Graphic design by Geraldine Santoso.
A couple of weeks ago, from September 8th through the 9th, there was a national #ScholarStrike, which offered professors across the United States the opportunity to stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
According to its official website, the Scholar Strike was an “action inspired by the NBA, WNBA, Colin Kaepernick and other athletes, to underscore the urgent importance of addressing racism and injustice in the United States.” It encouraged faculty, staff, grad students, and administrators to commit to anti-racist actions, as well as prompt complementary action from the larger institutions that they function within.
On campus, there were numerous Skidmore professors that partook in the collective action by adhering to the teach-in about racism and injustice, as well as refraining from engaging in their typical duties. The teach-in endorsed Skidmore professors to engage their students with curriculum material about the racial climate in America, including issues such as unjust policing and mass incarceration of Black Americans.
On her participation in the strike, Professor Gwen D’Arcangelis from the Gender Studies department reflected: “I supported the strike by pivoting to the 2-day virtual teach-ins and to reading materials on the movement for Black lives, prison abolition, cops out of schools, and the defund police/invest in communities campaigns. Because I teach in Gender Studies, my courses directly address issues of gender and racial justice, so I delivered (at a separate time) much of my originally planned class content as well.”
Professor Winston Grady-Willis, director of Skidmore’s Black Studies program, also decided to take part in the #ScholarStrike by continuing to teach his students about the Black Lives Matter Movement. He shared that the expression of his solidarity was indirect, as “the entire first course block of BST 101 this semester revolves around BLM, so [he] decided to teach” during the two days.
Grady-Willis added that he chose to attend an Appointments and Tenure Committee (ATC) meeting, although online discussions about the strike implied that administrative duties should be avoided. He noted that “both ATC and the Promotions Committee had already scheduled a joint virtual meeting that addressed issues of diversity, equity and inclusion at schools like Skidmore...[and] Zankel Professor Pushkala Prasad gave an amazing presentation based on her research, which included the perspectives of faculty of color.”
In accordance with their strike, Skidmore professors, along with their colleagues at other New York Six schools, released a call to action statement titled “Healing Through Action,” which can be read in full at the end of this article.
The document declared the commitment of Skidmore’s faculty and staff to work in solidarity in the pursuit of racial activism inside and outside the classroom. They state that, “As faculty and staff members at New York Six institutions, we realize full well that our residential liberal arts colleges have an obligation both inside and outside the classroom to meet this particular moment with a spirit of action and willingness to speak truth to power that is grounded in integrity and the pursuit of academic freedom.”
Additionally, the faculty’s proclamation affirms that solely standing in solidarity is not enough – productive action steps from their respective institutions are of utmost importance. In their words, “We applaud these leaders for publicly stating their commitment. However, we know as well that for liberal art colleges to truly leverage our privilege in service of social justice, there has to be recognition of the need for tangible outcomes that not only benefit the members of our campus communities, but also, the most marginalized members of the communities that surround our campuses.”
These tangible outcomes begin with the recognition that the Skidmore community are occupants of Indigenous land, specifically the land of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), Onyota’a:ka (Oneida) and O-non-dowa-gah (Seneca) Nations of the larger Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. Even more, “Healing Through Action” calls for the rightful recruitment and retention of Indigenous students, faculty, and staff.
In the same way, “Healing Through Action” expounds on the “intersectional nature of oppressions and movements to end those oppressions,” acknowledging the systematic marginalization of many identities, such as Latinx individuals, immigrants, incarcerated students, women of color, and queer people of color.
Professor Lucia Hulsether from Skidmore’s Religious Studies department expressed how she participated in the #ScholarStrike by highlighting the work of “teachers who have spent months and years engaged in difficult, high-stakes actions for economic, race, and gender justice in their workplaces.” For example, “the organizers at Abolition University working for police-free campuses, the K-12 teacher unions who have used their power to secure PPE and other basic protections for themselves and their students, the California graduate teachers who went on strike for a living wage last December and whose protests were met with police brutality, the revocation of health insurance during a pandemic, and mass firings.”
As these examples suggest, it is apparent that educational institutions should be held accountable for their commitments to ensure the safety of their faculty, staff and students. Thus, this past #ScholarStrike acted as one action item out of many that was necessary in order to continue reforming Skidmore’s environment to be a safe place for all.
