PLEASE SHARE AND SIGN BY END OF DAY MONDAY, JUNE 8TH!

These past few months have harbored a variety of issues across the world and in our nation. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth an abundance of stressors including issues such as: job loss/furloughs, reduction in hours/pay, housing insecurity, food insecurity, health-risks, etc. According to the Seattle Pacific University website, 95% of undergraduate students receive financial aid, and 43% of the undergraduate student population are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Poverty disproportionately affects Black Americans and communities of color, adding an extra layer of challenges. In the past couple of weeks there has been a surge in protests as many Americans lament and grieve the murders of Black Americans by police officers. As many mourn and seek justice for murders such as George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor (non-Washington state murders) as well as Charleena Lyles, Manuel/Manny Ellis, Shaun Fuhr, and Said Joaquin (Washington state murders), the Black community is being especially traumatized by the systemic, institutional racism that continues to pervade American structures and society. The culmination of these things has brought about an intersection of heightened stress and trauma for the Black community.

The SPU Community (current SPU students, past SPU students/alumni, and others who are invested in the SPU community) is disappointed in the stance that Seattle Pacific University has taken in failing to offer proper accommodations. Instead, the University has opted to highlight options such as: withdrawal from classes, accepting a pass/fail only if it had been previously offered, or accepting a class as an incomplete (which is not a viable option for graduating seniors). These options do not seem to align with the values of an administration and faculty that so highly preaches grace, compassion, and social justice. Students expect faculty members and senior leadership to be leaders, mentors, and role models. BIPOC students, especially Black students, need and deserve more from the institution that benefits so greatly from having our valuable presence and contributions. In a deeply traumatic and unforeseen time, we ask for SPU leadership and faculty to make a change to their most recent stance.

WE DEMAND THAT SENIOR LEADERSHIP DO THE FOLLOWING:

1. Have ALL faculty make all remaining assignments and finals for Black students optional, where they are able to choose between receiving the grade that they currently have as final or choose to do the remaining assignments/finals to improve their grade. Exam and assignment quality would not be an accurate reflection of the student’s knowledge or full academic potential. Although we recognize that students are being encouraged to reach out to their professors, it is incredibly insensitive to put the burden on students to recount their trauma and prove that their needs are legitimate. Besides the dismissal of students’ concerns, this process also disregards the experiences of Black students by reducing this issue to an individual-level issue rather than one that is deeply structural in nature.

2. Have ALL faculty create deadline extensions for non-Black Students of Color as they continue to stand in solidarity with their Black peers. While recognizing that the levels of stress and trauma differ between Black people and non-Black people of color, being a non-white person in America and at SPU comes with its own set of challenges.

3. Ensure that NO student’s final grade is deemed as a failing one as it is cruel to allow students to worry about failing classes in the midst of global and national chaos. Currently the SPU homepage lists a quote that says, “We are fully committed to graduating people of competence and character, becoming people of wisdom, and modeling a grace-filled community.” Where is the grace in the midst of a global pandemic and increased trauma concerning police brutality? 

We know that SPU's senior leadership team would like to believe that all professors at SPU are willing to make the proper accommodations, but that is not always the case. Our demands differ from the current suggestions from senior leadership as these requests ensure that accommodations are made WITHOUT individual bias from certain professors. In order to keep BIPOC, especially Black students from having to sacrifice additional emotional labor to legitimize their experience, we need senior leadership to make an executive and overarching decision for ALL faculty to be held accountable to. In case SPU senior leadership is afraid of sacrificing academic integrity, we would like to mention that other academic institutions, such as Seattle University, have already taken similar steps to the ones we are requesting--proving that a University's administration can make these accommodations possible.

In the past few weeks we have seen statements and emails from President Dan Martin, Vice Provost Cynthia Price, as well as individual professors--each talking about the care that they have for students. What the students need are ACTUAL ACCOMMODATIONS--ones that we have concisely laid out in this petition and in our emails. Seattle Pacific University senior leadership, we the undersigned, need you to believe and listen to BIPOC students when they tell you how they feel best supported, not how you assume they feel best supported.