On Dec. 2, a Statement of Support from faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s College of Liberal Arts (CLA) was made public and emailed to members of the campus community in response to a memo sent to UMD administration by the Anti-Racist Subcommittee (ARC) group.

The ARC memo, titled "Three Transformational Initiatives to Address Structural Racism at UMD," was sent on August 28 to UMD administration and laid out three initiatives designed to mitigate the issue of racism at the university. 

“One of the things that we wanted to make sure that we did was not just … put out a general statement, but actually be really specific about what at UMD needed to change,” Rebecca de Souza, the Chair of ARC and a professor at UMD, said.

The initiatives addressed in the memo included the hiring of a Vice Chancellor of Equity and Diversity at UMD; the cluster hiring of 50 faculty members from the ethnic groups of Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native and Hispanic or Latino over a three year period and a 3-credit academic course on social and racial justice to be required of every UMD undergraduate student within the first three semesters of their schooling. 

“We weren’t writing from just the top of our heads,” de Souza said. “We were writing with deep experience and knowledge about how structures need to shift and the kinds of changes that institutions need to make in order to see some real change.”

ARC is a subcommittee of the Employees of Color and American Indian (EOCAI) group at UMD, and is made up of UMD faculty members educated in the topic of race. The group came together “organically” to write the memo in the summer of 2020, following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. 

“We’ve been talking about these issues for so long at UMD, so it wasn’t new, but I think that really put the fire in our belly and pushed us to do something and say something in a more public way,” de Souza said.

The recently issued CLA Statement of Support included signatures from 147 UMD faculty and staff. It reiterated the three initiatives laid out in the original ARC memo and emphasized the importance of enacting the initiatives despite possible challenges the university may currently face. 

“I felt compelled, happy, honored to sign the College of Liberal Arts Statement of Support,” Joseph Bauerkemper, an associate professor in the American Indian Studies Department at UMD, said. “If the will among the university — that being the faculty, the staff and the administration — if the collective will is there to prioritize some of the opportunities at hand, then we can do it through those three initiatives that are proposed in that memo.”

Bauerkemper added that he feels there is a lack of diverse representation at the university, referencing data from the ARC memo regarding faculty and staff.

“The numbers are just egregious,” de Souza said.

In 2019, Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic/Latino faculty accounted for 5% of UMD’s faculty. The memo pointed out this data and asked that the demographics at the university be made to mirror those of the state of Minnesota, which are also considered low when compared to United States demographics as a whole. 

“Minnesota is doing bad already compared to the nation, and we’re doing bad compared to Minnesota,” Jeanine Weekes Schroer, member of ARC and associate professor of philosophy at UMD, said. 

Student Association Representative and UMD senior, Abdulla Ali, said he feels the hiring of a more diverse faculty and the creation of the Vice Chancellor of Equity and Diversity position are things that have always been needed at UMD. He also said he has been pushing for an academic course regarding racial issues since last year and he wished that it didn’t take the death of Floyd to cause a change in the climate at UMD.

“Duluth has never been the best place for students that look like me,” Ali said. “When you walk into a classroom for the first day, people turn their necks and it’s like half the class is just staring at you. You didn’t walk in late; you walked in on time. It’s just that you’re different from your peers.”

Weekes Schroer said that while she feels there are more discussions happening at the university around racial issues now than in the past, the campus climate has yet to improve, citing a racial incident that occurred in September involving two UMD students.

“In my nine years here, that’s been par for the course,” Weekes Schroer said in regards to the incident. 

Ali also shared he has experienced discrimination and mistreatment, along with microaggressions during his time in Duluth. However, he feels he has always been treated equitably by faculty and staff at UMD.

“This is a hugely long-term project,” ARC member and American Indian Studies Department Head, Jill Doerfler, said. “These things happen slowly.”

Bauerkemper said he believes the initiatives in the ARC memo provide an opportunity for UMD to address issues of racism both on and off campus. 

“[T]here’s a deep failure to understand and appreciate the role that institutional structures play in sustaining racism and the role that [they] could play in undermining it,” Weekes Schroer said. 

De Souza added that one of the goals of ARC’s memo was to shift the conversation to structural racial issues. 

In a July 2020 email to the campus community, UMD Chancellor, Lendley Black, addressed seven “Diversity and Inclusion Action Items” to be prioritized during the 2020-21 academic year. 

The Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at UMD, Susana Pelayo-Woodward, stated that the ARC memo aligned with the action items put forward by Black. 

“We have made some progress and I’m aware that we still have far to go,” Pelayo-Woodward said in regards to UMD’s campus climate. 

According to de Souza, ARC members were not involved in the writing of the CLA Statement of Support, which was written by the CLA Assembly. 

Bauerkemper shared that there have been repeated discussions between faculty members regarding the ARC memo, including questions regarding administrative response to the initiatives in the memo and when that response and the next step will be shared with the campus community. 

“I’m not in a position to say that they haven’t responded and they’ve ignored it, but I am in a position to say, you know, I’m a general member of this campus community and I haven’t heard what sort of action steps we’re actually taking,” Bauerkemper said.

According to de Souza, ARC members have met with Black and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Fernando Delgado, three times since the memo was sent.

Delgado declined a request for comment on the CLA Statement of Support. 

Pelayo-Woodward shared there have also been meetings regarding Black’s action steps and there is a website page dedicated to monitoring progress and campus climate initiatives.  

"I am grateful to see strong engagement and commitment from the Anti-Racist subcommittee and the EOCAI group,” Black said. “I support their recommendations. I have been, and will continue to be, in contact with them as we work together to address their recommendations, along with the seven Diversity and Inclusion Action Items.”

According to Weekes Schroer, all faculty and staff at UMD are now being required to complete two online diversity modules. 

Elizabeth Rypa, a Student Association Representative and UMD junior, said she will have to see the results after either the ARC initiatives or the Chancellor’s action items are acted upon before she can say that progress has been made.

“I won’t see any of these changes, but I’m still advocating for it because I believe in it,” Ali said. “UMD will be better off for it.”