BSU Demands Still on the Minds of Students and Faculty
Ana Risano | March 24, 2022
Special to The Echo | Ruben Cardenas
Yehudah and students discuss life stories, ideas of college and the political climate in DC over tea and snacks.
In June 2020, the Black Student Union (BSU) put out a set of demands that “... highlight that Warren Wilson College, deemed as an oasis for many, has never been a safe haven for Black community members,” and calls for Warren Wilson (WWC) to “prioritize the safety of past, present and future Black community members who have experienced great depths of trauma, current and generational.”
In 2022, two years after the release of the demands, the college is continuing to respond to the list of action items. The demands included a reframing of campus-wide dialogue; enhancement of work crew cultural competency; scholarships and funding for Black students; support for Black faculty and staff; the creation of a Cabinet-level diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) position; and embedded equity requirements.
Bria Scott, senior biology major double-minoring in psychology and neuroscience, is a current president of the BSU and was a co-author of the demands. She spoke to the rise and intention behind creating the demands.
“When the shooting of George Floyd happened and it was a whole social justice movement and I guess it affected everyone in different ways,” Scott said. “Like we were all affected by it.
“Some people decided to protest those ways; some people decided to take more actions in their community; I guess, for us, we decided that we wanted more from the school. And so we were able to meet with other members of BSU as well as other students and student leaders so that we could formulate a demands list that the school could look at and visit, and try to put in place some of those things that would not only benefit Black students but also students of color and because we are so under-represented here, it feels like a lot of times we’re not — like our needs aren’t always being met and so we wanted to do something that could uplift Black leaders, Black voices, Black activism on campus.”
The college’s response began with assembling a taskforce of faculty and staff who would aid in responding to the various aspects of the demands. Some of the demands were easier met than others, given time and feasibility. Miciah Z. Yehudah, Ph.D., director of Wilson Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (WIDE), spoke to the reception of the demands by the college.
“I loved how President Morton leaned into some of these requests and just the overall conversation,” Yehudah said. “I’ve been at a number of places in higher ed(ucation) where a separation exists between administration, staff and students. And a lot of it exists around barriers of communication, but what I saw was a president that was willing to communicate and was vocal about communicating and willing to communicate with students. And to also make diversity, equity and inclusion efforts a priority — a strategic imperative.”
Yehudah also noted that the college reacted quickly in applying changes.
“I think they (the demands) are being addressed at an expedient pace,” Yehudah said. “And probably faster than I would think, you know, because typically when you want to be intentional and strategic about things, you have to really take your time … certain things you can do immediately, but then other things you have to really take your time and work with various factions in order to really make sure needs are actually being met.”
Yehudah works closely with BSU given that Scott is the student leader for the WIDE Crew. According to Scott, current work within BSU is to restructure their constitution and create a blueprint of information for new members to utilize. Because of this and the fact that most of the original BSU leadership is no longer on campus, there has been little time for her to reflect on the college’s response.
“There hasn’t been much time, there hasn't been space to process how the school has responded to those demands just because the people that we started this with aren’t here anymore,” Scott said. “ … At this point, I have no idea how the school has responded to it, except that I know that there are a few things that they’ve really pulled through on, such as Sutton Hall, which is the student learning and living (community) for students of color. There’s also scholarships that have been put in place.”
Scott hoped to reflect some with community members at the BSU interest meeting, which happened on Feb. 21, and to encourage community involvement.
“From what I’ve seen, the campus as a whole is really fired up and really rallying behind the demands, and as they can be met, they are being met,” Yehudah said.
In June of 2021, the college hired Kortet Mensah, Ph.D., as the vice president for DEI and strategy. Her work began immediately to form collaborations across the campus to examine and revise DEI efforts, and to develop an intentional and sustainable action plan, according to President Lynn Morton, in an email sent to students.
In the same email, Morton listed out the DEI priorities of this school year: “examining the outcomes of past and current DEI efforts (e.g., initiatives, programs, policies, etc.) to determine areas for further diversification and equity; outlining the theoretical framework(s), principles and best practices that will guide the college's DEI efforts; creating a shared understanding of the college community's definitions/meanings of and visions for DEI; establishing goals/metrics, implementation and documentation plans, and related timelines to achieve the college's DEI vision; and devising accountability mechanisms and identifying fiscal and human resources to facilitate intentional implementation of DEI initiatives.”
Mensah, who was not able to comment for this article, has worked tirelessly this school year to bring about intentional DEI work. At the end of the Fall 2021 semester, she sent an email about her progress thus far. As of December 2021, the college began working on over 34 strategic DEI projects. Near the closing of her email, Mensah alludes to how the focus of DEI brings attention back to the community and the community members. Yehudah commented on this in his interview.
“This is a place of higher ed(ucation), higher learning, which means we should have the ability to really engage ideas in a mature way, in a sophisticated way,” Yehudah said. “That’s really what higher ed(ucation), higher learning is all about. We have to be able to communicate, but in that communication, we cannot forget the humanity of each other.”
The work of DEI is ongoing as Mensah and other WWC community members strive to make the Warren Wilson experience align with the core values it preaches.
If interested in learning more or getting involved with WIDE, students can stop by Ransom House or attend one of many WIDE-organized events. WIDE is currently working to revamp their space in Ransom House to create spaces for learning more about African, Latinx, Indigenous and Asian (ALIA) heritage. They are looking for donations of materials, including items such as books, films and music.