CEDI’s Open Letter to the Chancellor—Juneteenth, 2023.

CEDI wrote the following open letter to the Chancellor and the Board of Governors of Antioch University on Juneteenth, 2023:

June 19, 2023

Chancellor William R. Groves and the Board of Governors,

We, the Council for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CEDI), publish this letter with a collective expectation for immediate change.

Today, on Juneteenth’s third year of federal recognition, we remind you of your responsibility to fulfill Antioch’s mission to “empower students with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful lives and to advance social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.”

In horrific juxtaposition to this federal holiday, politicians are actively intensifying their assaults on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education and beyond. Now more than ever, it is crucial that you, the 22nd Chancellor of Antioch University and the Board of Governors, activate in your chosen positions by honoring Antioch's history, values, and mission statement. We demand that you act on your power and privilege to intensify systemic efforts and comport Antioch’s ideals into the lived experiences of our students, faculty, and staff.

Antioch University promotes itself as a leader in learner-centered, progressive, socially and racially just education. For Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students and their allies, Antioch's messaging presents a beacon of hope, suggesting a haven where they can experience solace, security, and a true sense of belonging in higher education. Devastatingly, this has proven to be largely performative.

On May 22nd, CEDI members paneled at Antioch’s Messy Conversations. During this event, BIPOC and allied students came forward as representatives to address manifestations of white supremacy within the institution.

You heard firsthand about the harm inflicted upon and by members of our community. You are aware of the racial disparities that exist at Antioch. We the students and alumni have come to you, exposing some of the harms perpetrated within the institution’s structures, processes, and programs. Now the question is, what will you do with our stories? How will you address our pain?

Chancellor Groves, we witness your verbose public letters of support for marginalized community members. Yet, where are the institutional policies to back up these purported values you so gushingly and valiantly profess?

Board of Governors, it has come to our attention that the Chancellor has only so much power to evoke systemic change without your corroboration. We question why and how you are standing in the way of progress.

The students and alumni of CEDI have worked for years to support Antioch’s progress toward its stated identity as an Anti-racist social justice institution. We are prepared to fight systems of white supremacy at Antioch University until an anti-racist culture is established. We demand concrete structural support for diversity, equity, and inclusion at every level of the institution. We demand that you, the Chancellor and the Board of Governors, use the full power of your position to create an environment where social and racial justice are not just ideals but an experienced reality for all.

In service, we, CEDI, have outlined concrete steps that must be taken to dismantle the culture of white supremacy at Antioch University.

Following the Messy Conversation panel discussion, CEDI launched a petition including eight anti-racist directives.

As of today, we have collected 616 signatures and counting. We are committed to continuing garnering support and telling our stories.

The petition’s directives are as follows:

1. Add “racial” justice to the University's mission statement. The mission statement will therefore read: To empower students with the knowledge and skills to lead meaningful lives and to advance social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.

   Recently, this demand has been met by the university.

2. Implement ongoing, mandatory, quarterly, experiential training and skill-building workshops on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-racism for all Students, Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and Board Members.

   These efforts will fill educational gaps at every level of the institution and creating/practicing a genuinely Anti-racist culture at Antioch University.

3. Require that all classes are up-to-date with Social Justice and Anti-racist focused curriculums, textbooks, resources, teaching methods, and relational practices.

   This will require the University to provide coaching/mentoring to every Faculty Member, Administrator, and Staff Member.

4. Establish sweeping and systematic efforts to hire/admit, retain and create a culture of belonging for BIPOC Students, Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and Board Members.

   We also recognize the importance of recruiting and retaining faculty members from diverse backgrounds. By increasing the representation of underrepresented groups among our faculty, we enrich the educational experience and promote a more inclusive environment for all students. Examples include: increasing salaries and benefits for BIPOC employees of the University; creating substantial scholarship pathways for students, as outlined below (#6); implementing community-building resources and creating a culture of belonging for BIPOC Students by a) establishing multicultural sororities and fraternities, such as the Historically Black Greek Letter organizations known as the Divine Nine (Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Beta Sigma, Sigma Gamma Rho, Zeta Phi Beta, and Iota Phi Theta) and the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO) and b) establishing and funding Student Success initiatives (e.g., My Brother’s Keeper, LULAC, NAACP, and SAAB).

5. Commit to shared decision-making, representative governance, and transparency in strategic planning to ensure that Antioch University’s actions and budget reflect its mission.

6. Raise funds to provide scholarships to BIPOC Students to address the financial inaccessibility of Antioch University.

   This will require the University to hire additional staff members to focus on securing financial funding sources.

7. Establish restorative justice initiatives, including a protocol for reporting and addressing racial prejudice and aggressions that occur at every level of the Antioch University system.

   This will include creating a system for addressing incidents, using restorative circles and other compassionate, education-focused, reparative models that honor and center the experiences and voices of Marginalized Students, Staff, Faculty, Administrators, and Board Members.

8. Formalize and continually fund BIPOC Affinity, white Affinity, and Anti-racism groups on all campuses.

   This will demonstrate and actualize structural support for these groups and for the labor that they are doing for the Community.

We expect you to take the necessary action to actively and tangibly commit to Anti-racism. This includes initiating fundamental cultural changes that are affirming and supportive to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and those with intersecting marginalized identities.

To change the culture, you must take swift actions to change the system.

We are here to restate: You cannot allow this injustice to continue unabated. You, William R. Groves, and the Board of Governors, Paul Mutty, Carole Isom-Barnes, Teri Cannon, Steve Crandall, Katrin Dambrot, Janet Dewart Bell, Lance Dublin, Gregory K. Finkelstein, Holiday (Holly) Hart McKiernan, Charlene Moore Hayes, William (Bill) Plater, Rich Preyer, Martha Summerville, Eugene (Gene) Tempel, and Lillian Pierson Lovelace, are appointed to a position of power to protect the well-being and safety of all students, faculty, and staff.

For Justice,

The Council for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CEDI)

CEDI is a grassroots student and alumni-led cooperative organization formed in response to the need for change at Antioch.

Our mission is to drive anti-racist action and propel systemic change across Antioch campuses and programs in order to advance Antioch’s commitment to racial, social, economic, and environmental justice.