Our work is not done

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:56:49 -0400

Black lives matter. Everywhere. On the street, in the home, in the academy. While racism manifests in different ways in different places as it intersects with other forms of oppression, we believe that every instance is a manifestation of the same structural and systemic problems. Universities are not insulated from them. Our university is not insulated from them. We see them, and will work continually to make them visible to those who don’t.

Although the current structure of the affinity groups compartmentalizes faculty and staff into single identity categories, we believe that the issues of inequality and marginalization in the university must be thought, and addressed, intersectionally. In our advocacy work and in the programming we sponsor, we will insist on this approach.

The CAHSS Women’s Faculty Network was formed, initially, to help recruit women faculty to UMBC. We have always believed that model is insufficient, in part because it implies that the work of inclusion at the university is complete in the process of hiring. It is not.

We will continue to expand the purpose of this network by centering its programming around mentorship and community-building. We will strive to create a space on our campus where faculty of color, women faculty, and LGBTQ faculty feel safe, supported, and inspired. And we will work to build an environment where all women faculty can chart the intellectual, professional, and personal paths that are meaningful to them.

Our work is far from done, and we believe that UMBC has much work ahead of it to redress problems like harassment, overwork, undercompensation, burnout, tokenization, isolation, and professional frustration that faculty of color, women faculty, and LGBTQ faculty so regularly encounter. It has been and will continue to be our primary commitment to insist that we must confront these issues and to bring them to the attention of those in positions of power at our university, to remind them that these are signs of systemic problems rather than individual misfortune.

We write to let you all know that the WFN will remain committed to resisting models of success that amount to hacks of the neoliberal logic of the university, as this kind of individual advancement may ultimately perpetuate the systems that disenfranchise everyone who isn’t white, male, cis, straight, able-bodied, and well-resourced. And we write to thank each one of you for helping us to build this network of care and support, and to affirm our collective commitment to push UMBC to rise to its guiding principles of equity and inclusive excellence.

In partnership and respect,

Tamara and Rebecca