Racial Equity Steering Committee

In June 2020, President Scogin announced the formation of the Racial Equity Steering Committee (RESC) to “solicit, gather, and prioritize ideas from the campus and our community… to improve racial equity on Hope’s campus.” We were encouraged to be bold in our recommendations; the RESC leaned heavily into this charge.

Chair: Vanessa Greene, Director Emerita of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion
(Note: Vanessa Greene left Hope for another position in November 2020)
Co-Chair: Gerald D. Griffin, Interim Provost
Co-Chair: Anne Heath, Howard R. and Margaret E. Sluyter Associate Professor of Art History
Robyn Afrik, Director of Diversity for Ottawa County
Bruce Benedict, Chaplain of Worship and Arts
Elizabeth Council, Director of Digital Communication, Public Affairs and Marketing
Kristen Gray, Off-Campus Study Advisor
Paola Muñoz, Assistant Director of Admissions - Diversity Recruitment, Harvard University Graduate School of Education
Angela Saxton, Organizational Development Coach
Kamara Sudberry, Engagement Officer for Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Alumni Engagement Office
Sonja Trent-Brown, Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion
Jevon Willis, Interim Director, Center for Diversity and Inclusion
David Van Wylen, Principal, Office of Possibilities

On June 5, 2020, on the heels of the murder of George Floyd and cognizant of the recounted stories from students, alumni, faculty, and staff of color of harassment, verbal abuse, racial bias, and hostility within the Hope College community, President Matthew Scogin issued a statement that it is a “Christian imperative to be anti-racist.”

President Scogin convened the RESC and charged it in a campus-wide email on June 22, 2020, with gathering input from the Hope community, studying the campus climate and systematic structures that perpetuate racism and discrimination, and making bold recommendations. Our named objective was to “bring greater awareness to the issues of systemic and structural racism; and establish tangible, actionable and measurable goals toward justice and equality in the Hope community.” This report is submitted in fulfillment of this charge for Hope College to live into its mission of inclusive excellence.

The RESC has remained resolved in providing bold recommendations for achieving racial equity at Hope College. With this resolve, the RESC made space for each member to share experiences, ideas, and reflections. Moreover, the committee members read multiple publications that helped us center our operational definitions of anti-racism, racial equity, and forms of oppression via the lens of critical race theory.

The committee’s meetings were a mixture of large and small groups, discussions and active writing, praising and challenging. Our energy was sustained by an honest desire for Hope to live more fully into its name and promise, and to help Hope become a place where identity is no barrier to experiencing the ultimate joy of belonging and mattering.

In this report, we have organized recommendations by discrete areas of our campus community. Our aim is to dismantle racism and its evil relatives, all of which spawn from hatred, fear, and discrimination, by advocating for equitable systems and policies. To do this we seek to disrupt, shake, unearth, crack, splinter, and dissolve systems, approaches, and policies that daily reinforce and reward bias and hate. We make no attempt to use the master’s tools that have created these systems and approaches; we call for new approaches and new lenses. The RESC members put forth these recommendations as an outpouring of love for all people; we hear the cries of our students, faculty and staff, sounds drowned out by the din of “West Michigan Nice.” We unleash these cries, so that they may now reverberate across campus, in every classroom, sports venue, office, chapel, dormitory, and performance hall. Their tears shall now water our souls, enriching fertile soil for the growth of new hope.

In June 2020, President Scogin announced the formation of the Racial Equity Steering Committee (RESC) to “solicit, gather, and prioritize ideas from the campus and our community … to improve racial equity on Hope’s campus.” We were encouraged to be bold in our recommendations; the RESC leaned heavily into this charge.

This report contains many specific recommendations, loosely modeled after the College’s organizational structure. At the moment in time when we submitted this report (July, 2021), these recommendations were our best attempt to name the areas of the College where we see an opportunity to improve racial equity. However, this is just a snapshot in time; the landscape changes quickly. Therefore, our overarching recommendation for improvement lies in establishing and equipping a permanent Racial Equity Implementation Team led by the staff of an expanded Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), overseen by the Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion. This team will constantly attend not only to the implementation of the recommendations in this report, but also to all other worthy ideas that reveal themselves for Hope College and to best practices for racial equity in higher education.

