St. Joe’s gathers during Mission Week to discuss racial justice and inclusion
As a part of the Saint Joseph’s University Mission Week, students, faculty and staff gathered at an event called “State of Race at SJU: Students Perspective from Hawk Hill” to discuss racial justice and inclusion on campus.
This panel was created to allow students to tell their stories and have others hear how they have experienced with race.
“Creating an opportunity where people are able to hear about race and ask themselves some questions is how we developed the program” said Monica Nixon, Ph.D., assistant Provost for Inclusion and Diversity. “The idea came out of the Mission Week committee and one of the areas of [the St. Joe’s] mission is striving to create a more diverse and inclusive community.”
The Mission Week committee is made up of faculty and staff representatives from on-campus organizations. The committee works throughout the academic year to plan a week of events that promote the university’s purpose and values. Nixon, who helped plan the event, considered the “State of Race at SJU” event well attended, with over 100 students, faculty and staff.
“I don’t think I could have asked for a better outcome,” Nixon said. “[It’s] more than a hundred people coming together to listen to their classmates’ experiences and then reflect on what that means for them, and what they want to do to create a more inclusive community.”
Three student panelists, Kalandra Collins, ’20, Dan Soucy, ’18, and Eric J. Adjei-Danquah, ’17, spoke at the event. Each panelist spent around 10 minutes sharing their experiences of race on the university’s campus.
After the panel shared their viewpoints, the entire assembly was invited to discuss their experiences, as well as exchange ideas with each other. One student spoke about his experience with racial inclusion over his four years at St. Joe’s and how there has been a progression of not seeing students who looked like him to beginning to see the issue subside.
Another student shared a different perspective, one that focused on his “white privilege” and how coming to St. Joe’s allowed him to become more mindful of it.
Soucy expressed appreciation of incorporating opinions from the attendees.
“By hearing personal experiences, it was useful to start a conversation and give [students] some context,” Soucy said.
Soucy also noted that the small group dialogue was beneficial to the event’s intentions. Attendees answered questions about how they have experienced race and how they think the conversation about race can change.
“Giving students the opportunity to talk in smaller groups is really smart,” Soucy said. “Self-reflection is really important and huge when discussing difficult topics like race.”
A main conversation point at the conclusion of the event was continuing the dialogue about racial justice and inclusion on campus after the conclusion of Mission Week. Adjei-Danquah stated his opinion on how progress for more inclusion on campus can be made beyond Mission Week.
“Most importantly, moving forward, these conversations need to happen on a personal, social level, within our friend groups,” Adjei-Danquah said. “In working toward dispelling ignorance on an intrapersonal level, that knowledge [gained from further conversation] should be carried forward in everyday interactions.”
