A message on Racial Justice

To our new Falcons, We recognize that over the last couple weeks you have received emails sent to all of our community members, but we wanted to follow up directly with you, our class of newest Falcons, to further discuss our commitment as a university to racial and social justice as you begin your journey at Bentley.

Our nation has been grieving the murders of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, which were the direct result of racial injustice that has been condoned and perpetuated in our society for far too long. Globally, we have witnessed people come together to protest police violence, and we have witnessed our collective reckoning with systemic racism, oppression, and hate. In our own community at Bentley, we have also been challenged by students, alumni, faculty and staff to identify, confront and change areas where inequity exists.

Bentley can rise to the challenge that lies ahead, but we also acknowledge that our community is not immune from these systemic issues. We want to be clear that as a community we stand with our Black students. We stand with our incoming Black students and their families. We believe that Black Lives Matter.

Over the past two weeks, Bentley has hosted several community conversations, including a Town Hall on Racial Injustice with faculty and staff, a community conversation about Black Lives Matter led by student leaders in the Black United Body student organization, a Vigil for Black Lives sponsored by the Office of Diversity & Inclusion and Student Equity & Inclusion, and a community conversation about combating anti-black racism on campus. But there is so much more work to be done for Bentley to be a force for change, and we’re committed to building a stronger future. A campus task force has been announced to help guide our path forward, with a charge to identify and investigate practices at our university that sustain systemic racism. The task force will be

asked to recommend specific actions to overturn those practices so we can grow as an anti-racist university. Student leaders will be included in this task force, and we expect a summary of its work to be presented to the community by the end of Fall 2020.

As you enter our community, we want you to know that we expect our community members – faculty, staff and students – to live our Core Values. We expect our community members to engage in their education, and we expect our community members to contribute to our university positively moving forward for racial and social justice. We will be providing you an opportunity to engage with us about how we are planning to live out our Core Values to address racial justice on campus in the next month—more details about this event will be sent to you shortly.

We are eager for you to join our community and are committed to working with you to make Bentley a force for change.

--Dean Shepardson

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