MU students, faculty discuss ways to move inclusion forward

Prominent sociologist and television commentator Marc Lamont Hill gave the hundreds of people in the Anheuser-Busch Natural Resource Center – create chaos or community.

Hill moderated a panel of several students and faculty, both current and former, for the Department of Black Studies’ “One Year Later” event Friday night. The night featured music and poetry from students, then a speech from Dr. Hill, who encouraged people to keep the fight for inclusion on campus, even if they wouldn’t be the immediate benefactors of it. He likened it to the struggles everyone’s ancestors made to leave a better world for them.

“They didn’t know what you were going to be, they knew that you were going to be,” Hill said. “And that was enough for them.”

The event comes a year after black students protested and organized action to highlight racial incidents on campus, and demand a stronger response from administration. It led to the resignation of then-UM System President Tim Wolfe, and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin stepping away from the position for a different one within the system. Since then, students, including members of the group Concerned Student 1950, have demanded the school continue to work on greater faculty diversity and retention of minority students.

MU hired its first Chief Diversity Officer this year in Dr. Kevin McDonald, and dedicated $921,000 for programs like “a campus climate survey, additional training for campus and system administration, as well as students, and mental health support,” according to the UM System news release in February.

Dr. Stephanie Shonekan, head of the Black Studies department, felt Hill’s message of community over chaos was important for the group to hear. The woman of Nigerian and Trinidadian went to school and taught in the Midwest for most of her professional career. She said last year’s events at MU showed her the reality of how people reacted to discussions about race, and felt the school was making progress on a more inclusive environment.

With last fall’s events coming to a year anniversary, many will remember the protests that filled Carnahan Quadrangle, and the media frenzy attempting to cover it. Shonekan said it was important to hold an event that avoided framing the protest as just a handful of students trying to cause trouble.

“What really happened is that there were some really thoughtful students who said, ‘You know, in 2015, it is time to demand that we have a campus where we are all wanted, and we are all welcome and we all feel comfortable to call it home,'” Shonekan explained to ABC 17 News.

Hill told the audience a diverse faculty was important to fostering comfort for all walks of life on campus. He encouraged everyone, too, to listen to everyone’s stories of “everyday racism” that may occur, and said hearing of those experiences can help others understand the importance of inclusion.

However, faculty from across disciplines continue to meet on creating ways to foster social justice on campus. Shonekan said while they may not know the exact direction yet, events like Friday’s keep them moving.

“Actually, there is space for every voice, for every type of identity that exists in the United States and certainly here at the University of Missouri,” she said.