All Things Being Equal

MacArthur Foundation President John Palfrey ’90 and Cameron Frary ’20 discuss equity in education

By Cameron Frary ’20

Diversity, equity and inclusion have risen to the forefront of educational thought in recent years. Exeter hired its rst director of equity and inclusion in 2018 and accelerated its e orts in DEI after the events of the summer of 2020. This push for equity helped lead Exeter to institute new curricular programs, to devote more administrative attention to DEI topics, and to announce need-blind admissions this past fall, among other initiatives.

I recently had the pleasure of discussing this movement for equity with John Palfrey ’90, president of the MacArthur Foundation and former principal of our sister school to the south. During his time at Andover, he helped implement need-blind admissions, and he has continued to support equitable policies at the MacArthur Foundation by leveraging “creative people and institutions” and supporting socially responsible investment. He talks about equity in education as making e orts to safeguard equitable educational outcomes and making sure everyone feels a sense of belonging and can participate fully in school life.

Given this conception of equity, I think it’s possible to sort discussions about equity and its promotion into two categories: conversations of policy implementation and conversations about maintaining equity in daily interactions. The former has to do with institutional programs and the latter has to do with the day-to-day experiences of marginalized groups, such as in the classroom. And while conversations about equity in education typically and rightfully often focus on inequities in the public education system, independent boarding schools such as Exeter might be able to support equity in their own important and unique ways.

First, and perhaps most obviously, the Deed of Gift established Exeter as a school to educate “youth from every quarter,” a straightforward and seemingly simple statement for a diverse student body. As Palfrey notes, the charge highlights the power education has “to bring people together across all kinds of di erence in ways that almost nothing else can.” I think that like the U.S. Constitution, the way we interpret those words — and that document as a whole — has evolved over the past 240 years, but the purpose and the message remain much the same. In the 1850s, a commitment to “youth from every quarter” meant building Exeter’s rst dorm to support students who couldn’t pay for room and board in town. In the 1950s, it meant expanding nancial aid outreach by bringing in newspaper boys from the Midwest. In the 1970s, it meant making sure Exeter was working well for promising young women. Today, it means drawing attention to and supporting students of color and students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

The notion that Exeter should be a diverse, national school has its roots in a pro-democracy project. That hope, in 1781, was to help educate the youth of the new nation as a means of strengthening it. This project continues: The kind of intermixing possible at a national school like Exeter, Palfrey says, “could help bridge some of the stark divides that we su er from as a democracy.” However, given the inequity still present in our society, it’s not easy to gure out exactly what means would best further Exeter’s goals. As Palfrey sees it, persisting inequity seems to indicate that “very few of these programs have worked especially well.” This is not to downplay the signi cant progress made in the past few decades; we merely point out that institutional policy-

John Palfrey ’90 Cameron Frary ’20

making is often not as straightforward as one may hope. Further experimentation and exploration are necessary. This is why moves such as instituting need-blind admissions are crucial in ensuring Exeter can make good on its unique position in higher education.

The conversations about managing day-to-day interactions within the Academy prove little easier. While it is straightforward to point out the bene ts of treating people equitably, humans are notoriously ckle beings and myriad factors may impede our behaving equitably. So, what can we do to make sure our daily interactions support an equitable environment, or at least do not perpetuate inequity? How can we make sure the Harkness table works for everybody?

Palfrey thinks that the project starts before anybody walks into a classroom. It entails “approaching the Harkness table with an inclusive mindset and with attention to the students’ various backgrounds and needs.” He says it involves thinking carefully about the questions one poses before class and may require having conversations with students after class. And while Exeter boasts a phenomenal faculty, it can be di cult for even the most skilled instructors to support their students every time they need it and with the right type of support. Addressing errors and learning to ne-tune methods will help ensure support is always there for a struggling student.

However, there is a robust and growing literature at the intersection of philosophy and psychology that argues on normative and pragmatic grounds that we should address such mistakes without calling into question the character of the person who made the error. People are imperfect, and studies show that to denigrate someone for making an honest mistake tends to alienate peers and undermine the good intent on which they were trying to act. Palfrey and I agree that this method of constructive, amicable feedback can be di cult given the sensitivity of the topics involved, but it seems important to maintain the type of open, honest conversation that allows discussion-based learning to thrive in classrooms, dorms, faculty and trustee meetings — indeed, at all levels of the institution.

