Recent events of hate and violence against the Black community continue to show how imbedded racism is in our society and how we need to speak up and act against injustices occurring in the Fort Collins community, other areas of the country, and world. In the last month alone, the lives of Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Sean Monterosa, Ahmaud Arbery, David McAtee, and Sean Reed have been unjustly stolen through police brutality and racialized state violence.

Black Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter.

To our Black and African American community members: We hear you, we see you, and we are committed to working toward anti-racism and against anti-Blackness in our everyday lives, our programs, our office, and our spheres of influence. Leadership is about showing up, and we need to do better. Dismantling centuries of racial oppression will take more than sharing a few quotes by past leaders or posting a hashtag on social media. Over the years, many of you have provided feedback that our office and programs have failed to serve you in the ways that they should through our complicity in the enactment of white supremacy and whiteness. We know that we have a responsibility to provide space and equitable resources for you.

As part of the larger CSU system, we affirm these statements by President Joyce McConnell and the Office for the Vice President for Diversity. Additionally, Student Leadership, Involvement and Community Engagement (SLiCE) must continuously demonstrate our commitment to the enactment of these shared values. A few additions to our current office processes as well as office outcomes to more strongly align with this commitment include:

1. Work to dismantle white supremacy ideals in ourselves, in the SLiCE staff, and in the community through regular reflection, personal knowledge and skill-building, joint staff initiatives and meetings and more.
2. Acknowledge that a budget is a moral document. Review spending and financial processes to ensure alignment between our office values and actions.
3. Seek out and be accountable to and open to feedback from our students, our community members, and our service partners through multiple communicative avenues: community needs assessments, a bi-annual review open meeting and programmatic assessment and feedback gathering.
4. Center programming that provides opportunities for influencing policy changes at all levels (e.g. advocacy, activism, promoting voter registration, attending and speaking at local government) as well as short term engagement efforts that highlight and disrupt injustice (e.g. signing petitions, donating money, exercising the right to protest, contacting elected officials).
5. Ensure programmatic content that focuses on anti-racist philosophy, pedagogy and action.

We will continue to evaluate and build upon our commitments above. We understand these are only words on a page until the action is displayed, and we work to build trust.

In solidarity,
SLiCE staff