As members of the Arcadia University community, and residents of the surrounding Montgomery County, we ask that Arcadia University make changes to better the lives of our students. It is necessary, now more than ever, to make significant changes to stand with Black Lives Matter and our students of color by making their safety a priority. Arcadia University claims connection to the Cheltenham PD and other outside police forces for “security”. Among other things, the local police department has been allowed on campus and into classrooms for recruitment efforts. We write this petition and letter to ask the Arcadia Administration to stop these types of actions. The police department should not be allowed to freely enter the campus and classrooms. The police department should not be the place we look to for safety and security. It is not a secret that Arcadia University has a much larger amount of white students than is reflected in the city of Philadelphia that we like to claim connection to. It is important that as we create “Task Forces” for racial equity that we take real steps without deflecting into academic and bureaucratic safe spaces that allow us to shift responsibility. As students of Arcadia University, we ask for more significant transparency on the relations and actions of existing social justice task forces and initiatives on campus. We need to know exactly what steps are being made, how we can contribute, or how we can critique. We need to know if things such as therapy for students of color, campus spaces for students of color, and food/housing aid for students of color are being provided or planned. Amongst many things, these few mentioned are actions that many other Universities are making in addition to cutting ties with their local PDs. We know it is possible. 

Additionally, we ask for full financial transparency. As campus is shut down for the second time and tuition is not lowered, many of us demand to know where our tuition is going. There is a page where it seems we should be able to get that information, and yet, every link is broken and has not been updated for years. If we are expected to accept full tuition in stride then Arcadia University must explain where every cent of our tuition goes. No exceptions. We are struggling, we are broken down, we are tired. We are of a generation with the highest student debt ever seen. Arcadia owes us transparency and we demand it.

As members of the Arcadia community we ask for the following:

Ties to be cut with local PD and the mobilizing of our various committees and health resources to bridge gaps in campus safety. We are open to community-based conversation about how this will look.

Budget Reports and full transparency regarding how tuition is spent.
Consistent reports and updates on the work of racial equity task forces.

A planned future expansion in therapy, housing/aid, and other resources for students of color on our predominantly white campus. 

We demand transparency in finances, campus decisions, taskforces, and racial equity. We demand answers.