The RESC affirms that every employee in every department has a role to play in furthering racial equity and inclusion at Hope College. We offer the following as the key priorities and commitments for Hope College:

A permanent Racial Equity Implementation Team: The fundamental need for an RESC Implementation Team to track outcomes of the policy recommendations outlined in this report is grounded in past and present racial injustice and racist actions on our campus that have been deeply hurtful for people of color (POC) throughout the history of Hope College.
Expansion of CDI and Staffing for Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion: Achieving inclusive excellence will require a significant financial commitment by the College in the area of CDI and Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion for the strategic hiring of staff, faculty/staff training, and consulting with faculty and staff.
Leadership Commitment: Each area of the College and its contribution to inclusive excellence is greatly influenced by the commitment, intentions, and practices of the leadership in that area. Without broad effective leadership, progress is unlikely.
Resources for Area-Specific Consultants: The Racial Equity Implementation Team will be best served by having the resources to hire a consultant(s) as needed who can share expertise and insights relevant to a particular area of the College.

Undergirding the recommended structural, policy, and academic changes embedded in this report, and in order for true racial reconciliation and equity to be achieved, the RESC calls Hope College to engage in this work as a core expression of its historic Christian commitment:

Confess our past and current failures and hurtful actions, policies, and unsafe environments levied on students, faculty, and staff of color. (Ephesians 4:25)
Repent and commit to a change in how we think and act. (Romans 12:2)
Build outcome-based equitable and just systems and practices that engender reconciliation and thoughtfully right our past wrongs. (Proverbs 3:27)

As we engage both individually and collectively, we bring our faith and vocation together toward life-giving paths for the campus community. The Scripture passages referenced above each guide us down the pathway of equity and justice:

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:25).

To many, Hope College did not and does not feel diverse, equitable, or inclusive, despite stated intentions and progress in some areas. This is a reality that in particular the White majority power structure needs to confess and address. Our students, staff, and faculty of color, both current and departed, bear the burden and pain of this reality. We continue to scar many of our own. This is unacceptable. As we pursue greater diversity in our faculty and staff, as we anticipate an increased enrollment of underrepresented students from diverse backgrounds, as we continue “to educate students for lives of leadership and service in a global society,” we must each make Hope a place where all, as “members of one body,” can thrive.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—God’s good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2).

It is not enough to say we want and need greater diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Hope College. It cannot be a priority in name only. We have to hear the calling, take bold action, and hold each other accountable. This is the “transformation by renewal” that will bring about God’s “good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act” (Proverbs 3:27).

We must not claim to be powerless in the face of the sin of racism; we individually and corporately have the power to act for good. Action is a choice: acting means investing, the opposite of withholding. To measurably advance our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) aspirations, we need to invest our faith, our money, our determination, our ingenuity, and our time. We need to invest in our people, recruiting and retaining those with DEI expertise while broadly building the racial equity sensitivities that establish a culturally competent campus community. And to whom is this due? Ultimately, it is to our students, both students of color and White students, who need to understand and experience racial justice to realize the fullness of their God-given talents and to succeed in today’s interconnected world.

These may be lofty aspirations, but they are no less than gospel aspirations. The Spirit’s gifts are given to us to transform our community from inequity towards justice and together this is our calling and our commitment. If as a Christian community we have the courage to hold each other accountable, both individually and collectively, to what is outlined in this report and to the new racial equity ideas that emerge throughout implementation, we can by God’s grace be a place of Beloved Community for all.

“And think how that vessel was taken, shattered on the concrete, and all its holy contents, all that had gone into him, sent flowing back to the earth.”
—Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates

If Hope College were a bubble of racial equity within a surrounding sea of racism, the RESC would not be necessary. However, Hope is not such a bubble. We know this both qualitatively and quantitatively. Past and present POC at Hope College — students, staff, and faculty — report lived experiences marked by ignorance, indifference, insensitivity, microaggressions, bias, and overt racist aggression. It matters little to argue whether some, most, or all POC have been so affected. The point is that Hope College has left POC in our midst hurt and scarred from their experiences with us. While our recommendations are forward-looking, we acknowledge our current and past failures at the outset of this report. Alongside the recommended structural, policy, academic, and other such changes embedded in this report, it is imperative for Hope College to confess our current and previous failures, repent and commit to a change in behavior, and build just and equitable systems and practices that engender reconciliation in a manner that thoughtfully rights our past wrongs.

Quantitatively, we know from workplace surveys conducted over the years that POC feel marginalized at Hope. In 2015 and 2017, as part of our Hope for the World 2025 Strategic Plan, Hope conducted the Great Place To Work^® Trust Index Survey. While Hope was considered a great place to work overall, the index for the workplace experience varied across race and ethnicity, indicating that employees from historically underrepresented backgrounds in higher education were less positive than majority employees about their workplace experiences at both the workgroup and organizational levels. In the 2018 campus climate survey, 19% of White faculty/staff respondents and 55% of respondents of color agreed or strongly agreed that faculty/staff of color have less of a voice than White faculty/staff in campus-wide decision making. This is an astonishing increase from 33% of respondents of color in the 2010 survey, starkly indicating that Hope is moving in the wrong direction. In considering the overall atmosphere at Hope College, in the 2018 survey 36% of employees of color felt an atmosphere of belonging compared to 69% of White employees. Revealingly, 53% of respondents of color felt the need to minimize aspects of their racial/ethnic culture in order to “fit in” with the culture at Hope College, compared to 10% of White employees. The data support what many inherently feel – Hope College is not currently a place of thriving racial equity and broad inclusive excellence.

