The events of the last several days in Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta and a growing number of cities across the country, all in the midst of a global pandemic, have once again laid bare the gross iniquities of our current systems. We have lost George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. They are not the first or the only ones. There is too much suffering and destruction. We must change.
We mourn the lost lives and violence against humans. We know that there is great pain in communities where people feel desperately at odds with each other. We must listen to each other. We must see things differently than we currently do. We must adjust our perspectives to see what the person looking at each of us sees, and feel what they are feeling. We must change.
We believe in the importance of community. We believe it standing together, particularly to resolve the difficult issues that threaten to divide us. A diverse and inclusive community is a better one, and it does not come without effort or even discomfort as we recognize the biases, injustices and flawed systems by which some of us benefit and others suffer. We must change.
SUNY Morrisville has strength and grit and tenacity because it is a place of greater diversity. We honor that diversity as we strive to be more equitable and inclusive. It is not enough for us to simply exist in the same space – we must engage one another constructively, positively and with a commitment to recognizing and rooting out our own prejudices and seeking justice.
Wherever you find yourself, as our students, our faculty, our staff or our friends, please be safe.
We know we can do better. We are committed to doing so. We will have difficult conversations, and we will improve how we treat each other. We will examine our systems, and we will rebuild them to be more equitable. We will not be blind to injustice, and we will look with a more critical eye at our own biases. We will change.
There are college resources to help with this work:
- Bias Incident Reporting
- Counseling Center
- Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, Mary Bonderoff, bonderm@morrisville.edu 315.684.6981
- Student Judicial Affairs, Geoff Isabelle, isabelgs@morrisville.edu, 315.684.6070
- Campus Diversity and Inclusion Plan
Sincerely,
David E. Rogers
President