The faculty and staff in the Chemistry Department have been inspired by the courageous and moving testimony of our students during the events of Amherst Uprising. We are passionately committed to creating a safe and nurturing environment for every one of our students. We also understand that we have failed in this commitment in the past, and we promise to listen and respond to the concerns of every one of our students. We recommit ourselves to supporting the success of every one of our students, here at Amherst and beyond.
As members of the Music Department faculty and staff, we are inspired by the voices raised by students promoting wider understanding of the difficulties students of color and other marginalized groups face on this campus. By sharing your passion and pain so openly, you have renewed an important conversation that we hope will lead toward healing, meaningful and positive change and the prevention of the wounds of bias at Amherst College and beyond. You have our support.
Faculty and Staff of the Music Department
November 13, 2015
The following statement was read at the Nov. 18, 2014 meeting of the faculty in response to the events of Black Lives Matter Awareness Week. Approximately two months later, on Jan. 23, 2015, the college held a Day of Dialogue on Race and Racism, in response both to tensions and controversies emerging on campus from Awareness Week events and to issues raised by student activists who attended the Nov. 18 meeting to voice their concerns regarding racism directly to the faculty.
This weekend a group called Amherst Athletes Against Lord Jeff began campaigning for the removal of the college’s unofficial mascot, the Lord Jeff. The group formed during a four-day sit-in in Frost Library this weekend in which students protested racial discrimination.
On Saturday night, the third night of the sit-in, various students broke into subcommittees to discuss the issues raised by the weekend’s events. Cross country runner Justin Barry ’18 was with the subcommittee talking specifically about the mascot, and he began thinking of ways to raise publicity.
Dear Amherst College Community,
We, the faculty of the Psychology Department and the Neuroscience Program, write to support the students engaged in the recent movement to bring racial equality to Amherst College.
We, the faculty of the American Studies Department, write in support of those students who this week have demonstrated in solidarity with other students at campuses nationwide who are protesting racism.
The testimony you and scores of other students have provided in Frost Library about your experiences at Amherst clearly demonstrate that Amherst remains an institution where people of color too often are marginalized and silenced. We are concerned that this presents an unsafe environment that is antithetical to intellectual exchange.
Hundreds of students gathered in Frost Library Thursday and Friday to protest racial injustice and demonstrate solidarity with student protesters at the University of Missouri and Yale.
The sit-in began Thursday at 1 p.m. and entered its 30th hour Friday evening, when student leaders announced they would continue the sit-in until further notice.
