The 13th annual faculty Academic Summit, hosted by the Office of the Provost, was centered around anti-racism this year in an effort to address concerns raised on campus over the past year.
Each year, the University of Rhode Island offers an academic summit allowing for faculty to focus on a critical issue affecting academia. In recent years, the themes have focused on combining research with creativity, as well as focused on the future of URI, with one theme being “URI 2035.”
Due to the ongoing pandemic, the event was held virtually for the first time, allowing URI faculty and staff to participate in the faculty development throughout a series of workshops and panels online.
The main speaker of the event was Ibram X. Kendi, the author of the book “How to Be an Antiracist.” In his session, Kendi gave faculty and staff an opportunity to ask him specific questions regarding antiracism, how it may impact URI and how it can be addressed in an academic setting.
Kendi’s talk segued into a day of breakout sessions focused on more specific topics surrounding systemic racism and how to eliminate it.
Provost Donald DeHayes presented and discussed the University’s drafted, proposed action plan of an “Academic Affairs Agenda for Change.” The actions outlined in the initial draft of the plan include expanding professional development relating to antiracism, implementing annual college diversity accountability reports, infusing diversity into curriculums and making the search process for hiring candidates more inclusive.
Prior to the faculty breaking into groups, many of them attended a “Thought Leaders’ Panel Discussion,” giving them an opportunity to also ask questions to selected community members that led the panel.
Brendan Skip Mark, a professor in the political science department, was one of the faculty members asked to participate as a thought leader at the Summit.
“This academic summit being entirely about antiracism in the University and at URI I think was a really good step,” Mark said. “I tend to look at this in terms of a political science standpoint as in terms of where is URI spending money to address these issues? Letters and statements are fine but those are not costly.”
According to Mark, one way the University has begun to implement these changes to combat systemic racism has been the implementation of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 365 Symposium. This series has been created as a space for community members to discuss issues related to social justice through the Office of Community, Equity and Diversity.
Bryan Dewsbury, a professor of biology at URI, was another thought leader that discussed antiracism initiatives. Although the Summit was designed for faculty and staff members only, Dewsbury believes that the topic of antiracism extends beyond just the administrative level.
“I would argue that [students] are doing a better job than faculty of educating themselves and pushing for change,” Dewsbury said. “In fact, many of the changes that you see on campus is because students force the issues. I just want to tip my hat off to them, to be honest.”
Brothers on a New Direction (BOND); Powerful, Independent, Notoriously, Knowledgeable Women (PINK) and Multicultural Unity and Student Involvement Council (MUSIC) are all organizations that Dewsbury pointed to as doing impressive work led by students.
Cherie Rowe, a graduate student in the English department and a coordinator for the International Center, was also chosen as a thought leader.
“I was quite surprised to be asked [to be a thought leader] because I’m not a professor,” Rowe said. “To me, the most interesting thing about being a thought leader was that I wasn’t a dean. That gave me food for thought in thinking about the spaces in which I can positively contribute to an antiracist agenda and action.”
According to DeHayes’s draft of actionable strategies, the University will continue to implement more antiracist policies on campus over time, but no concrete or finalized plan has been released yet.