Provost Low,
We are writing as a concerned student group on campus, GLBA--Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Alliance. As members of the UVM community we continually fight heterosexism and homophobia but we also fight racism in all forms--individual, institutional, and cultural. It is our responsibility as white allies and anti-racists to call attention to your actions which have repeatedly ignored and undermined the ALANA community. From disbanding the Commission on Racial Justice and Multicultural Education to your silence regarding the hunger strike of Shontae Praileau to the lack of implementation regarding the ALANA Student Bill of Rights to numerous other acts of overt and covert racism on your part and the part of other UVM administrators. For example, President Thomas Salmon, Dean Batt, Mara Soule, Joan Smith, Douglas Samuels, Leon Lawrence, and the many others who refused to speak out and support the ALANA community on this campus!
We support the list of requests put forward by the ALANA community and Shontae Praileau:
1. The current Office of Multicultural Affairs Director must leave. Douglas Samuels is not listening, he has his own agenda, and he should not have been chosen. If he cannot leave because of contract of legal reasons, then Lufuno Tshikororo needs to be made a Co-Director. She needs to have a position in which she can do her stuff within OMA and around this community and be able to work as a director. Douglas Samuels represents Dean Batt and the Administration who want to make the Center "more inclusive" which means they want to make it more white. OMA has been there for a purpose. Douglas Samuels changing that is going to mean something for the rest of the ALANA students who are first year and second year.
2. Immediate implementation of the OMA Mission Statement drafted by the ALANA students in October of this year.
3. Acknowledgment that Shontae Praileau´s reality or experience at UVM is the experience of many people of color at UVM and backing it up with action. This should be done by revisting the 1988 and 1991 takeover agreementss This must be done with an outside mediator, ALANA community representatives chosen by the ALANA community, and the administration. There must be dates assigned that these need to be completed. If those deadlines aren't met than action needs to be taken. What will be the consequences?
4. The Board of Trustees need to know about and agree to all these actions. From now and into the future, the ALANA students have more than an imput, they need to have a power base. Meanning next semester when they start the search for the Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the ALANA students should have a majority vote on the search committee. The students on the search committee must be selected by the ALANA community.
5. Implement the ALANA Student Bill of Rights that was drafted in the Summer of 1995. This should be done with ALANA students selected by the ALANA community and the administration with an outside mediator and a timeline for completion. This needs to be done immediately.
6. The Commission on Racial Justice and Multicultural Education is reinstated with the 1995-96 membership. The Provost should not be able to execute such power just because he doesn't like what the commission has done.