Statement on Solidarity

Over the past few months, our nation has taken steps to acknowledge and confront the systemic racism embedded in our society. In these times, we are called to remember the values that our Jesuit community stands for: seeking to transform the lives of our community through learning, justice, and faith. The Office of First and Second Year Advising offers a statement of solidarity and a commitment to stand with our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) family--students, staff, faculty, and community at large--to continue to offer support.

In the Office of First and Second Year Advising, we:

Believe Black lives matter;
Stand in solidarity with the students, staff, and faculty of color at Loyola University Chicago;
Reject rhetoric that aims to denigrate, belittle, vilify, and diminish people of color and the racism they experience in this country;
Recognize the systemic racism upon which our culture, our cities, our institutions, and our country have been built, inherent in our systems, laws, and policies;
Believe in the Jesuit social justice call to act in service of others;
Strive to educate ourselves and our students about inequity, implicit bias, and white privilege;
Promise to check ourselves and to “call in” members of the Loyola community whose actions or language foster an environment of white privilege and whose micro- or macroaggressions perpetuate violence on our marginalized populations;
Hold space for and with members of this community in times of state-sanctioned violence;
Commit to dismantling systems of oppression in our practices and those of the university;
Open our minds and hearts to listen and learn, and to help our students do the same.

We commit to further taking clear action steps to ensure accountability for ourselves in accordance with our office values of collaboration, community, excellence, innovation, and a student-centered approach, including:

Instituting required, ongoing professional development for staff related to advising BIPOC students.
Training staff on how best to receive notice of bias incidents on campus and support students through the official reporting process.
Incorporating social justice elements into assignments such as the Chicago neighborhood project in UNIV 101 First-Year Seminar sections taught by FSYA staff.
Understanding and promoting the University's diversity degree distinction.

In the Office of First and Second Year Advising, we:

Believe Black lives matter;
Stand in solidarity with the students, staff, and faculty of color at Loyola University Chicago;
Reject rhetoric that aims to denigrate, belittle, vilify, and diminish people of color and the racism they experience in this country;
Recognize the systemic racism upon which our culture, our cities, our institutions, and our country have been built, inherent in our systems, laws, and policies;
Believe in the Jesuit social justice call to act in service of others;
Strive to educate ourselves and our students about inequity, implicit bias, and white privilege;
Promise to check ourselves and to “call in” members of the Loyola community whose actions or language foster an environment of white privilege and whose micro- or macroaggressions perpetuate violence on our marginalized populations;
Hold space for and with members of this community in times of state-sanctioned violence;
Commit to dismantling systems of oppression in our practices and those of the university;
Open our minds and hearts to listen and learn, and to help our students do the same.

Instituting required, ongoing professional development for staff related to advising BIPOC students.
Training staff on how best to receive notice of bias incidents on campus and support students through the official reporting process.
Incorporating social justice elements into assignments such as the Chicago neighborhood project in UNIV 101 First-Year Seminar sections taught by FSYA staff.
Understanding and promoting the University's diversity degree distinction.