Graphic by Corrina Reiss.
The Butler Collegian is committed to sharing diverse viewpoints from across the university and to upholding values of free speech. However, the Collegian does not endorse or promote opinions contained within any letter to the editor.
Dear Butler Community,
We, as a collective of faculty members who serve on the Steering Committee for the Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, want to restate our commitment to Butler’s diverse community and to the founding principles of our abolitionist-founded university.
Butler University’s website states “Our work to advance equity and academic excellence is always responsive to revelatory moments in history and founded on cutting-edge research that acknowledges persistent social injustice, along with evidence-based practices that elevate the voices of the marginalized.”
We contend that we are at a “revelatory moment” when our political climate has made our most marginalized communities even more vulnerable through inflammatory and discriminatory discourse (racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-immigrant), promises of exclusionary policy changes, and legislation that targets these groups.
In the wake of the presidential election, Black students and colleagues around the country were targeted to receive messages about “returning to the plantation.” Far-right political provocateur Nick Fuentes’s post on X told women “Your body. My choice. Forever.” It went viral. We find these attacks abhorrent and will not tolerate them on our campus.
False claims about students receiving sex-change operations in school or students who “become trans” to get into elite universities have created misplaced public outrage against our already vulnerable trans community members, who are also facing anti-trans legislation in legislatures around the country.
Butler University’s website states “We further acknowledge that if unquestioned, the cultural norms and values of dominant or privileged identities within an institution decide the question of who does or does not belong.”
We stand by our faculty and staff colleagues, and all our students in support of their rights to bodily autonomy, recognizing that 60% of our student body are women in a climate that promises to continue the attack on their reproductive rights and diminish the value of their lives in high-risk health scenarios.
We stand with our DACA students and all immigrants in our community in a climate that demonizes them and disavows the historic and economic realities of immigrants and their contributions to our society. The circulation of Ku Klux Klan flyers in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis, encouraging the tracking and reporting of immigrants and membership in the KKK, is a reminder that we must stand in solidarity against ideologies of hate in our own state.
Butler University’s website states “Importantly, we understand that social justice is global in scope because, as an immigrant nation, our engagement with the world today not only impacts the lived experiences of our students, staff and faculty, but also the global community.”
We stand by scientists and contend that climate change denial and a culture that devalues and dismisses scientific research findings works against our collective wellbeing and does not serve the common good.
We stand by those who do serve the common good, who dare to speak out against injustice at all levels.
Butler University’s website states “Butler University’s vision of inclusive excellence is based on a commitment to help all members of our campus community develop the capacity to interrupt exclusionary, inequitable practices at the interpersonal, institutional and structural levels in this society and beyond.”
As Butler University professors we stand by this vision of inclusive excellence based on social justice, interconnectedness, cutting-edge research, and critical analysis. We invite others to recommit to these core values.
As servants of the public good we continue to value people over profit, strong in our belief that education, along with the free press and healthcare, are pillars of a democratic society.
– The Steering Committee of the Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program
The Steering Committee invites any student interested in learning more about the academics of diversity to join us in classes this spring.
