As students, it is vital that we receive an education that helps us to grow in every area. Specifically as artists, it is our duty to be immersed in and aware of the world we’re living in and how to make change. It is impossible for this kind of diverse education to take place with a staff of educators all coming from white backgrounds. It is a disservice and has been proven harmful to the student body to be taught in this kind of bubble. To the Suffolk University Theatre Department: Our current and former BIPOC family have spoken. We have failed them, they demand change, and so do we. White allies, I urge you to read the Call to Action below created and signed by BIPOC students and alumni and consider signing this petition. Silence is complicit, and change is long overdue.

 

In an effort to halt future racial injustices, we are calling on Suffolk University Theatre Department to: 

Make Staffing Changes 

Hire department BIPOC professors, adjuncts, and instructors. Mentors who resemble and understand the BIPOC experience is crucial in the development of young marginalized artists.

Hired BIPOC staff shall be paid competitively and on time. 
BIPOC students should feel encouraged to reach out to BIPOC staff for mentorship and any other inquiries they feel comfortable sharing.
Insufficient funds should not be a predicament for this matter due to the fact that you are able to communicate with the institution and come up with a plan to adhere to this dire need. Should the institution fail to assist, it will only emphasize the importance of the situation at hand for BIPOC students.
- MARILYN PLOTKINS: Required to step down from her current position as Chair of the Theatre Department.

 She needs to understand that her ignorance and lack of initiative to understand her students of the BIPOC community has hurt them and compromised their education. It is her responsibility to come to terms that she is not an adequate mentor/Chair to help the department flourish. 
The Broadway Musical course is a prime example of the pain and ignorance that is being spread through the BIPOC community in the theatre department.
- RICHARD CHAMBERS & WESLEY SAVICK:

As tenured professors, it is your responsibility to construct a more diverse curriculum for the BIPOC community. If you do not feel like you are equipped with the knowledge to teach specific courses or materials, there is precedent in the department of welcoming outside artists with specialized training to teach the course. The current curriculum is composed of the colonizer's perspectives. Their discomfort teaching a different perspective is a detriment to the education of the entire student theatre department community. 
THOSE LISTED ABOVE, AS WELL AS THE FOLLOWING [JAMES KAUFMAN, HEATHER STERN, JAMES BERNHARDT, LAURA SHINK]:
Performative allyship and activism has been seen within their actions by the BIPOC community and their allies. We ask that they reflect on their practices as allies, for the better of the entire theatre department community.

Require Bias Training
Completing this training with the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion will show your genuine support and effort for change.

 Embrace your position as a resource. Create an environment that encourages and empowers BIPOC students to create material specific to their culture without the limitations passively brought down by the staff. 
Create a culture of accountability within the staff and faculty. Your silence speaks volume. This will be measured and acknowledged by the students and in turn help create a healthy working environment for all.

Hire Diverse Guest Artists
 This will ensure equal opportunities for BIPOC artists to come and work with the students in the department. This will also allow the students to make genuine connections where they don’t have to educate those who they might consider mentors about the BIPOC community.

These hired artists shall be allowed artistic autonomy to teach how they see fit. The department's pedagogues shall not be compromised by colonizer’s discomfort.
 

Reevaluate Casting Practices
In the past, casting has not served the growth of the department’s BIPOC students. The department's casting has prioritized white actors. The department has relegated BIPOC students to tokenistic roles of diversity fulfillment or ignored their identity altogether.

 Going forward, conversations between faculty and students about the department's season, especially when race is a topic heavily involved within discussed shows, are essential. By taking these actions, it would strengthen the relationship between existing staff and students. In addition, it would be an opportunity to educate students on this aspect of the industry and give them a chance to advocate for themselves in a tangible way. 
White shall not be the default.

“We need an intervention, and until then, I would strongly discourage any Black theatre student from applying to this institution.” 

-BIPOC students and alumni of SUTD

IN SIGNING THIS PETITION

As a white student and/or alumni of the Suffolk University Theater Department:

I acknowledge...

I BENEFITED AND CONTINUE TO BENEFIT FROM A SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN BUILT FOR ME... By signing this I put aside my other intersections (gender, sexuality, etc) and embrace the fact that my education was built around narratives that perpetuate white supremacy. My comfort was prioritized over the experience of BIPOC students and while my identity may be nuanced and complicated this INSTITUTION AND ITS PRACTICES are inherently racist.

IN ORDER TO CREATE AN ANTI-RACIST CULTURE, I MUST DO THE WORK... It is not the responsibility of BIPOC students and loved ones to help us understand why our actions, thoughts and art are harmful. It is our duty to educate ourselves, to read and engage with diverse texts and question our own bias both within our work and in our daily lives.

BY PARTICIPATING IN THIS STRUCTURE, I HAVE SUPPORTED RACIST ACTIONS... My white privilege is not an intellectual concept, but a fact. It is time to dismantle and rebuild. I will not let my personal feelings and relationships get in the way of this. I will hold the institution accountable for its actions and myself accountable for failing to question them. 

I will...

CONTINUE TO EDUCATE MYSELF... There is no end point. Our own education will be ever growing. We need to be comfortable being wrong, asking questions and stay hungry for the information that helps to create more equitable spaces. 

CONSTANTLY RE-EVALUATE MY ARTISTIC PRACTICES... Many of the ways we have been taught to make art are not inclusive. We cannot hold anyone or our practices on a pedestal. It is our responsibility to constantly interrogate how we are existing in and leading rooms to create truly inclusive, rigorous and anti-racist art.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR EDUCATING AND CALLING OUT MY WHITE PEERS, I WILL NOT LEAVE THIS TO BIPOC STUDENTS... To be a true ally we cannot ask BIPOC individuals to do our emotional labor. We need to be bold and call out these actions and thoughts as we see them, not brush it aside as something that "does not concern us" 

We ask that moving forward the institution joins us in learning from our past in order to build an Anti-racist culture. 

-Ingrid Oslund '14