{"id":22012,"date":"2015-11-16T13:21:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T19:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=22012"},"modified":"2015-11-16T13:35:37","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T19:35:37","slug":"statement-on-racism-by-presidents-and-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2015\/11\/16\/statement-on-racism-by-presidents-and-chancellor\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement on Racism by Presidents and Chancellor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear students, faculty and staff,<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent events on campuses across the country remind us of the ugliness of racism and intolerance and its painful impact on the lives of our students, faculty, and staff. Because we are not immune to racism here in Minnesota, today we stand together – as leaders of Minnesota’s state colleges and universities – to condemn racism and intolerance and reaffirm our commitment to our core value: our colleges and universities are places of hope and opportunity where everyone can create a better future for themselves, for their families, and for their communities. And when we say everyone, we really do mean everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge for our nation and for our colleges and universities is how we, as a community, turn our core value into action and how we make absolutely certain that, on our campuses, hope defeats hate so that all Minnesotans fulfill their dreams for a better future.<\/span><\/p>\n

We cannot deny the existence of racism and intolerance or pretend we do not hear racist and hateful language. And we cannot stand indifferent in the face of this historical challenge to eliminate racism and intolerance in our communities. Although we have taken deliberate steps to better understand the subtle and not so subtle ways that racism is practiced and experienced so our campuses can be more diverse and welcoming and so all students can succeed, there is much more work to be done.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to racism and intolerance, the way forward begins with a willingness to engage with each other with empathy and concern in what are sometimes difficult conversations. But, talking is not enough. We must listen – truly listen – to each other in a sincere effort to better understand our different perspectives and experiences. We must learn to build bridges across these differences. And, we absolutely must stand against racism and intolerance and work together with an abiding commitment to deliver solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

We must use the events of the past few weeks to rededicate ourselves to listening better than ever before; acting with a greater sense of urgency than ever before; and working together better than ever before in a spirit of trust and generosity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Steven Rosenstone, Chancellor, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
\nLaura Urban, President, Alexandria Technical and Community College
\nKent Hanson, President, Anoka-Ramsey Community College and Anoka Technical College
\nRichard Hanson, President Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College
\nLarry Lundblad, President, Central Lakes College
\nPat Opatz, Interim President, Century College
\nTim Wynes, President Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College
\nLarry Anderson, President, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
\nMerrill Irving, Jr., President, Hennepin Technical College
\nPatrick Johns, President, Lake Superior College
\nDevinder Malhotra, Interim President, Metropolitan State University
\nAvelino Mills-Novoa, Interim President, Minneapolis Community and Technical College
\nDorothy Duran, President, Minnesota State College – Southeast Technical
\nPeggy Kennedy, President, Minnesota State Community and Technical College
\nRichard Davenport, President, Minnesota State University, Mankato
\nAnne Blackhurst, President, Minnesota State University Moorhead
\nTerry Gaalswyk, President, Minnesota West Community and Technical College
\nJoyce Ester, President, Normandale Community College
\nBill Maki, President, Northeast Higher Education District
\nBarbara McDonald, President, North Hennepin Community College
\nDennis Bona, President, Northland Community and Technical College
\nJoe Mulford, President, Pine Technical and Community College
\nDouglas Allen, President, Ridgewater College
\nAdenuga Atewologun, President, Riverland Community College
\nLeslie McClellon, President, Rochester Community and Technical College
\nRassoul Dastmozd, President, Saint Paul College
\nJoyce Helens, President, St. Cloud Technical and Community College
\nEarl Potter, President, St. Cloud State University
\nAnnette Parker, President, South Central College
\nConnie Gores, President, Southwest Minnesota State University
\nScott Olson, President, Winona State University<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent events on campuses across the country remind us of the ugliness of racism and intolerance and its painful impact on the lives of our students, faculty, and staff. Because we are not immune to racism here in Minnesota, today we stand together \u2013 as leaders of Minnesota\u2019s state colleges and universities \u2013 to condemn racism and intolerance and reaffirm our commitment to our core value: our colleges and universities are places of hope and opportunity where everyone can create a better future for themselves, for their families, and for their communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[953,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mybsu","category-newsletter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22016,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22012\/revisions\/22016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}