Since our founding in 1924 by six women employed as job placement officers who were dissatisfied there was no network for women working in colleges, the American College Personnel Association (ACPA) has represented student affairs professionals across higher education. Fast-forward to the Civil Rights Movement, student affairs and ACPA were again among the first to create community networks for employees of color. In the 1980s, student affairs leaders reinforced our value of inclusion through bold support of LGBT people, and again in the 1990s in advocating for transgender and gender non-binary individuals.
Student affairs has always allowed the future to lead us and boldly transformed higher education. The work done by college student educators on a daily basis has, as its goal, the humanization of students through the liberative opportunity of education. Diversity, equity and inclusion work is not ancillary to, nor a goal of, student affairs work. Racial and social justice is the work of college student educators.
Following decades of slow but meaningful progress, there is still much work to do at every college to remove the systemic barriers and oppressions that intentionally marginalize Black, Indigenous and other people of color. The Black Lives Matter movement is a call to action for student affairs educators to acknowledge, dismantle and re-create campus policies, practices and curricula that were not originally designed for Black student access or success. Institutional leaders, particularly White administrators and scholars, must acknowledge that the work of pursuing racial justice is intersectional and that forms of oppression based on identities are linked.
Student affairs educators have often led transformations in higher education, but it is time that we not just lead. The Black Lives Matter Movement calls us to be BOLD in how we direct our energy, our time and our resources. We must use our privileges for voice, for action and for calling out racial injustice and harm every time we are in its presence.
At ACPA, we recognize that the field looks to us for resources and guidance. So, what can student affairs and higher education do to press for racial justice on campus and in the world?
1) Work on ourselves first — None of us are ever done learning. We should always be reading, listening, engaging, dialoguing, showing up, and diving into places, topics, resources, and events where we feel uncomfortable and where we feel uneducated and unprepared. There are resources everywhere for how to be an advocate for justice, on understanding the devastating and subtle impacts of White supremacy, and on racial disparities in education and the world. From White colleagues, in particular, we often hear “I don’t know where to start,” and our message is “Just Do Something!” When we think we’ve learned enough, we haven’t. It’s easy to find a White ally book club, and it is important for White people to come together to discuss racial injustices, anti-Blackness, White fragility, White supremacy and the ongoing effects of colonialism and slavery. But joining a book club and reading articles are starting points in a journey with no finish line. The “working on oneself” part is lifelong if we’re serious about being part of solutions, or at least less a part of the problems.
2) Name and address our group privileges — While perpetually in self-work, we must also engage the groups around us. That means we must be responsible for engaging in discussions and initiating action with our
