Dear President Gutmann,

We all by now are aware of how the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade and countless other Black Americans at the hands of the police have illuminated a history of underlying racial inequities in the United States. As a recent Black alumna of the University of Pennsylvania, I think we can acknowledge that displays of racism unfortunately reach not only to the streets of cities around the country like Philadelphia, but to our own physical campus as well. In one of the many efforts during this time to support the Black community and to fulfill Penn’s commitment to creating a truly welcoming and inclusive University, I write this specific letter to echo the request that countless other students, student organizations and alumni have stated: the establishment of an above-ground building on Locust Walk dedicated to under-represented students of color at Penn.

In September 1991, the University President's Task Force on Diversifying Locust Walk made up of various administrators and student leaders, including the Vice Provost for University Life at the time, issued a report on the state of Locust Walk. In this report, it was stated that “If Penn intended to move beyond merely attracting a diversity of students, faculty and staff towards creating and maintaining a genuinely heterogeneous and pluralistic community of equal access and opportunity, it could no longer ignore the symbol and the reality of exclusivity and, too often, incivility, that stood at its physical heart… If Locust Walk's significance lay in its reflection of the University as a whole, then the University's commitment to the diversity of its population needed to be matched by its commitment to create, in its central core, an atmosphere conducive to diversity.” This statement still rings true today.

In Fall 2000, the University of Pennsylvania established Makuu: The Black Cultural Center to serve as a center for academic, cultural, and social support to students of the African Diaspora. The Arts, Research, and Culture House (ARCH) was established to serve as a physical building for Makuu, La Casa Latina, PAACH (Pan-Asian American Community House) along with CURF (Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships). While this investment is greatly appreciated, especially in comparison to the lack of any such establishment at the time, the current housing of the aforementioned cultural centers today is inadequate.

With this said, we, the signers of this petition respectfully ask that you:

(1) Commit to establishing an above-ground building on Locust Walk dedicated to Black students.
(2) Create a Penn fund specifically dedicated to the funding of such building.

Thank you so much,

Maria Curry

*This will be sent to President Gutmann.*