Exeter has laid signi cant foundations for further progress in the push for equity. The decision this fall to go need-blind, the creation of a DEI Task Force and the adoption of a DEI vision statement address the challenges of accessibility, and address the hard intellectual work done in conversations about institution-level policy implementation. But the hardest work may be yet to come. It is tricky to balance discretion and the openness that gives Exeter’s distinct pedagogy its strength and helps bind the community together. Figuring out what to do when things go awry is likewise a delicate task. Palfrey and I believe that, while it may be challenging for Exeter’s leadership to guide the community through these di cult topics, their directives in making the Academy a more equitable institution have the potential to invigorate and further strengthen Exeter as a place of learning.

Cameron Frary ’20 is currently a student at Bates College. While at Exeter, he penned columns for The Exonian with a focus on the Academy’s history. He is also the 2020 recipient of the Gordon Editorial Award, given annually to an Exeter student who displays through editorial journalism a passionate dedication to personal freedom, particularly freedom of conscience and its expression.

Equity Initiatives

By Stephanie Bramlett, director of equity and inclusion

CHRISTIAN HARRISON

It’s hard for me to believe that I am already wrapping up my fourth year at Exeter. I’m grateful to take this moment to re ect upon some of the ways Exeter has grown to become a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community.

The O ce of Multicultural A airs (OMA), Dean of

Faculty (DOF) and O ce of Equity and Inclusion (OEI) teams have evolved and expanded over the past few years. The additions of an Asian student coordinator and an LGBTQA+ student coordinator in OMA, an assistant director in the OEI and an assistant dean in DOF have increased the bandwidth of our o ces and the opportunities for broad engagement with the community. An exciting slate of programming is now o ered, including a Lunar New Year celebration, Black History Month gala, Dia de Los Muertos, a webinar series and the OMA

Leadership Summit.

We’ve also created ample opportunities for students to learn about diversity, equity and inclusion within the curriculum. The Core Values Project: Conversations about Anti-oppression, Community Values and Justice is a joint O ce of Equity and Inclusion and Dean of

Students project that builds on the antiracist minicourses developed last year. Discussion group facilitators work in pairs to pitch project ideas, and their peers select a discussion group that interests them. Some of this year’s

Core Values Projects include Balikbayan: The Return

Home, Exonians in the Philippines Study Away Proposal;

An Artistic Exploration of Queerness: Showcasing Queer Identity Through Art and Performance; and Windows and Mirrors: Multimedia Representation of Anti-oppression, Community Values and Justice at Exeter. New classes were also added to the Courses of Instruction, including MAT40J: Mathematics of Social Justice, INT535: Asian

American History and Literature and EXI545: The Intersection of Science, Health and Race in America. I am con dent that our students are graduating with the critical-thinking skills they will need to be successful in an increasingly global and interconnected world. The O ce of Institutional Advancement has worked with members of the General Alumni Association Board of Directors to bring a series of a nity-based networking opportunities called Identity + A nity to the alumni community. In late February, a Black Alumni A nity Programming Committee produced a fantastic program, “For Us, By Us: The History of 164 Years of Black Excellence at Exeter,” in which Alexanderia Baker Haidara ’99 presented her historical research. Big thanks to GAA director Una Basak ’90 and the members of the planning committee, including Haidara, Ciatta Baysah ’97, Julian Bobb ’90, Lori Lincoln ’86, Lars Ojukwu ’03, Mike Oneal ’74 and Russell Washington ’89. The Identity + A nity Series continues with programming for Asian American/Paci c Islander, LGBTQA+ and Hispanic/Latinx a nities. I’ll be joining IA “on the road” this year to bring Core Values Project discussions to alums and parents all around the country. You will have the opportunity to experience the same types of conversations we are having here on campus. Looking ahead, we will host the Exeter Diversity Institute, or EDI, this summer, with educators from all over the country coming to campus to discuss how to navigate identity and promote equity in school communities and at the Harkness table. In August, we’ll have an EDI for Academy employees, and we’ll welcome a talented and diverse cohort of new colleagues to PEA. September will kick o the second year of the Equitable Exeter Experience, a pre-orientation program for students About the Artist of color, students with high nancial need, students who are the rst in their families to go to college and students Richard Haynes is an American who are members of the LGBTQA+ community. painter, photographer, One of my favorite things about Exeter is that we are educator, mentor and advocate never comfortable with staying the same. We are always for social justice. Based in New looking for ways to grow, progress and improve. I’m Hampshire, Haynes uses his art proud of this community and I can’t wait to see what the not only to make society aware future brings for us. of the invisible in this world but also to provoke unity.

