Dear K College Students,
The pandemic of novel coronavirus has reshaped our world and transformed our institution in profound ways. Over the last few weeks as we pivoted sharply to take our classes online, we have seen the painful and unequal impact of the virus-related changes and restrictions on our most vulnerable students. We have witnessed how disparities in access to technology and internet service affect student learning. We have also witnessed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Brown, Latinx, and immigrant communities in Kalamazoo and across the nation. We know that many of our community members have lost loved ones and are grieving them now. The pain of losing relatives and coping with the death of over a hundred thousand people in a few short weeks has been exacerbated by our inability to mourn them together and by the knowledge that many of these deaths were preventable. Our pain and frustration have been compounded by the violent murder of unarmed Black people by white racists.
The lynching of Ahmaud Arbery for being Black while running, the shooting of nursing student Breonna Taylor by police as she slept in her bed, the killing of Black trans man Tony McDade by Florida police, and the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police have shaken us to our very core. The incident in New York’s Central Park involving false allegations made by a white woman named Amy Cooper against a Black birdwatcher has also been a chilling reminder of how Black and Brown folks are harmed by large and small daily acts of white entitlement, untruthfulness, and aggression. We cannot go on without acknowledging how this violence affects us as people and as members of the Kalamazoo College community committed to social justice. We stand in solidarity with protesters in the US and around the world calling for an end to the murder of Black people by police, and for abolition, decolonization, and Black liberation now.
Beyond the discourse of institutional diversity as an asset, we want to strive together to create a different reality in which our Black, Brown, trans, queer, and gender non-conforming community members’ lives are valued, cherished, and protected. How do we move forward in light of these new realities? We need historical perspective to help us discern the crossroads where we stand—a place of both convergence and disjuncture. We need to learn from and mobilize forms of historical memory and anti-racist coalitional work now more than ever.
We need to move forward together. During the past week, we have heard from you: in emails, in video conferences, in phone calls, in SMS texts, in posts on the K-College Facebook site, and ongoing informal and formal correspondence.
To Black students, we have heard your anger at what is happening on campus, of the wearying effort to just be heard during this term and your years at K. Beyond Kalamazoo, we have heard you tell of what is happening outside your doors and in your communities. We have heard your righteous anger and justified fear. We have smelled the smoke of fires burning outside your doors and heard the sounds of sirens, not from the news or Facebook or Instagram, but from your own lives and your own witnessing. We have seen parents and siblings walk in and out of your screens and so felt the immediate presence of those you love and who love you, and who make it possible for you to be part of the K College community. And, for some, the turmoil and anger mixes with the grief of family members, friends, or neighbors who have lost loved ones or feared the loss of a parent, grandparent, relative, or friend who contracted COVID-19.
To non-Black students of color, we have witnessed you engage in acts of solidarity and moral courage. We have learned of you providing transportation and aid to protesters and filming protests. We know you have been challenging anti-blackness within your own communities. We have heard you tell us of how you have reached out to friends and fellow students who absorbed in traumatic and inexpressible ways the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery. And you have told us of your own experiences, when you felt able and heard, of what it means to walk in a Brown body on our campus and in the streets.
To white students, we have heard your own struggles with negotiating the pandemic and the violence perpetrated upon George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and others. Albeit in very different ways, these struggles also exist within your own communities, and, in painful ways, among friends and family members. We are hearing you give language to systemic racism. We are learning of difficult family conversations. We are reading emails reaching out to us in support of students of color, especially Black students navigating the impact of the past week (and weeks).
To first-generation students, for those who have had to work many hours to help their families, or struggled to find secure housing, we have watched the burden and your response to it unfold during the past weeks. We have witnessed your struggles with housing and food insecurity. We have also seen folks risk the vulnerability of speaking, loving, and standing in solidarity.
At the end of this long academic year, everyone is carrying the added burden of the lockdown, quarantines, illnesses, family health concerns, curfews, and this next cycle of social unrest. All of us are suffering, but especially Black students, faculty, and staff. We must collectively recognize the impact of these events on our community members’ well-being.
