicinity of campus. The task force obtained this data through bias incident reporting forms and available informal meetings with the Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (OIDEI).
To review how the College responds to incidents, the task force examined what steps the College has historically taken and how they followed up. “We reviewed our approach to make sure we thought the right processes were taking place, and we had some pretty in depth conversations with folks on the ground who do that work,” Mandel said.
Last month, Mandel repeated that ensuring all members of the College community feel supported and safe requires constant vigilance. “The fight against racism on and off campus is an ongoing project for us and for the world,” she said.
This academic year, the task force has been tackling issues that are newly relevant on campus since spring 2023. Mandel said the national rise of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab hate prompted the task force to think about how the College addresses these issues. “Every Jewish student and every Muslim student, as well as every student of any identity or background who we admit, belongs on this campus, and they have a right to equal membership in our community,” she said.
On Apr. 16, the College invited students, faculty, and staff to “an interactive discussion” with members of the task force. However, Mandel said that few attended the event. “We did have faculty and staff there, but we actually didn’t have a lot of students,” she said. Mandel said she hopes the task force will hold a similar event again in the fall and that more students will be able to attend.
In an email to the Record, student committee member Brianna Wright ’26 expressed a hope that, next fall, the task force will be given more opportunities to engage with students, faculty, and staff. “People need to show up to these things, or we [can’t] do much to incite change,” she said. “We need to hear from the community, in a respectful and safe manner to be able to support the community.”
Mandel said the Ad Hoc Anti-Racism Campus Task Force plans to continue meetings next year.
