ECSAR statement to Administration

To Earlham’s Administration,

In our unwielding commitments to the EC Students Against Racism movement, we come to you once again as a concerned student body. In reaffirming the various structural issues at Earlham, disclosed in EC Students Against Racism’s List of Requirements, we have demonstrated our dedication to resolving these injustices, which negatively impact our abilities to thrive as a community. Throughout this semester, the student body has put forth numerous efforts in which to engage with Earlham’s administration and the college in its entirety. We have formed valuable bonds with various Board of Trustee members, prospective students, and alumni, including members of Earlham’s alumni council. Together, we form a collective of alert and attentive members of this institution, who in raised awareness, await the unfolding of Earlham’s progress.

As our time this semester closes, we would like to assure you that our focuses remain intact. That being said, various responses by the administration, namely Senior Staff, have prompted an atmosphere of judicious regard among the student body, alumni, Board of Trustee members, and prospective Earlhamites. In order to assure the entire Earlham community of Senior Staff’s care, regard, and deep commitment to understanding and effectively addressing Earlham’s structural issues, we ask for your mutual engagement. To reconcile this atmosphere of cautious trust, we ask that Senior Staff to take a leap in demonstrating its care and personal investment in the resolution of our community’s issues.

As we are departing for summer, we ask that you, particularly, keep these issues at the forefront of your agendas. Additionally, we firmly believe the summer months that await us should be utilized as a time for deep reflection, self-evaluation, and recommitment to our community values. To maintain transparency, we ask that during the summer, Senior Staff take on the charge of delivering regular updates to the student body, faculty, Board of Trustees, and entire Earlham community about progress being made. In our devotion to structural accountability, and distribution of labor in addressing these issues, we urge that this task not be relegated to the Diversity and Progress Committee, which is already working incredibly hard at tackling these issues.

Furthermore, given that the Board of Trustees’ second meeting of this year takes place in early June, we recognize June as an especially important month that has the potential to yield a significant amount of progress to this work. We ask that during this second board meeting, the highest authorities of this institution produce a comprehensive plan that reflects the dedicated ways in which you will lead the charge in effectively addressing the concerns outlined in the List of Requirements. So far, as demonstrated in the President’s email to the student body, Senior Staff has targeted 4 diversity-related issues to move forward in addressing immediately, only one of these tasks was included in the List of Requirements. Though the others included in that message are important and useful measures, the vast majority of items on the List of Requirements remain insufficiently attended to. We have the utmost confidence in the Diversity and Progress Committee’s abilities, and will to thoroughly care for these issues, especially given the body’s current leadership, however, we implore Senior Staff to demonstrate a greater shared responsibility in effectively addressing our community’s shortcomings. Furthermore, we expect that all minutes, notes, and other information from these meetings be transparently shared with the Earlham community so that we may acknowledge the increased dedication, and literacy in addressing these issues, of Senior Staff.


Best,



EC Students Against Racism