As we acknowledge that we are differently positioned within the institution and in the world, we can work together by prioritizing Black, indigenous, queer, trans, and people of color leadership within this historically predominantly white institution. Attempting to think from and with the point of view of the most marginalized among us will help us overcome some of the enduring inequalities that limit the free enjoyment of our learning community by all.
We understand that completing academic assignments may be very difficult, even impossible for some, especially for students who are being and have been affected by systematic racism and violence. The quarter’s Credit/No Credit grading format provides flexibility to professors to extend grace, accommodations, and alternative projects to satisfy requirements for passing a class. It invites, too, a framework for faculty to use remaining time and assignments as tools for timely critical reflection, taking stock of what is truly necessary at this point. We can alter expectations without lowering standards.
We wish to encourage faculty to adjust expectations for final work, including canceling exams or making assignments optional wherever possible. This is a time when we need to make peace with doing enough instead of doing the usual and students just need to do enough to pass.
At the end of his address, “In Search of a Majority,” delivered to students, faculty, and staff at Kalamazoo College in November of 1960, James Baldwin said: “Whether I like it or not, or whether you like it or not, we are bound together forever. We are part of each other. What is happening to every [Black person] in the country at any time is also happening to you. There is no way around this. I am suggesting that these walls—these artificial walls—which have been up so long to protect us from something we fear, must come down.” Let’s dismantle these walls together.
