To the Administration of DePaul’s University Center for Writing-based Learning,

On May 25th, 2020 Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department brutally lynched George Floyd over an alleged counterfeit 20 dollar bill. Policing systems across the United States have gone too far for too long and we, the tutors of the University Center for Writing-based Learning, will no longer stand by while we work with the Chicago Police Department through DePaul University’s relationship with the Fraternal Order of Police. Currently, the University Center for Writing-based Learning perpetuates this formal relationship through the Writing Fellows program. 

We will strike until our administration answers why they allowed us to partner with the Fraternal Order of Police. 

We will strike until we are guaranteed that the University Center for Writing-based Learning, via the Writing Fellows program, will no longer maintain a relationship with the Fraternal Order of Police. 

DePaul University and the University Center for Writing-based Learning cannot and WILL NOT rely upon the labor of Black bodies while allowing the same oppressive forces to invade our educational spaces. We stand today, united, with Black people across the country and we demand that this be rectified in order to promote anti-racist actions in our workspace and nation. 

Long live George Floyd.