Over the past two days, Rev. Dr. Jamie Washington led discussions with dozens of students, faculty, and staff about racism, diversity, and inclusion on the St. Olaf campus. This was a powerful learning opportunity for all of us, and we are grateful for those who participated.

We are still in the process of listening, discerning, building relationships, and building capacity among our members. Before we can develop long-term, sustainable ways to change the culture in our community, we need to fully understand the problems we face. The events that led to last spring’s protest were not isolated incidents. People on our campus have not and continue to not feel welcome. There is a problem of racism in our community. Our charge is to develop solutions to this problem.

Dr. Washington met with President Anderson, the Collective, the Task Force, and GLOW, and facilitated open forums with students, faculty, and staff. He also met separately with faculty and staff of color, which was one of the few times this group has been brought together. Throughout these discussions, Dr. Washington heard several themes about the St. Olaf culture and our Working Group that we acknowledge.

• We need to be transparent, empathetic, and authentic in all communications. The administration could also benefit from this advice.
• We recognize that there is a lack of trust in our process due to the way the Working Group was formed and the way members were selected. We want to be clear that despite being formed by President Anderson, we are a fully independent group. Our goal is to work collaboratively and build trust among all members of the community.
• We acknowledge that microaggressions, racism, and other issues with inclusion occur on our campus.
• We need to create safe spaces for our community to engage in tough conversations about racism, diversity, and inclusion issues.
• We recognize that some of the diversity training and surveys that have been conducted over the past several months have not been as thoughtful as they could have been. We want to learn from these experiences so that we can make improvements in the future.
• We strive to balance the community’s desire for urgency with the need to be thoughtful and purposeful as we develop our recommendations.

We understand that the timing of Dr. Washington’s visit was difficult for many students, faculty, and staff who were off campus during Interim. We felt an urgency to meet with Dr. Washington in January so that he could immediately help inform our work. He will return to campus multiple times this spring as we continue to listen, collaborate, and develop our recommendations.

While we still have much listening to do, we are eager to begin fruitful collaborations to address short-term and long-term opportunities. We have asked Dr. Washington to facilitate these collaborations with groups who have led diversity and inclusion conversations. We are in the process of extending invitations and will provide more concrete information about these collaborations as details become available.

We feel strongly that we have made significant progress over the last few days. We are grateful for everyone who has engaged with the Working Group and look forward to many more meaningful conversations and collaborations.

Respectfully submitted,

Glenn Taylor ’73 and Phil Milne ’81
Chairs, Working Group on Equity and Inclusion