Racial Justice at MCLA.png MCLA will host its first Racial Equity Summit on May 17, 2023.

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2023 Racial Equity Summit Agenda

RES_Agenda (4).pdf

Communication from Pres. Birge

Good Afternoon, Colleagues:

This is an exciting time of year as we prepare for this weekend’s 124th Commencement Exercises. Thank you all for helping to make this day a special memory for our students, their families, and their friends. I am looking forward to joining you as we celebrate our students.

As you know, MCLA’s Racial Equity Summit will occur next Wednesday, May 17. I strongly encourage you to participate in this important event by completing the Racial Equity Summit Registration so that the Planning Committee can plan accordingly. Nearly 100 of us have already registered for the event to be held in Venable Theater.

Earlier this semester, I called for a Racial Equity Summit due to my concerns about trends emerging at MCLA regarding disparities in achievement rates for our students of color as measured by retention rates, graduation rates, and academic suspension rates. Moreover, as we begin to consider data from the recent Climate Survey, we can see that we have not established a welcoming environment for all our students and colleagues of color. It is my hope that the Summit will allow all of us to learn about these and other data, to discuss how we can best change these trends, and then design department level action plans that respond to what we learn and to better support students and colleagues.

Although MCLA is not alone in experiencing these trends, it is disappointing to me because MCLA had been improving student achievement gap trends previously and, recently one’s sense of belonging at MCLA was more positive, at least from an anecdotal perspective. To reverse these trends, we must acknowledge that our efforts have not produced the outcomes many of us want, and we need to work collectively to learn about what the experiences of our community members are and then make changes to improve the MCLA climate and culture.

I have asked executive staff members to support your participation in the day’s activities, even if it means your attendance in the meeting will leave no office coverage during the hours of the event (10-4). If your regular shift is not fully within the 10-4 timeframe, and you wish to attend the entire event, attending before or after your shift is not an expectation and would be on your own time.

Raising everyone’s awareness about these data/trends and what each of us must do to improve them is critical to our upcoming NECHE Accreditation visit as well as our next strategic planning process.

I look forward to seeing you at the Summit. Thank you!!

For the Planning Committee:

James Birge

Jason Canales, Jonthan Del Sordo, Kayla Hollins, Chris MacDonald-Dennis, Erin Milne, Laura Mooney, Kerri Nicoll, Nicole Porther, Jenna Sciuto