In closing this section of the report, we offer the following spiritual reflections as we prepare for the work ahead. At Hope College, we are formed and sustained by the Good News of Jesus Christ, giving us a foundation for faith, thought and action which is both challenging and life-giving. In Christ, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26; Philippians 4:13)

“So God created humankind in God’s own image” (Genesis 1:27).

Racism is a denial of humans as God’s image-bearers. It is an offense against God, a failure to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is a sin. Viewing racism as sin adds a faith-based imperative for Hope to act expediently in its commitment to racial equity. It frames the daily work of self-reflection, the acknowledgement of harm that has been caused, and the pursuit of restoration through repentance. All image-bearers of God are worthy of affirmation and delight.

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10).

Servant leadership is characterized by devotion to those we lead and an authentic ability to honor our colleagues above ourselves. Each area of the College and its contribution to inclusive excellence is heavily influenced by the commitment, intentions, and practices of the leadership in that area. Our leaders must lead in order for us to make progress towards racial equity. We also need distributed leadership, where every employee in every department understands the role they play in furthering racial equity and inclusion at Hope College. We all have a sphere of influence at Hope College; we can make a collective difference if everyone promotes racial equity within their own arenas. With across campus buy-in and accountability, Hope College can change.

“Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves” (Book of Common Prayer).

To achieve the landscape transformation necessary for racial equity at Hope, we must acknowledge our past history of racism and racial insensitivities, individual and systemic, and confess our failed promises and the intergenerational trauma that we have caused. By “what we have done, and by what we have left undone,” Hope College has not lived fully into our gospel calling to “love our neighbors as ourselves.”

“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” (Luke 8:17).

Having “sinned against God in thought, word, and deed,” we must follow our confession with repentance. Repentance requires a commitment to turn in a different direction. One cannot repent and then continue business as usual. We must center and elevate POC and other underrepresented voices in strategic planning. We must hold our leaders and colleagues accountable for our intentions and our practices. We must be different.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

Reconciliation, actions aimed at restoration and healing, enable a community to move forward from past and current hurt. We must commit to anti-racism, defined here as an outcome-based approach to policies and systems, and create a DEI action plan that addresses racial bias, discrimination, and sources of racial trauma throughout our institution. We need to invest in programs that have been uplifting and that provide meaningful educational experiences for minoritized and marginalized students at Hope. We must implement best practices for diverse hiring/retention and DEI training. We ought to create a reparations/reconciliation program for students whose college experience was cut short by discrimination and racial challenges experienced on campus.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“Spera in Deo” – “Hope in God.” We can have a hopeful future, one of belonging for all who grace our campus, where diversity is celebrated, equity is embodied, and inclusion is intentional to the point of being natural.

Accomplished

“Watch yourselves, that we don't lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward” (2 John 1:8).

Key priorities and commitments for Hope College:

A permanent Racial Equity Implementation Team: The Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (A6.c4), part of Hope College Governance, has been identified as the REIT.
Expansion of CDI and Staffing for Chief Officer for Culture and Inclusion: The CDI team has been expanded to include an Office Manager in addition to the Director, Assistant Director, and Program Coordinator positions.
Leadership Commitment: The Board of Trustees, Cabinet, and Student Congress have engaged in goal-setting, action planning, and professional development in the areas of culture, diversity, and inclusion.
Resources for Area-Specific Consultants: The Racial Equity Implementation Team (Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (A6.c4)) has access to request resources to hire a consultant(s) as needed who can share expertise and insights relevant to a particular area of the College.

In Progress

“but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

“and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you” (1 Thessalonians 3:12).

Partner with Philanthropy and Engagement to raise funds for all aspects of the program.
Fund required on-going DEI training for all E-Board student leadership and provide them with the support, training, and resources to review their constitutions, structures, and events with an anti-racist lens.

Not Yet Started

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

Require external review team selection to include an evaluator who will bring DEI perspective to the department/discipline.
Include on department annual reports data regarding demographic composition of students (gen ed., major and minor), classes offered that elevate the voices and contributions of underrepresented groups, and departmental contributions to fostering inclusive classrooms and departmental environments.

Hope College

Towards a Place of Belonging: Racial Equity and Inclusion Recommendations

Report Highlights