June 12, 2020
Dear President Percy and the Portland State University Board of Trustees:
We, the undersigned members of the English Department at Portland State, stand in solidarity with the protests against anti-Black racism and violence, and we believe that Black Lives Matter. However, it is not enough to express sympathy in support of racial justice. Solidarity requires action at all levels of the university. This work can neither fall solely on individual faculty who make the conscious decision to engage with racial justice, nor can it be expected to be led and executed solely by the VP of Global Diversity and Inclusion. Called in by the exposure of our country’s racist and anti-Black underpinnings, we acknowledge our complicity and responsibility to do our own anti-racist work, to listen to and learn from our students and colleagues, and to examine and revise the policies and injustices that we perpetuate as agents of an inherently racist system. As part of this anti-racist work and accountability, we are compelled to write this letter urging you to do more than just call an end to systemic structures, and asking you to change those structures over which you have control.
PSU cannot both sympathize with the widespread protests against institutional racism and police brutality and also invest in the armed policing systems that leave our students, staff, and faculty of color vulnerable to the racist violence we have seen for decades in this city, most recently and close to home in the killing of Jason Washington, who was shot and killed by PSU police officers in June 2018. While we appreciate the complexity behind the decision by President Percy to retain armed police officers in the campus safety plan in fall 2019, despite Washington’s death and subsequent, enduring calls from a broad coalition to disarm PSU, we see an opportunity for university leadership to reverse the decisions of the past so that knowledge can truly serve the city.
In writing, we join in solidarity with the following groups in their calls to disarm the PSU police department:
- PSU students and the Portland State University Black Student Union
- Students of the Oregon Student Association
- PSU-AAUP
- PSU Faculty Association representing adjunct professors
- Graduate Employees Union
- Rep. Diego Hernandez (D-East Portland), sponsor of House Bill 3338, to disarm all campus police in the state of Oregon
- Portland African American Leadership Forum: Defund Local Police
- The many departments and organizations on campus writing their own letters, which we’ve seen in draft form.
Dismantling systems of oppression entails ensuring our Black, Indigenous, students of color, and students with disabilities are safe on campus. This means taking a stand against the ongoing over-policing of the entire Portland State community, which disproportionately affects people of color and people with disabilities, and, instead, divest from police armament and reform campus police in recognition of the varied tasks they perform for both the campus and the downtown community. We ask that funds from the un-furloughed police force be diverted to critical student services, supporting them rather than policing them. We ask that PSU stop prioritizing the security of its commercial interests under the guise of public safety by making the entire PSU community, especially communities of color and people with disabilities, vulnerable to police violence and institutional racism.
As we write this, the Superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Guadalupe Guerrero, has just announced that Portland Public Schools is “discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers” and that, instead of investing in police officers, PPS will be investing in social workers, counselors, and culturally specific resources for students. This moment is an opportunity for transformational change. A rare door has opened in which Portland State can follow suit, and shift resources from armed officers to institutions of restorative justice, support for mental and physical health, and training of campus safety officers and other figures in cultural sensitivity, de-escalation, and mediation techniques.
PSU must invest in Black Studies, Indigenous Nations and Native American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies and in the School of Gender, Race, and Nation. We acknowledge budget constraints, but money could be divested from police and added to prioritize the flourishing of these programs and the development of new ones; the absence of an Asian American and Pacific Islander program is egregious.
We implore the university to elevate more staff and faculty of color into positions of university leadership and set a clear priority for the recruitment and retention of faculty of color.
We call for a dedicated effort to secure additional resources and services for students of color, ensuring that their voices are heard. This must include more financial support in the form of targeted scholarships and graduate assistantships benefiting students of color.
The white supremacist history of Oregon and Portland make it especially vital that the city’s flagship university take the lead in dismantling structural racism by addressing the violence and inequities of this legacy of injustice. Accountability begins at home. We must confront our complicity in the systems of inequality and brutality that have led to the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Jason Washington, and the countless other Black Americans murdered by law enforcement. It will take every one of us to work for systemic change, and we at PSU must do our part to build awareness of the narratives and modes of thought that shape our racial thinking, to confront and interrogate our own practices and privileges, and to commit to intersectional, decolonial, and antiracist practice in our teaching, scholarship, and citizenship.
To signal the university’s commitment to joining in this work, we exhort President Stephen Percy and the PSU Board of Trustees to take concrete steps in the direction of justice and in solidarity with the majority of PSU students, staff, and faculty, by disarming PSU and investing in systemic changes to dismantle oppression at our university, and to continue to acknowledge and redress the many legacies of white supremacy in our state and nation.
