Statement from the Center for "Race," Culture and Social Justice Directors (May 17, 2019)

The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice was inaugurated in 2017, aiming to promote and study questions of diversity and inclusion at Hofstra and beyond. The evidence of Hofstra’s prior challenge to attract and retain full-time tenure-track black faculty members, and other faculty of color, due to multiple factors, was included in the initial proposal to senior administration, which was submitted during AAUP contract negotiations; similar evidence regarding the paucity of administrators of color, particularly at the senior level, was addressed in the proposal. The Center’s core mission has also encompassed efforts to encourage faculty scholarship that features “race” as a central framework of analysis. It seeks to examine culture and social justice issues as they intersect with our understanding of how “race” and racism operate in oppressive institutional structures (https://www.hofstra.edu/academics/race-culture-social-justice/about.html).

The Center has from the start been envisioned as a collective, multivocal space for respectful academic discussion of sensitive and substantive issues. It has had a productive first two years, the fruits of which are well documented on its website (https://www.hofstra.edu/academics/race-culture-social-justice/). One of its primary initiatives was to encourage Hofstra to expedite the hiring of a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) to address campus bias and discrimination. The Center is proud to report that this mission has now been accomplished. A second initiative was to encourage the university to implement diversity awareness, sensitivity, and implicit bias training at all levels of the institution; again, we are beginning to see progress in this area from a number of units on campus. Finally, the Center is working to help revive the Africana Studies program that began in 1971. It will take ongoing leadership from faculty affiliated with the Center for “Race”, collaboration from other units and Centers on campus, and the full solidarity and support of Hofstra faculty and students at large, to reimagine a viable AFST program for the twenty-first century which can anchor diversity and inclusion at the curricular level on this campus.

It is, on the one hand, disappointing to see that the achievements of the Center to support faculty and students of color— made possible due to the intense, continuing commitment of its members and allied groups and units on campus—have been put into question. On the other hand, engaged participation, and critical dialogue by and between students and faculty alike, are pivotal as we continue to address difficult questions. The Center was conceived as, and has consistently attempted to provide, a supportive space for student activists and other students of color; it has tried to amplify their voices by sponsoring their events, participating in their roundtables, and encouraging them to share their thoughts in this blog, among other ways. Faculty and associates affiliated to the Center have responded enthusiastically to their concerns, but we also understand that this is an ongoing process and that there are challenges ahead of us.

We therefore call for continued collegiality, careful reflection, and respectful dialogue, on the part of faculty and students, and for the active support of our university administration. Together, we can achieve more. We have real work to do and we share a common endeavor. The Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice will continue to be an inclusive and safe space for all, committed to our collective mission as we keep on re-envisioning it. We will continue this dialogue in the fall semester.  

Nota bene: This statement was written in response to an email chain, initiated by a student and former fellow of the Center beginning on May 8, 2019. The emails were addressed to several Center advisory board members and other members of the Hofstra community not associated with the Center, including faculty and administrators. Although we used a rhetorical “we” as a gesture of inclusion and collective ideas, the statement actually represents an interpretive narrative of only the Center directors and we accept full responsibility for its content.