Committing to Action
The Student Union & Activities department is committed to taking action to address racial justice, to offer educational opportunities for students / staff / faculty to learn more, and to bring folks together for conversations about equity. We know there is always more work to be done and we are actively working on strategies, programs, trainings, and more. We believe it’s important to share what we’re working on while it’s in progress and not wait until everything is perfectly planned out to share.
Here are some of the things you can expect from us:
- Actively seeking out the voices of our students; specifically ensuring we seek out input and feedback from Students of Color and students whose identities have been marginalized
- Working to build partnerships with student organizations that are led by Students of Color to support and amplify their work; we’ll let the students lead us in how to best support them
- Not relying on our Students of Color to come up with all the ideas or do the heavy lifting to offer events, programs, conversations about race, racism, social justice, etc.
- An increased emphasis and additional hours focused on racial justice training for student staff during the Fall Student Leader Training
- Hiring Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color when we are bringing in trainers for racial justice and equity programs
- The continued promotion of and additions to the Equity & Inclusion Pathway as part of Student Life
- Ensuring that resources provided in the Student Life Pathways reflect the voices of Persons of Color and other diverse voices
- Offering LearnShops on “Unpacking White Privilege” during the next academic year
- Building on the “Leadership In Color” event to create a panel series that will feature Persons of Color. Each panel will have a different emphasis to look at an aspect of life from the point of view of persons of color, for example “Workplaces In Color”
- Being advocates for racial justice education campus-wide; our team will participate in both learning and educating
- Promoting voter engagement and educating students on why voting matters
- Continued commitment to celebrating the accomplishments of our students and student organizations
- Continued conversations as a team about how we can support the work of students and colleagues in these efforts, along with how our team can contribute
We know there is work to be done, and we’re committed to taking action. If you have additional suggestions, an interest in working with us, or other input, please connect with us osa [at] mnstate.edu
If you’re looking for resources or personal action steps you can take, we’ve published those on our blog.