“Over the years I have noticed that people of color come here thinking that [Guilford] is going to be different,” said Judy Harvey, Director of Multicultural Education. “Then they get here and it doesn’t feel that different from the rest of American society.” This fall, Harvey and the 37 other members of the anti-racism team will begin to address that issue directly.
The team, created by the Anti-Racism Initiative approved by Guilford faculty and staff in April, is comprised of students, faculty, staff, alumni, a board member and members of the Greensboro community.
This year an elected nine -member steering committee will lead the team. This committee consists of three students and six faculty or staff.
Next year, individual leaders will be elected by the anti-racism team, creating a more traditional power structure.
According to sophomore Fern Hickey, one of the six main-campus students on the team, “[the first semester] is more of a training and research stage” for the anti-racism team itself, while the student body will hear more about the team in the spring.
The team held their first meeting on Aug. 29, and will meet several more times this year and will go on team-building retreats in October and March.
Training fees and retreats represent the Anti-Racism Team’s main expenses.
“[The Initiative] has an estimated cost of $88,000 over the next two years,” said Lisa McLeod, philosophy professor and member of the anti-racism team. McLeod led the team’s successful effort to get a $50,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. The Winston-Salem-based foundation awards grants to progressive charitable causes in North Carolina.
“We have been authorized by the institution to be trained, to study the situation and to suggest a plan,” Harvey said.
The Crossroads Ministry of Chicago, a social justice organization that specializes in dismantling institutional racism, will train the anti-racism team. The team will then look into what racism is present at Guilford.
Finally, the team will form both a short-term strategy (2-5 years) and a long-term vision (20-30 years) about how to eliminate institutional racism at Guilford and propose the plan to the administration.
“The reason [the process] has to be that long is because institutions are set up to perpetuate themselves to NOT change. That’s what they’re meant to do because you don’t want to have to create an institution every year; you want it to go on and on,” Harvey said. “For that reason, if you want to change an institution your plan has to be long, too.”
“This is a perfect time, now that we aren’t in the middle of a crisis,” Harvey said, “to take the time to really look at the situation and figure out how our actions can really be aligned with what we say we are.”