Wofford Anti-Racism Coalition
Statement of Purpose:
Black students especially, but also Indigenous and other students of color (BIPOC), have historically faced institutional, structural and personal racism and prejudice at Wofford College and within the college community. These problems continue today. Concerns expressed by BIPOC to college leadership repeatedly fall on deaf ears and result in inaction. A statement is not enough -- we demand that Wofford admit and address the anti-Black history that has led to systemic racism, oppression, and egregious lack of representation -- and then take the necessary steps to correct it.
This document encompasses what we envision to create a more just and equitable Wofford. The testimonies at the bottom of this document are not singular stories. They are the daily stories of Black and students of color on this campus. Our institution is currently failing BIPOC students in such blatant ways that many regret choosing to attend Wofford. Meeting these demands not only benefits us, as students, but you, as administrators of the College. Until these demands are met, Wofford is not a place that we would recommend BIPOC students attend.
We call on President Samhat, the Board of Trustees, The President’s Cabinet, and the Wofford community past and present to implement the demands listed below. This is an opportunity to go further than a reiteration of Wofford's commitment to diversity. This is an opportunity to listen to what your students are telling you and to take meaningful action.
Grievances:
We feel that faculty, administration, and staff who have been discriminatory or racist have not been appropriately disciplined. Therefore, we have a lack of trust in a fair and just administration and related policies. As it currently stands, we believe that the college’s policy on bias-incidents does not do enough to reprimand violations on behalf of tenured faculty
Repeated cases have only resulted in meetings with the faculty member and very little or meaningless reparations.
We feel that the college exclusively relies on the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to address matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion, when the mission should be shared by all college leaders, departments, and employees.
We feel that all faculty and staff who engage with students need anti-racist and anti-bias training.
Currently, the responsibility of teaching anti-racism courses and discussions repeatedly fall on the same departments, specifically Sociology/Anthropology and English.
We feel that there needs to be more courses and modules across all disciplines that teach the legacy of racial violence and discrimination. Furthermore, we believe all Wofford students should graduate knowing about Wofford’s, the region’s, and our nation’s history of race and racism.
We believe that not teaching students about the injustices BIPOC face as a result of systemic racism and structural violence (e.g. colonialism, slavery, segregation, urban renewal, etc.) is an erasure of history that reproduces white supremacy.
We feel that it is a failure on behalf of the entire College environment that our percentage of BIPOC students falls below regional and national demographics, comparatively:
We feel that it is a failure on behalf of the entire College environment that our percentage of all minority students falls at 19% or 333 students as of Fall 2019, when national population trends are more than double that percentage
(https://www.wofford.edu/about/fast-facts; https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI225218)
We feel that the percentage of BIPOC in the faculty, professional staff, and administration should, at least, be comparable to the percentage of BIPOC students
We feel that the demographics of the college leadership -- the Board of Trustees and the President’s Cabinet -- do not reflect the diversity that Wofford should be striving to have at all levels: leaders, employees, and students.
We feel that it is inappropriate to have buildings on campus named after Carlisle, Shipp, and Wightman who all owned enslaved people. It is unacceptable and disrespectful to force students to reside in buildings named after people who did not believe in the humanity of Black people.
We feel that having only one room on the entire campus named after Black people does not adequately represent the contributions that the Black community has had at Wofford. The Gray-Jones room is in a remote location and many students rarely visit this room nor do they know the history of its namesake. We feel that Gray’s and Jones’s accomplishments as the first Black students at Wofford should be better acknowledged.
We feel that the “Back of the College” memorial, as well as the small brick ‘dedication’ to the enslaved builders of Main, are placed in obscure or hidden locations so as to render them practically invisible. We believe the histories of the once thriving Black community and the lives of the enslaved builders of Main should be displayed prominently.
We feel that double standards exist on Wofford’s campus as it relates to NPHC Fraternities and white fraternities. While white fraternities are open for social gatherings weekend after weekend, NPHC fraternities face significant deterrents placed by Wofford administration to hosting social events on campus.
NPHC organizations are subject to administrative policies that grant permission for parties only every 3 months or so.
We feel that there is a lack of understanding about the significance of having the Divine Nine organizations on Wofford’s campus and why the presence of all of the Divine Nine organizations on campus would be essential to creating a more positive and welcoming space for Black and Brown students.
NPHC organizations not only help create a family among students, they provide diversity to the school as well. Wofford’s vision has diversity and inclusion in the forefront; however, there are no NPHC sororities on campus and there is a pattern of organizations being present on campus then disappearing because of sustainability issues.
We feel as if there is a significant lack of support from the administration and faculty for the effort of inviting NPHC organizations onto campus. We understand the challenges these organizations face in deciding to commit to Wofford. But we feel Wofford administration needs to be much more deliberate and vocal about its commitment to welcoming them here.
We feel that Wofford’s Greek life is notoriously exclusionary and members discriminate against non-white students; we feel that this behavior is unacceptable and must be addressed.
Demands:
Short term demands -- to be achieved within the next academic year (2020-2021):
We demand that Wofford hire an independent external consultant to assess the racial climate at Wofford and provide recommendations for the college to become antiracist.
We demand that policies and procedures for reporting bias incidents be reviewed, especially as it relates to processes for tenured faculty.
We demand that all administrators, faculty, staff and advisors be required to take at least annual anti-racist and anti-bias training.
We demand that the President’s Cabinet take anti-bias and anti-racism training annually.
We demand that the Board of Trustees take anti-bias and anti-racism training annually.
We demand that Campus Safety take specific police-oriented anti-bias and anti-racism continuing education, with specific requirements in the form of hours or courses that must be completed every semester.
