|
The following is from an email sent to us by DearBarnard:
"Since mid July your fellow classmates at Barnard College, wanted to bring to your attention the lack of support given to First Generation Low-Income (FGLI) and Opportunity Programs (OP) students at Barnard College. We created two petitions written by a group of (OP) students on behalf of all FGLI and OP students on Barnard’s campus. The first petition outlines our concerns and list of demands to the Barnard Administration. Therein, we explain the ways the Barnard Administration has fallen short of our expectations as well as describe our calls for action. The second petition outlines a list of demands specifically to the OP Administration. Therein, we describe ways that OP can better provide for us in the upcoming academic year and in the future. Generally, our concerns around how Barnard College has handled the COVID-19 crisis are centered around a lack of communication and transparency, inadequate financial aid, housing insecurity, and insufficient academic support. We have attached a PDF that contains updates for the work that we have been doing for FGLI and OP students. We ask that you take 5 minutes of your time to read through the PDF we created. We will be having an informal meeting from 7 PM to 10 PM EST on Thursday, August 13th, to listen to any concerns or input students may have. This meeting is open to all Barnard FGLI and OP students. Anyone interested in attending should contact us through our Instagram @dearbarnard or email us at dearbarnard@gmail.com. We will also post regular updates on our Instagram page, @dearbarnard. Here’s our original petitions for your reference:
* For those of you who aren’t aware, OP consists of three programs: the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP), the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP), and Barnard Opportunity Program (BOP). These programs are designed to support the historically underrepresented (African-American, Latinx, Native-American and Alaskan-Natives) and/or the financially disadvantaged. Note that many OP students also fall under the FGLI umbrella." In early July 2020, the BIPOC theatre movement, We See You W.A.T. (standing for We See You White American Theater), published a list of demands found here. We See You W.A.T. was formed in reaction to the immense racism and injustice faced by theater-makers across the country within the theater community. The demands asked white institutions “to examine, change and dismantle their harmful and racist practices.”
NOMADS is committed to anti-racism and we know that in order to truly be anti-racist, we must reflect upon and change our own practices. First and foremost, we are committed to our community; this includes the community of theater makers who have worked with us or seen our shows, the community of experienced theater makers who have not interacted with us before, and the community of people who have never been a part of theater at all. As a first step, we are looking at how we can make our new-play world more accessible through education. For the fall, we are looking to incorporate and prioritize events and workshops that are open to the community and allow for various levels of engagement and experience in addition to our traditional WordPlay Festival and Mainstage Show. |
ArchivesCategories |
RSS Feed