Student Voices

By Adam Loyd

JOANNE LEMBO

For decades, athletes have utilized their fame to amplify calls for civil rights and social change. Think Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, LeBron James and Naomi Osaka, to name a few. Inspired by the legacies of such all-time greats, a group of Big Red athletes created a space on campus to contribute to Exeter’s e orts in promoting racial equity.

Founded in 2021 by Ifeoma Ajufo ’22, Mohamed Kane ’22, Manan Mendiratta ’22, and Akili Tulloch ’22, Athletes for Racial Justice came together as a melding of a Core Values Project and independent work under the guidance of former physical education instructor and track coach Toyin Augustus. “It was really motivational seeing those athletes in 2020 who did speak up and stopped playing as a form of protest,” says Ajufo, a member of the Exeter girls soccer and track teams. “That geared a lot of our conversations and how we view ourselves. We’re more than just athletes. We have a voice and we have the platform at Exeter to try and speak up against these issues.”

The group of about 30 student-athletes of color meet regularly to discuss current events, brainstorm ways to promote equity and inclusion on campus, and work with other like-minded student groups. “We had a joint meeting with the Girls in Sports club that was open to all Exonians where we talked about intersections between athletes of color and female athletes,” Kane says. “I thought it was really successful.”

The club also has an open line to the Academy’s administration through weekly conversations with Athletics Director Jason Baseden and with the support of Dean of Multicultural A airs Sherry Hernández and Associate Dean of Multicultural A airs Hadley Camilus.

Athletes for Racial Justice members and faculty; club founders Mohamed Kane, Ifeoma Ajufo, Manan Mendiratta and Akili Tulloch.

“There is no substitute for direct dialogue with feedback from the students,” Baseden says. “We want to make sure all of our student-athletes have a great experience regardless of their identities.”

These ongoing conversations help Ajufo and her clubmates feel heard. “When we present our problems to the administration, they’re really willing to listen to us,” Ajufo says.

One shared initiative between the group and the administration is to create more diversity on the rosters of traditionally homogenous teams. “Sports are passions and it’s something that you put a lot of time into, and the lack of representation shouldn’t be what steers you away from playing a sport,” Kane says. “Trying to recruit more diversity in the coaching sta would encourage more people to go into these sports,”Ajufo says.

During the winter term, the group hosted a dodgeball tournament in the William Boyce Thompson Field House that included the O ce of Multicultural A airs faculty, with a surprising result. “OMA beat all of our teams,” Ajufo says shaking her head and smiling.

With the club heads set to graduate in the spring, Kane hopes the group has established a foundation for future student-athletes of color to build on. “Being able to continue those open conversations with the Athletics Department and participate in making those decisions that will impact the athletes of color on campus, that’s one of the biggest legacies that I want to have left behind.”

The Art of Community

Each Tuesday morning during the winter term, a group of students and faculty used pencils, ink, paint and collage to get to know one another on a deeper level. Inspired by prompts generated by the group, each person in the Visions and Voices: A Sketchbook Collaboration class would draw one page of their own work in a shared sketchbook, then start another halfpage of work, which was then added to the following week by another member of the group. “The overlap would enable the artworks to be ‘in conversation’ with each other,” according to the course description. Core Values Project courses like this one were developed to build upon the anti-oppression work begun last year. The hope was “to celebrate each participant’s experiences, cultures and perspectives and explore di erent methods of expression.” E