To the members of our community,
This past summer on our campus, over 200 of our students presented the faculty and me with a petition and a challenge to reinvigorate our own anti-racism work and the way that it lives within our curriculum, its delivery, and our learning environment. Since September, the faculty and I have been engaged in many discussions about the substantive issues raised in the petition. I have been deeply appreciative to all who have entered into these discussions with a spirit of openness and collaboration. In October, our annual Curriculum Day – a full day retreat with student representatives, faculty, and administrators to review and formulate curricular recommendations – was filled with productive, challenging and important dialogue. The work of the student representatives to the curriculum and its five primary areas (i.e., Social Work Practice, Human Behavior and the Social Environment, Social Welfare Policy, Social Work Research, and Field Education) was extraordinary. We continue to be engaged in an examination of the ways that diverse voices, experiences, and knowledge can be made more present, vibrant, and better supported.
It is important to ensure that we make progress on a range of identified goals by summer 2016 and beyond. To do this, we are reactivating the monitoring function of our existing AntiRacism Consultation Committee (ARCC). This multi constituent body is comprised of resident faculty, adjunct faculty, alumni, students, staff, and administrators.
The ARCC has two functions: (1) to monitor the progress and quality of curricular and process changes made to improve our ability to teach and learn about race, racism and its intersections, and ensure a respectful, acknowledging environment for all in our learning community; (2) to provide consultation to anyone in our learning community around issues of race and racism as they emerge. I will chair the committee in its monitoring function. Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Peggy O’Neill will chair the committee in its consultative function.
Presently the ARCC committee has the following membership.
2015 Anti-Racism Consultation Committee
- Resident Faculty: Rory Crath
- Resident Faculty: Joanne Corbin
- Field Education: Katelin Lewis-Kulin
- Adjunct faculty: Fred Newdom
- Administration: Irene Rodriguez Martin
- Staff: Laurie Wyman
- Alumni: pending
- 1st year student: Kei Lynch
- Student governance organization/Advanced year student: Dri Huber
- Student curriculum committee/Advanced year student: pending
- Council of Students of Color: Dennis Vidal
- Associate Dean: Peggy O’Neill
- Dean: Marianne Yoshioka -- Chair of Monitoring function
As we have moved more deeply into our own work and planning, we have witnessed students on campuses across the country rising in anti-racism protests. The issues are familiar and painful. They are seated in discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry and live in the small and large ways that campuses, higher education, and classrooms can exclude, disrespect and disadvantage Black students and students of color. Faculty, administrators, and I have worked together to issue the following statement in our desire to recognize these important events around the country and in our own house. It is our intention to engage and re-engage our SCSSW community in this work and in our commitment to continuously work toward antiracism.
Sincerely,
Marianne RM Yoshioka, PhD, MSW
Dean and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor
The Smith College School for Social Work Statement In Support of All Students Committed to Dismantling Racism
We stand in solidarity with the students, faculty, and staff at the University of Missouri, Yale University, Ithaca College, and all the others who have risen to demand that their institutions take accountability for and address the ways in which racism manifests on their campuses. Our own experience in responding to and honoring student demands makes clear that, even in schools explicitly committed to dismantling racism, there is work to be done. We honor the activism of students of color and their allies at colleges and universities around the country who have stood up for racial justice. We commit to intensifying our own anti-racism initiatives and to pursue them with rigor and seriousness of purpose.
Signed by
Marianne Yoshioka
Kathryn Basham
Joan Berzoff
Joanne Corbin
Rory Crath
James Drisko
Carolyn du Bois
Joyce Everett
Annemarie Gockel
Hannah Karpman
Jean LaTerz
Katelin Lewis-Kulin
Dennis Miehls
Josh Miller
Fred Newdom
Catherine Nye
Peggy O’Neill
Yoosun Park
Marsha Pruett
Irene Rodriguez Martin
Phebe Sessions
Maria Torres
On behalf of the administration and resident faculty
Marianne RM Yoshioka, PhD, MSW
Dean and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor
Smith College School for Social Work
