Good afternoon.
The last few days have been very difficult ones.
Thank you for your care and concern for one another and for the thoughtful suggestions, especially from the student groups who met yesterday with university leadership to discuss next steps in response to the hateful social media post made Wednesday evening.
Many of you have asked, “What happens now?” Today’s video message shares information about next steps in our process and my next steps to bring us together to heal and to accelerate our efforts against racism.
It is important to know that we have developed our community standards and responses over time, and they continue to evolve to reflect our community needs and expectations. This includes our Nondiscrimination Policy.
I also want to thank members of the university’s Bias and Hate Response Team for their good work.
I encourage you to become familiar with the resources we have in place, including the Office of Student Support and Community Standards, the Office of Social Equity and Title IX, and reporting structures for both students and employees in the event of incidents of bias or hate.
One of my immediate next steps is to convene a meeting of myself and my senior leadership team with student leaders of groups including the IUP chapter of the NAACP, the Black Student League, Students Against Racism, Latino Student Organization, Student Government Association and Graduate Student Assembly, and others. I have been so impressed with the ideas from these student groups. I also plan to meet with the Black Experience Alumni Committee (BEAC).
While the timing for establishing these meetings comes after Wednesday’s incident, I can promise you that continuing the conversation and getting input from students and others will be ongoing and meaningful and will include actions to further real change.
I made this point in yesterday’s message, but I want to say it again: The content of that social media post is wrong. It doesn’t express the values we share and does not reflect the community we want to be.
It has hurt us all: our students and their families and friends, our faculty and staff, our hometown community, and our alumni.
It has hurt me personally, especially as I hear more about the damage it continues to create for our Black and Brown students—disrupting their educational experience and their very lives at this university, including their ability to feel at home here.
We made the decision to do programming to share “Lift Every Voice and Sing” after deep discussion and thought. As I learned more about the anthem from the community and from visiting artist Moses Phillips, I understand how sacred it is to so many members of the Black and Brown communities.
I know that sharing sacred things makes you vulnerable. So, because this hateful social media post came at this time, it is being felt even more deeply.
Creating culture change to become an anti-racist community is hard work, and we will make mistakes. But this work must, and will, continue.
Our unique backgrounds and experiences make our community strong, and we will continue to offer opportunities for us all to grow and to learn more about one another.
As your schedules permit, I encourage you to participate in the many events planned for the remainder of Black History Month and throughout the semester to educate, inform, and entertain.
Please know that we are here for you. If you need to talk with someone, please reach out to the Social Equity and Title IX office. You can contact the team by email at title-ix@iup.edu or by phone at 724-357-3402.
The IUP Counseling Center is also prepared to help you (counseling-center@iup.edu, 724-357-2621). The Center for Multicultural Student Leadership and Engagement (MCSLE) in Elkin Hall is a place where you can find resources and gather for informal conversation.
Thank you for all that you continue to do to keep this Crimson Hawk community strong and united.
Michael A. Driscoll
President