Demand 6: Student Involvement
via community letter, Nov. 11, 2015: RESOLVED Spring, 2019
"The Campus Life Compact which, yet again, came out of frustration with lack of response by administration to racialized experiences on campus and President Wagner's compromise comment asked for a program that "engage[d] the campus community in training, discussion, education, and promotion of the challenges faced by students of color on campus." One such diversity initiative that was implemented as a result of the Compact, Creating Emory, which has been ineffective in its execution of these pre-agreed goals. As a result, we demand that Black students and students/staff/faculty of color should be consulted when making any university-wide diversity initiatives. These diversity initiatives, including Social justice Week by College Council and the like, have been surface level and even when the input of students of color is requested, their suggestions are still marginalized. Diversity initiatives should not be made from the standpoint of the dominant group (white men and women) or to ensure the comfort of the predominantly white student population at Emory. We demand that the purpose of these initiatives should be to ensure the comfort of the black students population at Emory and to enlighten white students about systematic oppression."
Students in the 2016 retreat working group identified the primary goal of Demand 6 as educating the broader student population about social justice-related issues in meaningful ways. In response, Campus Life made several structural changes.
- Belonging and Community Justice was launched as a joint initiative of the Center for Women, Office of LGBT Life, and Office for Racial and Cultural Engagement. Additionally, a new position, Director of Social Justice Education, was created to integrate modules focused on social justice into existing student leadership and training programs.
- The Social Justice Education Training Framework began piloting sessions in the 2018-2019 academic year and was fully launched in the 2019-2020 academic year with increased offerings & participation. To date, total session attendance is over 3,700 including undergraduate & graduate/professional students, faculty, staff, and alums.
Updated: June 2020