On June 3, 2020, the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Foundations (CEPF), shared with students our deep despair regarding the recent, unjustified killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Dreasjon (Sean) Reed, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and the many (e.g., Tanisha Anderson, Sandra Bland, Rekia Boyd, Philando Castile, Michael Brown, Terence Crutcher, Oscar Grant, Freddie Gray, Botham Jean, Corey Jones, Trayvon Benjamin Martin, Walter Scott) who preceded them. Sadly, another victim, Rayshard Brooks, has been added to the list of those whose lives were taken unjustifiably, making it more apparent that - in adhering to our commitment to stand with the communities impacted by these tragic injustices - we must do more. To honor the aforementioned persons, we must #SayTheirNames. We must agree that Black Lives Matter. We must accept that - as a department focused on mental and emotional health; student learning, engagement, and motivation; and behavior and rehabilitation - it is our professional responsibility to acknowledge the impact the aforementioned killings have had and will have on Black communities. We also must better understand the legacy and painful history of white supremacy, police violence, and racism in our country and must condemn the ways all have permeated society. We particularly must take these actions if we are to be prepared to best serve, protect, and advocate for vulnerable communities.
We have discussed and reflected on our commitment to stand and have listened vulnerably to students’ perspectives. We realize thoughts alone are not enough. We realize emails of support, dissemination of antiracist book lists, reactive groups and workshops, and other unsustained or performative efforts alone are not enough. We understand we must listen and act and are prepared to do both. On the CEPF website, we express our department’s dedication to leading innovation through teaching and learning; to nurturing in students a deep commitment and respect for themselves and others, their chosen disciplines, and the people with whom they will work in their future careers; and to encouraging our faculty and student body to engage in effective practice, innovative inquiry, and responsible social action. We further share that we pride ourselves on the diversity of professional disciplines and cultural and ethnic backgrounds of our faculty, staff, and students. In reflecting on these claims, we realize it is extremely important that we, particularly in this moment, examine whether we indeed are the department we have described and hold ourselves accountable where we have fallen short. We accept if we are to do more, to be responsible and accountable, we also must be transparent. We must outline the department we are and the department we want to be. Then we must specify the work we will do to better represent our commitment to our students, staff, and faculty and to the vulnerable communities serviced by our professional disciplines.
The Department We Are
Data from each fall semester since 2014 reveal sex and racial diversity among the student body with male, female, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic, multiracial, and White (not-Hispanic) students. While the overwhelming majority of students enrolled from 2014-2018 were female, males accounted for 12-18% of enrollment. During this same time frame, White students represented the majority of enrollment (i.e., 66-70%), with Black students representing the next highest percentage (i.e., 25-27%). Comparatively, the communities in which CEPF professionals are likely to work are differently diverse. For example, the Mississippi Department of Education reported males were 51% and African American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and multiracial students were 56.28% of enrollment during the 2019-2020 school year. African American (or Black) students were 47.65% of enrollment. Similarly, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported males were 51.6%, females were 48.4%, and Black clients were 49.5% of persons served by the Mississippi State Mental Health Authority (FY, 2018). These data demonstrate while CEPF has some diversity in the student body, our level of diversity is not representative of the clients we serve as CEPF professionals.
Conversely, we celebrate proudly the diversity of our staff and faculty. The department is comprised of staff and faculty of various racial, ethnic, gender, sex, romantic, and religious identities and experiences. Further, our staff and faculty are geographically diverse, having a multitude of national and international backgrounds. We also are proud of the broad educational and professional experience, research interests and productivity, and leadership and mentoring of our staff and faculty and proud that many have been recognized for their expertise by the department, the college, the university, and state and national organizations. CEPF is an amazingly diverse and academically exemplary department. Nevertheless, we recognize there are areas where we could improve.
The Department We Want to Be
Returning to the description of the department as one that leads through teaching and learning, nurtures respect in students, and encourages our faculty and student body to engage in effective practice, innovative inquiry, and responsible social action; we want to be a department that upholds each of these areas with impeccable ethics. As such, we want to be a department that has difficult conversations about the ways systemic, systematic, institutional, and structural racism and discrimination impacts the lives of our students, staff, faculty, and the communities we service. We want to be a department that critically uses qualitative and quantitative data to make culturally informed decisions; constantly promotes equitable opportunities and advancement; and stands unwaveringly by those whose lives are impacted severely by oppression. We want to be… We will be a department that is actively antiracist in our work and unrelentlessly vocal and active in our commitments to change. We will be a department “deeply involved in shaping the future” for the better.
The Work We Will Do
To begin the work of honoring our commitments, we have formed a working group, the CEPF Antiracism, Equity, and Social Justice Committee consisting of several faculty members who consult with one another, staff, and students. We expect to expand the Committee to include CEPF staff and student representatives. We also expect the Committee to partner and consult with student-led department organizations - Counselors for Social Justice and SDR2 (School Psych Diversity Recruitment and Retention) - to maintain an awareness of students’ experiences, needs, and suggestions. Through these partnerships, we will organize antiracism, equity, and social justice initiatives with and for students, staff, faculty, and the communities we service. We are in the beginning stages of conversation about the best ways to educate and organize around antiracism, equity, and social justice. However, we have identified several things that CEPF can and will do over the next year (August 2020 - July 2021).
- We will communicate a departmental commitment to engaging in antiracist, equity, and social justice research, scholarship, and advocacy via the department website, in the department lobby, and in departmental literature.
- We will examine enrollment, scholarship, assistantship, funding, and completion data by demographics to develop a more baseline understanding of diversity and equity for students.
- We will recognize, highlight, and promote the scholarly achievements of students of color.
- We will commit to fostering safe classroom environments that promote equality and inclusion of our LGBTQ+ colleagues, peers, and students.
- We will exercise more transparency regarding the disbursement of departmental travel and research funds and assistantships for students.
- We will host a minimum of one antiracist, equity, or social justice programming activity per semester.
- We will commit to hosting, promoting, and participating in the annual Social Justice Symposium coordinated by the Counselors for Social Justice.
- We will contact school districts and mental health and rehabilitation facilities and invite them to examine antiracism, equity, and social justice as applied to their work, with explicit foci on pedagogies, practices, assessments, and access.
- We will collaborate with staff and faculty to provide antiracist, equity, and social justice professional development and learning opportunities.
- We will commit to focusing faculty searches on recruiting more racially diverse faculty, particularly Black male faculty.
- We will situate antiracism, equity, and social justice at the center of our work as a department and as connected to our diverse strategic initiatives.
This list is not exhaustive, and we are aware of its limitations in addressing fully all areas of antiracism, equity, and social justice. However, we provide this list to confirm our commitment to doing the work of ensuring our department is the change we want to see. We also provide this list to document our hopes of shaping a future where antiracism, equity, and social justice are the foundation for creating and nurturing healthy and thriving communities.
Over the next few weeks, we will share more information about the work we will do and invite students, staff, and faculty to become involved. Until then, we invite you to make a personal commitment to engaging in responsible action for antiracism, equity, and social justice. The time is now.
Sincerely,
CEPF Antiracism, Equity, and Social Justice Committee
CEPF Staff and Faculty
Dr. Daniel Gadke, Department Head