Please find the full letter to Jefferson leadership in the updates section. 

The Murder of George Floyd has ignited profoundly important conversations, education and action in the United States the past few weeks. These are issues that have been attempted to be addressed by black people in this country for hundreds of years. Systemic oppression and racism, disproportional police brutality towards people of color, inequality and inequal access, discrimination, criminalization of black people and a fundamentally ingrained racism of a country founded on slavery with a refusal to not just acknowledge it but reparate it. Jefferson University is complicit in perpetuating these inequities.

The simple intent of this petition is to result in the name change, branding change and leadership restructuring of both people and funds of Jefferson University. The name Thomas Jefferson, of which Jefferson University is founded on, directly supports (intentional or not) -slavery, institutional racism and inequity. Students have both silently and publicly requested a name change pointing to the history of Thomas Jefferson. Their requests have not been responded to and have been dismissed. Jefferson has taken steps to address racism but unfortunately have appeared to be more focused on conversation than action. Conversations have been happening for hundreds of years. The time for conversation is over and the time for sweeping and total action is now.