2020 has, thus far, been a year consisting of civil unrest all over the world, especially in the United States after the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude and many other Black individuals.
Geneseo is taking steps toward becoming an anti-racist college. One of the ways Geneseo shows growth on racial issues is with its recent Cultivating Community event, held on Monday, Sept. 21.
Cultivating Community is a series that includes having meaningful dialogue and providing a space for students, faculty and staff to learn from each other, grow and understand. These community discussions are intended to enforce Geneseo’s value of inclusivity.
With COVID-19, the series this year includes a virtual option, allowing participants to stream into the event as well.
The series co-coordinators Meredith Harrigan and robbie routenberg introduced the event’s facilitators, Crystal Simmons and David Parfitt. Simmons and Parfitt are the co-chairs of the campus initiative for Becoming an Antiracist College. They delivered a video that explained their work and what they hope the Geneseo community can achieve in becoming antiracist.
“As a teacher-educator, whose research interest explores [the] k-12 Black history curriculum and critical race theory, I understand the importance of this work in providing equitable and just opportunities for all students,” Simmons said.
To help students both work on and further develop this attitude, the college is also providing an asynchronous option to this series. Students can enroll in the Canvas course, watch the video from the event and read questions that students asked from the event itself.
Another important point to note about this series is that every event in the semester plays off the previous event’s theme. The themes for the next two events are not out yet, but students can send in suggestions for the future events, as well as thoughts and feedback for previous events and the overall series. This can be done on the Geneseo Cultivating Community page.
“It is our hope that we can collaboratively work together to address ways we can identify and eliminate racism on our campus. Please know that this is a continuous process that may cause some discomfort,” Parfitt said. “As always, we want to create a safe and respectable space for people to share ideas, concerns and experiences.”
Through this event, one can hear others’ opinions, as well as share their own and possibly learn something new.