In solidarity,
Marie Lo, Associate Professor of English
Janice Lee, Assistant Professor of English
Keri Sanburn Behre, Senior Instructor of English
Kathi Inman Berens, Assistant Professor of English
Hildy Miller, Professor of English
Jessie Carver, Adjunct Publishing Instructor
Kate Comer, Assistant Professor of English
Susan Kirtley, Professor of English
Elisabeth Ceppi, Professor of English
Maude Hines, Associate Professor of English
Michele Glazer, Professor of English
Jonathan Walker, Professor of English
John Vignaux Smyth, Professor
Justin Hocking, Senior Instructor
Sarah Read, Assistant Professor of English
Tom Fisher, Professor of English
Paul Collins, Professor of English
Gabriel Urza, Assistant Professor of English
Bishupal Limbu, Associate Professor of English
Joel Bettridge, Professor of English
Chloe Bobar, Academic and Program Coordinator
Josh Epstein, Assistant Professor of English
Maria DePriest, Emeritus Associate Professor of English
John Beer, Associate Professor of English
Dennis Stovall, Assistant Professor Emeritus
Lorraine Mercer, Associate Professor of English, Emerita
Lucas Bernhardt, Writing Center Coordinator
Ari Rosales, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Brendan O’Guinn, English Dept Manager
Lee Ware, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Nada Sewidan, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Dustin Prisley, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Adam McDonald, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Karyn-Lynn Fisette, Adjunct English Instructor
Melissa Meskell, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Sarah DeYoreo, Adjunct English Instructor
Joshua Pollock, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Jarrod Dunham, Senior Adjunct Instructor
Kathleen Levitt, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Caroline Hayes, Adjunct Instructor, Writing Center Consultant
Jacqueline Arante, Senior Instructor Emerita
Greg Jacob, Emeritus, Associate Professor
Douglas Wolk, Adjunct English Instructor
Elizabeth Backer, Adjunct Instructor
Thea Prieto, Adjunct English Instructor
Robyn Crummer-Olson, Publisher, Ooligan Press, Adjunct English Instructor
Dan DeWeese, Director, PSU Writing Center
Neil Hetrick, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Lauren Hobson, Adjunct Instructor
Roxanne James, English department advising liaison
Perrin Kerns, Adjunct English Instructor
Tony Wolk, Professor of English
Consuelo Wise, Adjunct English Instructor
Lezlie Hall, Adjunct, English
Shaun McGillis, M.F.A., 11; M.S.PT.W 19
Anoop Mirpuri, Associate Professor of English
Rowan Reed, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Liza Dadoly, MA ‘20
Nitya Prem Brorson, MFA, student worker at the Disability Resource Center
Anna Noak, Adjunct English Instructor
Alexandria Gonzales, Publicity Manager, Ooligan Press
Mary Sylwester, Adjunct English Instructor
Kassidy Van Velkinburgh-Porter, Graduate Teaching Assistant
Benjamin Kessler. Adjunct Instructor
Alex Dannemiller, Adjunct English Instructor
Abigail Ranger, Adjunct English Instructor
Bill Knight, Associate Professor of English
Elizabeth Brown, Adjunct English Instructor
Susan Reese, Assistant Professor
Kirsten Rian, Adjunct English Instructor
Sean Hennessey, Adjunct Writing Professor
Michael Clark, Professor of English
Jennifer Cie, MFA ‘20
Matthew Robinson, Adjunct Writing Instructor; Writing Center Consultant; MFA ‘15
Laura Lampton Scott, Adjunct Writing Instructor
Kjerstin Johnson, Adjunct Writing Instructor
Alastair Hunt, Associate Professor
Jessie Herrada Nance, Adjunct English Instructor
Rachel Noorda, Director of Publishing and Assistant Professor of English
Laura Stanfill, Adjunct Publishing Instructor
Bailey Potter, MA ‘21
Karina Briski, MFA ‘20
Lynn Otto, Adjunct English Instructor, MFA ’13
Kelley Dodd, Adjunct Publishing Instructor
Diana Abu-Jaber, Professor of English
Kiaya Gray, Department Operations Coordinator
Amy Harper Russell, Adjunct Writing Instructor
Leni Zumas, Associate Professor of English
Katya Amato, Senior Instructor II