Letter to the Editor


By
 in ,

Memorandum

To: USC faculty, staff and students

From: Black Student Assembly

Subject: Statement of purpose

Date: August 20, 2017

BSA will fight to protect and expand diversity

At USC, we aspire to create a safe environment that accommodates and protects all natural rights, including the right to forge cultural and political alliances. Due to recent events that reflect unaddressed underlying cleavages in our collective existence as a nation, we must continue to reassess and indeed redouble our efforts. We want to better prepare for — and prevent — future outbursts of hate and division by promoting a mindful, inclusive and safe campus.

It has been brought to our attention that there has been a wave of discontent regarding the origins of USC statues and their affiliations. The Black Student Assembly has not claimed to invest into the removal of any statues at the University of Southern California. We are concerned about rhetoric that may inspire acts of hate, bigotry and violence. These events do not occur in isolated areas or time frames, but have the potential to continually affect our Trojan family. Our hearts go out to other campuses, students or individuals that have been affected by hate crimes and the overall atmosphere they foster. We will proceed to search for and implement proper courses of action to prevent such acts from occurring on our campus without being met by appropriate consequences.

As an organization that has a history of fighting for resources, space and dialogue, we will continue to uphold these accomplishments to the best of our ability. Events inspired or motivated by hate, bigotry and violence will not be actions that we tolerate on our campus. If such events take place, we will not only require but demand that there be an active response from our University as well as our peers within the student body.

Our University has grown, and will continue to grow in diversity. With that in mind, we intend to protect those spaces that allow for diversity and inclusion. We recognize that diversity and inclusion are matters regarding which the University is continuously developing. However, we will stand against any unfair or unjust policies or responses that go overlooked or unacknowledged. We will require active dialogue as to how we can continue to foster an atmosphere of mutual respect and promote the values of diversity and inclusion on our campus.

Black Student Assembly