This summer, the Cabinet has been carefully working on a strategic, university-wide approach to ensuring racial justice at Bentley. It is important to affirm that Black lives matter, but we know words are not enough. We must work to make that a reality every day on our campus and within our community. The Cabinet has been reading emails from students, faculty, staff and alumni, listening at town halls and community meetings, reading the honest and difficult stories and conversations shared in forums like @BlackatBentley, and learning from the many members of our community who have experienced pain and frustration on our campus due to racism. Each story that has been bravely shared is necessary for us to see, understand and internalize.
In June, Bentley created a task force to identify and investigate practices at the university that sustain systemic racism. The Task Force on Racial Justice will recommend actions to overturn those practices so Bentley can grow as an anti-racist university. The first update from the task force was shared yesterday, and regular updates will be posted on Bentley.edu/racialjustice. We encourage you to visit this page often.
While the task force begins its work, we know there are ways that we can and must act now to reduce the impact of systemic racism on our campus. Today, we are sharing a first set of strategic initiatives that will guide our next steps on racial justice at Bentley. From developing new inclusive pedagogical strategies for the classroom to analyzing the diversity of our university suppliers and to creating implicit bias training for our police officers, these initiatives include proposals from every division of the university.
The plan is designed to overturn policies, practices and structures that enable systemic racism on our campus. We will share periodic updates on each of these initiatives to mark our progress. These efforts do not represent all we will do, but they represent how we plan to operate to create a more anti-racist culture at our university.
These initiatives will be done in parallel with the work of the Racial Justice Task Force. In order to live out our core values, successfully develop leaders for the future and be an employer of choice, we must continue to take bold action.
Thank you for your belief in Bentley and for your partnership in building a stronger future for our university.
Paul Condrin
Donna Maria Blancero
Josh Brand
George Cangiano
Carolina Figueroa
Maureen Flores
Maureen Forrester
Chris Joyce
Amanda King
Katie Lampley
Judy Malone
Andrew Shepardson
Ian Thomas Wall