Dear BMCC Community,
As we collectively and individually confront the unrelenting and systemic racism in our country, it is especially important to observe Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the emancipation of slaves in the United States. It is a day of celebration, education and contemplation, and given this moment in our history, I encourage everyone to pause— to reflect, learn and support each other, their families, and their communities. And when the time of observation has ended, we must take action.
BMCC is committed to advancing equity, strengthening our culture of care, and advancing socioeconomic mobility and justice through education. In our recent community Town Hall and student session, we continued to hear and feel the pain related to racism, and we also heard the strength in our conviction to combat racism in all its forms. We heard students, faculty and staff share ideas about what we must do to make necessary change happen, and we will take the next steps to act on those ideas.
Over the next month, we will hold additional zoom forums to develop BMCC’s commitment to action to advance equity, diversity and inclusion, and to directly combat racism in all its forms. We will consider curriculum, advocacy, voting, reimagining Public Safety, events and other forms of engagement, training and resources— all ideas put forth by the community in our recent sessions, and all structural elements that must be reimagined if we are to dismantle the structures of racism and oppression.
We invite everyone to participate in these conversations. Please send your name, department, email address and area of interest to President@bmcc.cuny.edu by June 29. We will hold Zoom sessions during July, to be followed by Town Halls in September, and I am committed to convening a college-wide steering committee focused on equity, inclusion and anti-racism early in the fall to oversee the design and implementation of specific action steps.
Please visit our Racial Injustice website and BMCC’s Facebook page. We invite all members of our community to share thoughts and feelings and ideas there and through our upcoming forums. In this time and in this place, let’s all take a moment of silence. Let our moment of silence last 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Then, let us collectively commit to action.
