amazing event,” she said. “I thought it would be Black people coming together to pray and be in unity, but it was so heartwarming to see faculty and administration and students of all colors come together, sit on the green and listen to what we had to say.” Collin Franco and Hammerer bring unique personal qualifications to the struggle for equity that reflect the diversity that is within Gannon’s community of color. As a native of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Collin Franco had never lived in a place where she was an ethnic minority. “At first, I was scared to interact with people, because even though I consider myself an outgoing person, Caribbeans are different from African-Americans,” she said. “Although we share the same complexion, how we think and act are very different. So, I had to figure out how to make friends, how do I not be weird, and be who I am.” Hammerer attended a Jesuit high school, Cristo Rey, in Baltimore where
almost the entire student body was of color. “Cristo Rey was way more active with social justice than Gannon is,” she said. “Almost every day, we’d do protests, prayer vigils, 10 minutes of silence. It wasn’t the same here.”
Series with a lecture titled “From 1619 Virginia to 16503 Erie: The Constitutional Path to Black Lives Matter,” a chronicle of how racism was embedded in the founding of the United States and how historical events have led That might be “With recent events, to the current about to change, Black Lives Matter students have been just as the attitudes movement. of students have forced to deal with history evolved. “With The series, titled in a different way...This recent events, Racial Justice: Be the students have Change, is presented generation is saying been forced to by the College we’re going to be who deal with history of Humanities, in a different way,” we’re going to be, and I Education and Social Baker said. “This Sciences and is one hope Gannon University generation is saying of the most visible will become more we’re going to be ways the college is who we’re going tackling the issue. comfortable with that.” to be, and I hope -Parris Baker This summer, Lori Gannon University Lindley, Ph.D., will become more the college’s newly appointed dean, comfortable with that.” convened the CHESS Racial Justice While looking forward, Baker also stresses the need to critically examine the past. In August he began the university’s Fall 2020 Speaker
No one who lived through it will be likely to forget the tumultuous election of 2020, but for a dozen Gannon University students, the experience might extend beyond the merely indelible into the realm of the transformative.
task force, a collection of faculty who are committed to racial justice and to examining what the college is doing well and what can be done better.
Ohio, Manion is one of about 350 students nationwide selected as a fellow of the Campus Election Engagement Project, a national nonpartisan project to engage students at colleges and universities in federal, state and local elections. Manion has been conducting voter education events for students, including a voter literacy workshop co-sponsored by Gannon’s Center for Social Concerns that provided information on candidates and issues, and explained how and where to register and cast ballots.
“This year, we've stressed the importance of making a plan to vote,” Manion said, adding that ”voting to an outsider who isn’t politically engaged is already complicated, but more so during a pandemic when people might think not It certainly feels that voting is an easier alternative.” way to Nathan Emily Hall, Gannon's other CEEP fellow, was on the other Manion. end of the get-out-the-vote equation among a group A junior of Gannon students hired by the Erie County Board of political Elections to process ballots. science major from Columbus,
“You can’t overstate her impact,” Erie County Clerk of Elections Doug Smith said of her contribution. “You
(L-R) Nathan Manion, Jeff Bloodworth, Ph.D. and Emily Hall 10
GANNON MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020
