TO THE EDITOR:
On Tuesday, I was in Montreal, QC, attending the annual meeting of ACPA-College Student Educators International. This meeting was attended by a little over 3,000 people who, in some capacity, work with college students. I had just left a conference session where I engaged others in conversation about how identity connects to the process of campus crisis management when I ran into a friend of mine, Nate, in the hallway.
While I've known Nate for far longer than I've lived in Ohio and worked at Miami, he happens to be an alumnus of Miami and remains connected to campus news and events. He immediately asked if I'd heard about what was happening in Oxford, and he told me about the story The Miami Student ran that day titled "Clashes in Thomson Hall."
As an alumnus, Nate's concern was about the news surrounding his alma mater and as a student affairs educator, his concerns (and the bulk of our conversation) swirled around the experiences of students with marginalized identities within Miami's student body and what he deemed to be an insufficient response from campus administrators.
This is my fourth year teaching at Miami. In my time here, I have witnessed numerous missed opportunities to address important topics, including the experiences of underrepresented student populations on this campus. When I finally sat down later Tuesday evening to read the article, I was again left with heightened concerns that we are missing an opportunity for broader campus dialogue and for attention to campus experiences that are marginalizing, alienating, and harmful to people's sense of community, belonging and overall wellbeing.
When I hear about incidents like those recounted in "Clashes in Thomson Hall" or see stories like this printed in The Miami Student, it is like watching slow-rising flood waters that are being ignored. Rather than moving the books and electronics up to higher ground, the campus response has been to simply pull out a mop and lay down some rags hoping those quick fixes will clean up the mess enough for us to continue business as usual. Like with flood waters, this approach only bides time until the tipping point. Miami's signal detection mechanisms should be registering that there is a deeply ingrained issue with campus climate.
While this article centered on the experiences of trans and Black students, past incidents let us know that there is a campus climate issue that negatively impacts the experiences of Miami students whose identities do not fit the dominant student profile. Somehow both Nate (who does not live in Ohio) and Jane (the student cited throughout the article) can actually see the flood waters rising. What will it take for the rest of us to acknowledge the rising waters and their potential for lasting damage?
I believe we all have a part in helping the waters to recede. While there are many approaches we can take to this as a collective campus community, individual efforts are also useful. If you're ready to pick up a mop and help out, join me in asking yourself: When is the last time I paid attention to the experiences of someone who identifies differently than me on Miami's campus? How am I complicit in contributing to an unwelcoming campus climate? What can I do to have a positive impact on campus climate? Whatever your answer was to that last question, do that…today.
Mahauganee Shaw, Assistant Professor
shawmd@miamioh.edu