Black faculty at Penn State organize anti-racism teach-in as alternative to Bendapudi’s event
A group of Black faculty members plan to host a teach-in Thursday as an alternative event to Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s “virtual conversation” about progress and plans related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
The teach-in, organized by “More Rivers to Cross” co-authors who previously outlined Penn State’s racial justice issues, has been formally titled “Anti-Racism DEIB Teach-In: We Will Not Be Silenced.” Organizers criticized Bendapudi’s event, pointing out it was originally supposed to serve as a town hall with questions from the community before the format was changed earlier this month.
Bendapudi’s event will start at 2 p.m. Thursday and be streamed at liveevents.psu.edu. The teach-in will kick off at 1:30 p.m. at the Flex Theater in the HUB-Robeson Center and will also be streamed live on Zoom.
“It appears that the president and the administration are essentially trying to, once again, hide from community input,” said Gary King, one of the teach-in organizers and a professor of biobehavioral health. “If they were serious, why not give us an opportunity to engage with them? I also find it particularly interesting, as well, that they’re doing this at the end of the semester and that there’s no real follow-up that’s going to take place.”
As part of the teach-in, students and faculty members throughout University Park and the Commonwealth Campuses are encouraged to either attend in-person or via Zoom.
Multiple speakers, representing different groups throughout the university, are expected to address the attendees at Flex Theater about what Penn State should be and what issues remain.
“Even though some may consider this to be an act of protest, it is more along the lines of informing the community and keeping others very much abreast of the university’s positions or non-positions, and the lack of progress, and the lack of participation on the part of faculty and others,” King added.
The teach-in comes at a critical time for the university. Faculty have been clamoring for years for better recruitment and retention of African Americans, and a faculty-based report from 2021 revealed a number of problems with institutional racism at Penn State. In a survey, 8 in 10 Black professors reported experiencing racism at Penn State, and more than 1 in 3 respondents said they at least “sometimes” regretted the decision to join the university.
Those issues were further magnified when the head of African-American Studies resigned last week and, last fall, when Bendapudi canceled the Center for Racial Justice during a budget crunch. Bendapudi defended her decision, saying the university could better address questions of racial justice by “enhancing” support elsewhere.
In a written statement, university spokesperson Lisa Powers explained the reason for a switch from the town hall format and said Bendapudi remains committed to “providing ongoing updates.”
“The format of a live discussion was determined to provide a platform for the special adviser to share with the president and the larger Penn State community findings from her work developing a university-wide DEIB inventory, analysis and recommendations,” Powers wrote. “It would be difficult to expect members of our community to ask questions in a town hall format when they had not yet had the benefit of hearing the findings or initial recommendations, having not heard any initial institutional commitments, nor had time to digest them.
“As President Bendapudi has shared before, she is committed to providing ongoing updates to the community on this important work and we hope that all members of the Penn State community will join this event.”
Bendapudi was initially expected to join special adviser for institutional equity Jennifer Hamer on March 28, but the streaming event was canceled because it conflicted with a faculty senate meeting, which was scheduled more than a year in advance. Penn State announced April 5 the meeting was rescheduled for April 20 and would not be held in a town hall-style format.
“Anti-Racism DEIB Teach-In: We Will Not Be Silenced” is expected to last about 90 minutes Thursday.
This story was originally published April 19, 2023 at 2:32 PM.
