We, the faculty and staff of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Oregon State University, wish to express our support for and solidarity with students of color on this campus. At last night’s speak out, many students of color spoke powerfully about their experiences of racism on campus. They courageously shared painful experiences in order to help educate the larger university community. The speak out was live streamed, and those of us watching the online chat were outraged by numerous racist comments and images posted by anonymous participants. The university should address why the livestream was conducted with an anonymous, open chatroom, given the virulent racism too often the norm in anonymous social media. This is also the time for all university members to think about hate speech, fighting words, and OSU’s lack of protections for those subject to intentionally harassing and unlawful words. We urge the administration to fully investigate these destructive racist comments in order to hold members of our community accountable for hate speech and threats of violence. We also recognize that such blatantly oppressive comments occur alongside the daily microaggressions described by students of color during the speak out, and are a product of structural racism. We encourage the campus community to take very seriously both the blatant, violent racism expressed in the live chat as well as the more covert forms of racism experienced on a daily basis by students of color.

To the students of color in our program and on our campus: we are listening and we are with you. Many of us are faculty of color, and all of us are committed to challenging racism and other forms of oppression. We support your activism, and are committed to changing the climate on this campus. In any campus community, it is student activism pushing the university forward that makes the most substantial and immediate change. Do not forget how powerful you are. Your work at OSU is making an impact and your continued mobilization is transforming our community. As faculty in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies we are committed to mobilizing in solidarity with you and supporting your efforts to make immediate changes at our university.

In Struggle,

Dr. Jennifer Almquist

Instructor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Project Manager, ADVANCE

Whitney Archer

Instructor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Assistant Director, Women’s Center

Nancy Barbour

Instructor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Writing Advisor, School of Language, Culture, and Society

Dr. Bradley Boovy

Assistant Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

World Languages and Cultures

Dr. Liddy Detar

Instructor and Advisor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Dr. Qwo-Li Driskill

Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Dr. Patti Duncan

Associate Professor and Coordinator

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Michael Floyd

Instructor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Kryn Freehling-Burton

Senior Instructor and Online Advisor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Co-Chair, OSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women

Dr. Janet Lee

Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Dr. Ron Mize

Associate Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Director, Center for Latino/a Studies and Engagement (CL@SE)

Dr. Nana Osei-Kofi

Associate Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Director, Difference, Power, and Discrimination Program

Leonora Rianda

Office Manager

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Ethnic Studies

Dr. Larry D. Roper

Professor

Coordinator, Social Justice Minor

Dr. Susan Shaw

Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Director of the School of Language, Culture, and Society

Dr. Elizabeth Sheehan

Assistant Professor

English

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Dr. Mehra Shirazi

Assistant Professor

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies