Steps Taken to Address Recent Racial
Concerns
Next forum on campus climate issues will be held
tonight
Tensions ran high at Homewood last week in the wake of
Halloween festivities gone awry.
Following a Sigma Chi fraternity party whose
invitation invoked offensive racial stereotyping, the
university suspended all activities of the fraternity,
pending investigation; the organization's national
headquarters expelled a student responsible for the
invitation and imposed a 45-day suspension of chapter
activities while it initiated its own investigation; the
Black Student Union
led protests, accusing the university of being racially
insensitive; university administration held a meeting with
concerned members of the Johns Hopkins community; and President William R. Brody sent
broadcast e-mails to the Hopkins community outlining the
university's response to concerns and its plans going
forward.
"Events of last weekend, triggered by an offensive and
repugnant invitation to a fraternity party, have
underscored that racism is still an issue," Brody said in
the e-mail he sent Thursday night. "It's still an issue in
our society. As much as we wish it were otherwise, it is
still an issue in our university community."
Pointing out that issues of diversity, tolerance and
inclusion at Johns Hopkins have been a high priority since
he became president 10 years ago, Brody said that one of
his first major actions had been to create a universitywide
Diversity Leadership
Council and that he supported its work as well as that
of the Black
Faculty and Staff Association and the University
Committee on the Status of Women.
"We have made progress," he said, "but no one ever
believed, even before last weekend, that we had done all we
should. We all knew that we still had lots of work to do
toward making Johns Hopkins the diverse, tolerant,
respectful and welcoming community we want it to be."
Even before the weekend's events, he said, the
university had been within weeks of announcing new
initiatives based on months of work by the Diversity
Leadership Council and the University Committee on the
Status of Women.
Brody said he was "taking advantage of this important
moment — when our attention is riveted on the
question of how we can build a stronger community —
to accelerate the announcement of some of these initiatives
and introduce others." Among them:
 The deans, directors and Brody
have unanimously adopted a proposal by the University
Committee on the Status of Women for a set of Principles
for Ensuring Equity, Civility and Respect for All, laying
out expectations for treatment of students, faculty and
staff by all other members of the university community.
That set of principles can be found at
www.jhu.edu/news_info/policy/civility.html
In addition, he said, he has
directed the establishment of a universitywide commission,
comprising faculty, staff and students, to make specific
recommendations for the implementation of those principles
and to help everyone remain focused on their centrality to
the university's success.
He directed that Johns Hopkins
undertake, as the Diversity Leadership Council has
proposed, greatly enhanced training and education on
diversity issues for students, faculty and staff. While
details on this initiative will be forthcoming, he said,
"it is worth noting now that we believe — for
instance — that diversity activity for Homewood
undergraduates should extend beyond Orientation at least
throughout the freshman year. It is also worth noting that
several of our divisions have been leaders in this area,
with programs that may provide models for the university as
a whole."
The deans have been directed to
work with the faculty to implement an important
recommendation on curriculum that Brody received last week
from a distinguished group of African-American professors
from across the university. Pointing out that, in recent
years, college and university students have become
increasingly unfamiliar with the history of racism in the
United States and around the world, these faculty members
proposed that Johns Hopkins develop courses, workshops and
seminars to increase students' exposure to the history and
current reality of racism.
Brody has directed that better and
more regular communication be established between the
administration and the leadership of the university's
multicultural student groups. "I also am determined," he
said, "that we better establish the atmosphere of trust
necessary for students to feel they can bring forward
concerns without fear of negative repercussions."
"As much as last weekend alarmed and disappointed me,
this week has given me reason for renewed admiration of and
faith in our student body," Brody said. "The Black Student
Union and other minority student groups have made their
concerns known to all of us with eloquence, passion and
civility. Leaders of other student groups have responded
with support for the BSU and a determination to reach out
across divides of race, ethnicity and culture. The great
majority of students with whom I and other senior leaders
have spoken are determined to take advantage of the
opportunity presented by this unfortunate moment to build
increased understanding and unity at Johns Hopkins."
Brody said that the administration would continue the
dialogue that had begun in order to address issues that
face underrepresented minorities, students of diverse
sexual orientation, women and others at Johns Hopkins.
One venue for that continuing dialogue will be a forum
on campus climate issues, open to the entire Homewood
campus community. The forum will take place from 6 to 7:30
p.m. today, Nov. 6, in the Hodson Hall auditorium.
"I commit to you that attention to those issues will
not fade when that forum has passed or when this
unfortunate episode recedes from the front pages," Brody
said. "The construction of a campus community — one
that is open to all, tolerant of all, welcoming for all and
comfortable for all — is not a job that is completed
in a day or a week. We will not finish the job in a year or
even a decade," he pledged. "It must have our constant
attention, and it will."
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2006
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