BY ZAE
This past week, The Evergreen State College held its first annual Fall Equity Symposium, designed to deepen the dialogue on equity and inclusiveness on campus. Held by Evergreen’s Equity and Inclusion Department, the two day event was, “designed to empower the Evergreen community with tools to create a stronger sense of belonging on campus. Additionally, the symposium is designed to have a meaningful impact in communities beyond the collegial hemisphere. Participants will receive the opportunity to further develop their cultural-competency skills as well as their understanding of how they can contribute to fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment.”
The Vice President for the Equity and Inclusion Department, Chassity Holliman-Douglas, envisioned the symposium as a space for the cultivation of inclusive excellence, a term she has coined from the work she has done in the department. Inclusive excellence looks at equity, diversity and inclusion through an egalitarian lens, which does not equate the student to a number, instead, identifies each individual in a holistic sense. The Vice Provost’s work centers on identifying what the mind, body, and soul need, and caters unique resources as nourishment for each individual.
LaToya Johnson, former Assistant to Vice President of Equity and Inclusion, worked intimately on the development and execution of the Fall Equity Symposium. When asked what attendees can expect to gain from the Symposium, Johnson hopes that people will leave with an understanding of inclusive excellence and the motivation to inspire others. The current Administrative Assistant to the Director of the Police Department states, “The reason why other colleges cannot get the student numbers [statistically] accomplished, is because they forget that they’re working with real people, real students. Poverty is real; people of color and things that they go through are real; socioeconomic statuses, regardless of what their race is, are real; disabilities are real. That is a thing we forget on this campus a lot, is that there are visible and invisible disabilities that we are not adequately serving. We’re focused on how we are [serving them], and less on how we are not [serving them].”
Johnson goes on to mention that this is a valuable opportunity for faculty and staff to understand their students needs. She believes it is important for faculty and staff to know what resources are available to help a student in need. In response, Thursday began with a Multicultural Networking and Resource Fair, where on and off campus departments and vendors congregated to provide information and services to Evergreen students, faculty, and staff. TRiO, Police Services, The Veterans Resource Center, and The Health and Wellness Center were among many of the on campus support groups featured at the fair. On Friday, students, faculty, and staff had an opportunity to attend workshops on fields of study related to equity and inclusion.
Each day came to a close with a keynote speech set to define and inspire equity and inclusion. Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, Founding CEO of Do Good Work Educational Consulting LLC., gave the keynote speech Thursday evening. Dr. Strayhorn was introduced by President of Evergreen, George Bridges, who took a moment to honor the Squaxin Island Tribe for the stolen land on which the College resides. Bridges closed his introductions by stating, “We, as Evergreen, must change as society changes.”
Strayhorn is an internationally-acclaimed student success scholar, renowned public speaker, and an accredited writer, whose research focuses on the prime policy issues in education, regarding student access and achievement; collegial impact on students; student learning and development; and issues of race, equity, and diversity.
The Professor of Urban Education at LeMoyne-Owen College voices the importance of belonging, which is created through a sense of feeling and believing one matters. Studies show that students who feel as though they do not belong on their campus lack a meaningful connection to fellow students, faculty and staff, and the overall campus environment. A lack of connection directly impacts how a student interacts with their academia. This potentially harms students if one considers Strayhorn’s point that, “Colleges and universities are training grounds for larger communities… they are the microcosms of larger communities.”
“You have a story, each story is unique,” Dr. Strayhorn states to the awestruck crowd. He believes the first task in cultivating inclusive excellence is in individuals admitting that they do not know anything about the people who differ from them. It is also in understanding the five admittances: race and identity still matter; our lives matter, all lives matter; opportunity is structured in this society, it is not distributed equally; that living together takes work; and mistakes will be made along the way.
“Where do we show up? Where do we not show up? What makes a person worthy of respect and dignity?” are all questions that prompted Strayhorn’s research. “No one wants to feel lonely,” he voiced, “everyone wants to feel like they belong.” The goal is to create, “places of belonging where all people feel like they belong here… not tolerated but [that they] belong here.” Strayhorn states that, education is liberation: “Pedagogy is liberating. It should unlock the potential of a student, that is exactly the job of the educator.”
Strayhorn concluded his speech with a personal story on his own experiences in reclaiming his personhood in academic and/or professional settings. After many laughs, the audience was brought back to decorum to participate in an activity. Attendees were asked to turn to a neighbor in the crowd whom they do not know. Once people made introductions with their partner, they recited after Strayhorn the words, “You matter, you are enough, you are here on purpose, and you belong here.” People also repeated these words to themselves, as an act of self-appreciation.
Dr. Strayhorn’s parting words were, “When you are good to others, others are good to you.” During the give back portion of the night, Attendees of Thursday night’s keynote had the opportunity to give thanks to Dr. Strayhorn, for his insightful and passionate words. Strayhorn’s speech was characterized as “validating, motivating, and personable,” by those in the audience. Many people boldly shared their personal experiences in feeling marginalized, alienated and/or unaccepted in the Evergreen community. These individuals were so moved by Strayhorn’s keynote, many noted that it empowered a new confidence within them to reclaim the community they so rightfully belong in.
After the workshops on Friday, a final keynote speech was presented. The Evergreen State College had the pleasure of engaging with Dr. Joy DeGruy, researcher, social scientist, and author of the critically-acclaimed book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. “With over twenty years of practical experience as a professional in the field of social work, [DeGruy] gives a practical insight into various cultural and ethnic groups that form the basis of contemporary American society.” Dr. DeGruy conducts workshops on Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome; diversity training; healing work; culture specific models; community building; and gang and violence prevention. She is currently collaborating with Oprah on her upcoming seven part series, “Belief.”
Dr. DeGruy’s Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, in theory and in text, analyzes the intersectionality between racism, trauma and American chattel slavery; its lingering effects of trauma on African descendents in the Americas. She works to educate and advocate the theory of Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Based on her research, DeGruy has “developed a culturally based education model for working with children and adults of color.”
When you bring up Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome in conversation, the individuals it discomforts have a visceral response to it, DeGruy begins. She states that people are far too often dismissive of the theory. “You can’t say slavery, but you can say holocaust… I don’t need permission to talk about my holocaust,” DeGruy boldly declares.
“This isn’t rare, unique or unheard, it simply is history… [and] you were miseducated,” DeGruy states upon providing the horrific evidence which supports her theory. She discusses the differences of American chattel slavery and other periods of slavery: the manner in which Africans were enslaved, the duration of enslavement (339 years), the treatment of enslaved Africans, and finally, how African slaves were perceived in regards to their humanity. This history, DeGruy says, developed into the backbone of our entire economy.
“We have lots of dimensions to us,” DeGruy states. The Symposium offered multiple accounts and versions of identity erasure, showing how such erasures function for the majority who forcefully assume power. And so, how does one individually and collectively reclaim these stolen or dismissed identities? How does one probe such a change? Dr. DeGruy believes we are on the precipice of change. “America is a divine experiment,” she says, “The rest of the world is looking right now saying shame on you America, shame on you.”
The words of Dr. DeGruy and Dr. Strayhorn, along with the workshops and fair offered, mark the beginning of Evergreen’s most recent road towards realizing campus equity and inclusion. The hope is for attendees to walk away with a newfound spark of inspiration, motivation, and confidence. A big stride was taken last week in providing students, faculty and staff the resources to nourish their needs, and the many workshops offered insight for us to understand one another on a profound level.