Lux Esto,
The Undersigned Members of the Faculty and Staff
1. Adriana Garriga-López
2. Bruce Mills
3. Kyla Day
4. Rochelle Rojas
5. Santiago Salinas
6. Eric Nordmoe
7. Katie MacLean
8. Alyce Brady
9. Candace B. Combs
10. Blakely Tresca
11. Brittany Liu
12. Mark Murphy
13. Anne Marie Butler
14. Charles Stull
15. Francisco J. Villegas
16. Leslie Burke
17. Jennifer Einspahr
18. Francesca Gandini
19. Beau Bothwell
20. Kelly Frost
21. Isabela Agosa
22. Sarah Lindley
23. Jennifer Perry
24. Christine Hahn
25. Regina Stevens-Truss
26. Jennifer Langeland
27. Katerina Stefatos
28. Dennis Frost
29. Sally Read
30. Nayda Collazo-Llorens
31. Bryan Goyings
32. Michael Powers
33. Amy Smith
34. Christina Carroll
35. Richard Koenig
36. Larissa Dugas
37. Jessica Stachowski
38. Hafiz Nauman Akbar
39. Binney Girdler
40. Patrik Hultberg
41. Kathryn Sederberg
42. Justin Berry
43. Dimitrios Papadopoulos
44. Oliver Baez Bendorf
45. Darshana Udayanganie
46. Joshua Hartman
47. Jessica R. Smith
48. Andrew Koehler
49. Taylor Petrey
50. Amelia Katanski
51. Sandino N. Vargas Perez
52. Shanna Salinas
53. Tom Rice
54. Cynthia Carosella
55. Babli Sinha
56. Pam Cutter
57. Tyler Walker
58. Aman Luthra
59. Elizabeth Manwell
60. Timothy Conrad
61. Siu-Lan Tan
62. Ivett Lopez Malagamba
63. Josh Moon
64. Jennifer Furchak
65. Andreea Prundeanu
66. Stacy Nowicki
67. Maria Romero-Eshuis
68. Kelli Duimstra
69. Ethan Cutler
70. James E. Lewis, Jr.
71. John Dugas
72. Graham Chamness
73. Blaine Moore
74. Charlene Boyer-Lewis
75. Daniel Kim
76. Eric Barth
77. James Zorbo
78. Tom Askew
79. Max Cherem
80. Andrew Mozina
81. Lisa Murphy
82. Lisa Brock
83. Robert Batsell
84. Hannah Apps
85. Shannon Dion
86. Aurelie Chatton
87. David Wilson
88. Jan Tobochnik
89. Gary Gregg
90. Alison Geist
91. Ren Berthel
92. Mark McDonald
93. Tom Evans
94. Lanny Potts
95. Arthur Cole
96. Joanna Steinhauser
97. Karyn Boatwright
98. Mikela Zhezha-Thaumanavar
99. Marin Heinritz
100. Masanori Shiomi
101. Michael Wollenberg
102. Chris Ludwa
103. Will Georgic
104. Michael Ott
105. Peter Erdi
106. “C” Heaps
107. Menelik Geremew
108. Ryan Fong
109. Amy MacMillan
110. Michael T. Walsh
111. Robin Rank
112. Lars Enden
113. Lori Sands
114. Mitch Wilson
115. R. Amy Elman
116. Jim Langeland
117. Anne Haeckl
118. Jan Solberg
119. Christopher Latiolais
120. Autumn Hostetter
121. Kiran Cunningham
122. Tim Shannon
123. Stephen Oloo
124. Anne Haeckl
125. Duong Nguyen
126. Susan Lawrence
127. Alyssa J. Maldonado-Estrada
128. Sara Tanis
129. Amy Newday
130. Carol Anderson
131. Leihua Weng
132. Rachel Wood
133. Laura Livingstone-McNellis
134. Andy Brown
135. Sarah Frink
136. Jory Horner
137. Ann Jenks
138. Audrey Bitzer
139. Kim Aldrich
140. Kerri Barker
141. Christy Honsberger
142. Renee Boelcke
143. Katherine King
144. Melanie Williams
145. Jane Hoinville
146. Sara Stockwood
147. Kierna Brown
148. Derek Mann
149. Haley Mangette
150. Jessica Fowle
151. Joisan Decker DeHaan
152. Hillary Berry
153. Dana Jansma
154. Lesley Clinard
155. Abbie Dahl
156. Shannon Milan
157. Angela Batts
158. Lynsey VanSweden
159. Louise Tennant-Filkins
160. Jessica Fowle
161. Margaret Wiedenhoeft
162. Sarah Matyczyn
163. Jason Kraushaar
164. Deia Sportel
165. Jay Daniels
166. Nicole Kragt
167. Wendy Fleckenstein
168. Jackie Srodes
169. Angela Erdman
170. Jon Reeves
171. Kendra Leep
172. Matthew Brosco
173. Jess Port
174. Claire O’Brien
175. Yit-Yian Lua
176. Laurel Palmer
177. Kelly Kribs
178. Tapiwa Chikungwa
179. Jonathon Collier
180. Roderick Malcolm
181. Kathryn Lightcap
182. Regina Stevens-Truss
183. Cindy Cavanagh
184. Kelly Esper
185. Nicholas Wilson
186. Brenda Westra
187. Andy Miller
188. Tom Wilson
189. Alexandra Altman
190. Joshua Lull
191. Shelby Long
192. Debbie Thompson
193. Jeff Bartz
194. Sandy Dugal
195. Kathie Yeckley
196. Elizabeth Lindau
197. Betsy Paulson
198. Deb Annen-Caruso
199. Debbie Ball
200. Tony Nelson
201. Andrew Grayson
202. Marcie Weathers
203. Susan Lindemann
204. Sarah Gillig
205. Jenn Williams
206. Erika Perry
207. Kate Yancho
208. Chris Buckhold
209. Kristen Eldred
210. Lizbeth Mendoza Pineda
211. Teresa Denton
212. Jennifer DiGiuseppe
213. Peter Zillmann
214. Becky Hall
215. Nichole Real
216. Carolyn Zinn
217. Steve Lewis
218. Mike Maxson
219. Kathleen White
220. Mallory Heslinger
221. Katrina Naoko Frank
222. Valerie Miller
223. Jim VanSweden
224. Stephanie Robison
225. Margie Stinson
226. Rick Amundson
227. Anne Engh
228. Paige Oudsema
229. Danielle Turner
230. Katie Miller
231. Lauren McMullan
232. Jennifer Combes
233. Andrew Stone
234. Ryan Orr
235. Moises Hernandez
236. Aaron Rice
237. Darshana Udayanganie
238. Jen Bailey
239. Maureen Yanik
240. Jennie Hill