We, the undersigned faculty wish to communicate to the student body, and in particular to those who participated in the student occupation of Faculty Assembly to protest racism in and beyond the classroom at Emerson, that we applaud your courage in taking over faculty space, disrupting business as usual, and confronting us with the truth of your experiences. We want you to know that we listened to you carefully; we heard your pain, your anger, your exhaustion, and your demands; we support your efforts; and we pledge to move from conversation to effective action in the fight against racism at Emerson.
Debra Acquavella
Nancy Allen
Susanne Althoff
John Anderson
Claire Andrade-Watkins
Paul Anskat
Jabari Asim
Emily Avery-Miller
Elizabeth Baeten
Morgan Baker
Miranda Banks
Claude Bartholomew
Manuel Basanese
Lindsay Beamish
Lindsey Beck
Melia Bensussen
Michael Bent
Samuel Binkley
Gaynor Banford
Brynna Bloomfield
Dae Bogan
Josie Bray
Israela Brill-Cass
Barry Brodsky
Amelia Broome
Cheryl Buchanan
Marc J. Cantor
Claudia Castañeda
Jena Castro-Casbon
Yuri Cataldo
Rob Cavanagh
Yu-jin Chang
Ken Cheeseman
Frank Chindamo
Brecken Chinn
Sharmistha Roy Chowdhury
Joanne Ciccarello
Robert Colby
Martie Cook
Angela Cooke-Jackson
Tom Cooper
Cristina Kotz Cornejo
Brian Cronin
Catherine D’Ignazio
Melissa Daley
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Shannon Derby
Lisa Dierks
William Donoghue
Kathleen Donohue
John Donovan
Robert Dulgarian
Owen Eagan
Robb E. Eason
Cathryn Edelstein
Jen Farrell
Elizabeth Fausak
Ken Feil
Marc Fields
Maria Flook
John Craig Freeman
Indira Ganesan
Mneesha Gellman
John Gianvito
Nigel Gibson
Christin Gilmer
Marsha Della Giustina
Jon Goldberg
Flora Gonzalez
Eric Gordon
Jared M. Gordon
Michelle Graham
Craig Grant
Bianca Janssen Groesbeek
June Guertin
Julie Gustafson
Paul Hackett
Lise Haines
Jackie Hall
Kathy Hassinger
Christopher Hennessy
Julie Hennrikus
DeWitt Henry
Stephanie Heroux
Ted Hewlett
Sarah Hickler
Julian Higgins
Steve Himmer
Richard Hoffman
Jon Honea
Barry Horwitz
Judith Hull
Jennie Israel
Alden Jones
Roy Kamada
Shiri Katz-Gershon
Joe Keener III
Raht Ketusingha
Brooke Knight
Cher Knight
Janet Kolodzy
Kristina Kopic
Mary Kovaleski
Daniela Kukrechtova
Jim Lane
Jerry Lanson
Joanne Lasker
De-nin Lee
Jamie Rosenblum Lichtenstein
Kristin Lieb
Theodore Life
Gian Lombardo
Anthony Lowrie
Nicholas Manley
Christina Marin
Megan Marshall
Craig Mathers
Gail Mazur
Eileen McBride
Charles McCarry
Brenna McCormick
Caitlin McGill
Kimberly McLarin
Thomas McNeely
Peter Medeiros
Maurice Methot
Paul Mihailidis
Amissa Miller
Cynthia Miller
Kevin Miller
Cara Moyer-Duncan
Pablo Muchnik
Mary Mulderig
Yasser Munif
Amy Vashlishan Murray
Paula Musegades
Vinicius Navarro
Bethany Nelson
Bob Nesson
Russell Newman
Courtney O’Connor
Pamela Painter
Billy Palumbo
Elizabeth Parfitt
Carol Parikh
Jeffrey Phelps
Jennifer Porst
Andre Puca
Nejem Raheem
Kathryn Ramey
Camilo Ramirez
Lu Ann Reeb
Linda Reisman
Tim Riley
Melinda Robins
Cindy Rodríguez
Magda Romanska
Dana Rosengard
Anna Ross
Nancy Salzer
Scott Sanders
Eiki Satake
Jane Pierce Saulnier
Eric Schaefer
Peter Seronick
Stephen Shane
Jane Shattuc
Lauren Shaw
Maureen Shea
Allyson Sherlock
Diana Sherry
Sara Simons
Carole Simpson
John Skoyles
Tulasi Srinivas
Jean Stawarz
Sunil Swaroop
Geoff Tarulli
Mirta Tocci
John Trimbur
Michael Tucker
Paul Turano
Daniel Viafore
Meta Wagner
Jerald Walker
Wendy Walters
Shujen Wang
Claudia Ward-de Leon
Cathy Waters
Daniel Weaver
Michael Weiler
Eric Weiss
Richard West
Douglass Whynott
Erika Williams
Brenda Wrigley
Marlena Yannetti
Steve Yarbrough
Seounmi Han Youn
This letter was originally sent to the Berkeley Beacon on May 7, 2015. As the time period available for collecting signatures was very limited, the letter has been re-circulated this fall so that all faculty who wished to sign it could do so. We ask readers to recognize that it might coincide with other faculty efforts to address issues of racism on campus in the wake of last spring’s student actions.