After the killing of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans at the hands of police officers last year, many colleges and universities were quick to release statements expressing their solidarity and intent to create anti-racist campuses.
Over a year later, have institutions moved from making promises to taking action?
NASPA-Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) sought to find out in two-part report.
“Moving from Words to Action: The Influence of Racial Justice Statements on Campus Equity Efforts” evaluated racial justice statements and follow-up actions by institutions from May 25, 2020 to February 1, 2021.
“We wanted to try to better understand what goes into statement making,” said Alexa Wesley, director of research and strategy at NASPA. “And just recognizing that statements from senior leadership do have that meaningful impact on how issues are understood and how a campus might approach addressing that issue.”
Of the 300 sampled institutions, 230 issued statements. Those statements were predominately released within the first 10 days after the murder of George Floyd.
Minority-Serving institutions (MSIs) and Predominately White institutions (PWIs) issued statements at similar rates — 78% and 77%, respectively. The statements’ content differed, however. PWIs included more wording around “equality, respect and fair treatment for all” while MSIs specifically mentioned the impact on Black communities, according to the report.
