After delivering stories and exhortations in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to a room filled with diversity, student activists laid out the challenges of change-making as people of color on campus, deeming the university's approach laissez-faire and in need of change.
“I’m going to continue living my life unapologetically and reconnecting with the communities that support me to do that—that hasn’t been UW,” said Matthew Lewis, a creative writing major set to graduate from UW-Madison in May.
Three days earlier, Chancellor Rebecca Blank released a statement reaffirming the school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“Becoming a more welcoming and inclusive campus requires long-term engagement in a process of self-evaluation and change. This is not something that happens easily or quickly in some cases,” Blank concluded.
But for students like Lewis and First Wave scholar Gretchen Carvajal, patience is waning.
“The first few years you’re here, you’re pushing and pushing to create these spaces and to create change within Madison,” said Carvajal. “But then you forget about your own mental health, and your own physical health and your own emotional health.”
After five years of activism on campus, the First Wave scholar encouraged younger students of color to practice self-care first.
“You don’t always have to educate people, you don’t have to always be that person, but you continuously should learn more about yourself,” she said.
Although the earlier events of the day teemed with hope, both students said they are doubtful of the university’s promises.
“It’s either make change or don’t make change and if you’re not going to make change, then just tell us,” said Lewis.
Approaching graduation, Lewis said he plans on pressuring university engagement.
“And that’s not just having continuous discussions where we talk about the same things we’ve been talking about since we came to the university,” he said. “It’s no longer just sending out Patrick [Sims] and Lori [Berquam] to continuously pacify students of color and queer students, like ‘hey, we’re thinking about you.’”
While the university has made strides toward diversity, as highlighted in Blank’s statement, past incidents linger in students’ minds.
UW-Madison Junior Breanna Taylor said, “Entrusting higher-ups with decisions as it comes to people of color on campus I feel like hasn’t been handled the way it should be, so in that case I feel like it should be put in the hands of students.”
Lewis agreed the university should not expect trust from students of color, given past incidents.
However, hope remains as these student-activists utilize the power given to them, exhibited by the events on MLK Day.
Afterward, UW-Madison Political Science professor Katherine J. Cramer said, “What’s going on is great and lets the students lead.”
Impressed by the multitudes of student organizations and events on campus, Cramer concluded, “I think that whatever we can do to support students, we’re going in the right direction.”
