CUPE 3912 SMU supports the work of the SMU Black Inclusion Strategy Working Group and affirms the group’s report, Understanding the Challenges of the Black Community at Saint Mary’s University. We note the committed contributions of our SMUFU colleagues, Dr. Rachel Zellars and Dr. Harvi Millar, who acted as core members of the steering committee.
The report is available in full here.
After two years of tireless consultation, data collection, and dedicated engagement with Black students, constituencies, faculty, and staff, the report’s findings confirm an institutional pattern of structural anti-Black racism, ongoing discrimination of Black communities and workers on campus, and clear evidence that Saint Mary’s University perpetuates and normalizes a system of white supremacy.
To diminish these findings or equivocate about their validity and scope would be an exercise in disavowal. We believe that any effort to minimize the report’s findings would further confirm the report’s findings regarding the reality of Black experiences at SMU.
Given the findings in the report identify a consistent and continued lack of resources and supports for Black students and faculty/staff, and given the findings indicate a wider institutional indifference or unwillingness from SMU to address what are embedded structural forces and issues, we call on Saint Mary’s University to respond to these findings and begin immediately to address and implement the recommendations in the report.
The report’s first finding is clear: “Black students, faculty, and staff reported, as a norm, having been subjected to racist comments and behaviors on the SMU campus.” This is unacceptable, intolerable, and fundamentally unjust. Our colleagues, co-workers, and community members should not be harmed or traumatized while undertaking their academic, scholarly, or professional work at the university. Changing this situation is a collective responsibility for everyone at SMU, and it is a fundamental imperative for those who enjoy the benefits and dividends of institutional power and privilege at SMU.
As academic workers and university employees, we acknowledge that we are implicated in the reproduction of harmful and unjust effects of all kinds. The report is another opportunity to acknowledge the always-already political context of university environments and spaces. As such, we also understand the substantial role we can play and the work we must undertake in creating a university otherwise that is premised on really-existing inclusion, equality, trust, and unity in common across our many experiences, interests, and needs.”