We demand that the Offices of Marketing and Communication and Admission/Financial Aid receive education on tokenism and actively recruit BIPOC in hiring processes. We demand that both offices, which are critical to the recruitment and retention of BIPOC students, receive anti-bias and anti-racism training.
We demand that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion's overall budget and staff be expanded to include four (4) professional, full-time staff members.
We demand that a student Bias-Response Council, similar to the judicial or honor council, be added to the bias-incident response team process. We demand that this council should be involved in the adjudication of any bias incident report, whether it be student, faculty, or staff.
We demand that specific, transparent and thoroughly communicated remedies for racist, discriminatory or exclusionist behavior by faculty be established. Any faculty who violate their responsibility to their students or Wofford’s code of conduct be subject to a disciplinary process that results in measurable improvement in their behavior. This disciplinary process could be staggered based on the number and/or severity of offenses so that those who demonstrate a pattern of behavior or create an unsafe learning environment can be adequately reprimanded.
We demand that at least four full class periods of FYI course instruction be devoted to Wofford’s racial history, and that substantial anti-racism and anti-bias education be incorporated into FYI curriculum.
We demand that the Wofford Ambassador program hires BIPOC students at a rate that represents regional racial trends, provides all Ambassadors anti-bias and anti-racist training, and instructs all Ambassadors in Wofford’s exclusionist/racist and Back of the College history to be incorporated into all campus tours.
We demand that the AMS/NPHC House be renamed to better represent the Black students and provide them with a space that is their own, just as the IFC and Panhellenic chapters have. We demand that this house be reserved specifically for WWC, WMC, BSA, and NPHC organizations.
We demand equitable treatment of all organizations that occupy houses at the Greek Village on behalf of the Office of Campus Life and Student Development and administration.
We demand that a new policy or procedure be implemented outside of a bias incident report that would fine Greek and other organizations for excluding non-white students at their social functions. Additionally, we demand mandatory anti-racism and anti-bias training at least annually for all members of IFC & Panhellenic organizations.
We demand positions be added to the IFC and Panhellenic Council to specifically address diversity, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, we demand that every individual Greek organization appoint a similar position or committee within their chapter to work towards anti-racism.
We demand that Albert Gray '71 and Douglas Jones '69 be properly honored for being the first African-American students to enroll and graduate, respectively, by each becoming namesakes of their own building on campus. Buildings or names in their honor should be located central to active student life.
We demand that Janice B. Means '73 be properly honored for becoming the first African-American woman to graduate from Wofford by becoming the namesake of her own building, central and active to student life, on campus.
We demand that the names of offensively named buildings -- Carlisle, Shipp, and Wightman -- be changed. (Name suggestions: Gray Hall, Jones Hall, Means Hall).
We demand that the Back of the College memorial be moved to a more prominent location on campus.
We demand that the memorial to the enslaved builders of Old Main be moved to a more prominent location in Old Main.
We demand that at least one-third of all future hires for professional staff and full-time faculty be of color.
Long-term demands -- to be achieved by the 2021-2022 academic year:
We demand the College publicly acknowledge its shameful history regarding racism and its relationship to the African American community in Spartanburg, as well as the Indigenous peoples whose land this once was. We suggest that a land and labor history of Wofford be stated at every formal college occasion, including acknowledging:
former presidents Carlisle, Shipp, and Wightman owned slaves;
the Black neighborhood’s demolition to make way for new construction, including the Jerry Richardson Indoor stadium and the Greek Village;
the Cherokee / Tsalaguwetiyi and Catawba people who once lived where Wofford is now located;
use of enslaved people’s labor to build the college.
We demand that a Chief Diversity Officer or a Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion be created as a cabinet-level position.
We demand the addition of four General Education requirement courses that address race relations, racial inequities, racial history, etc. Examples may include any of the courses under the African/African American Studies (AAAS) program.
We demand that existing academic departments develop their course curriculum by inserting issues of diversity and racial justice into existing courses.
We demand that there is a coordinating position created for someone who is qualified to cater to the sustainability of NPHC organizations.
We demand at least one anti-racism course be added to all academic departments (for example, a course on the Racial Wealth Equity Gap could be offered in the Finance dept.) and be consistently taught by professors who are qualified to do so.
Ongoing:
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI225218; https://www.wofford.edu/about/fast-facts
We demand that the percentage of Black students reflect national population trends, which stand at 13.4%, or 230 Black students as of Fall 2019 data.
We demand that the percentage of all students of color reflect national population trends, which stand at 41.8%, or 719 students of color as of Fall 2019 data.
We demand that the percentage of Black full-time teaching faculty reflect national population trends, which stand at 13.4% or 19 faculty as of Fall 2019 data.
We demand that the percentage of full-time teaching faculty of color reflect national population trends, which stand at 41.8% or 61 faculty as of Fall 2019 data.
We demand that the college leadership follow suit with the previous demands in increasing BIPOC members on the Board of Trustees and the President’s Cabinet.
We demand the implementation of a two-year post-doc fellowship program that has 10 open positions every academic year to attract young scholars to gain professional experience at Wofford and expand the faculty’s understanding of what a scholar looks like.
We demand all organizations within The Divine Nine be rechartered or chartered by 2025. The Divine Nine consist of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi (already chartered), Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (already chartered), Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (previously chartered, needs to be rechartered), Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity.
Wofford Anti-Racism Coalition
Bali Channa ‘20
Bryson Coleman ‘21
Omar K. Elmore ‘20
Jurnee Jones ‘21
Margaret Roach ‘21
Destiny Shippy ‘22
Naya Taylor ‘21