The Berkeley Beacon
March 17, 2022
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Tara Jenkins (left) and Quionna Allen (right). Courtesy Tara Jenkins and Quionna Allen
Consulting firm to release accessibility, equity report Gabriel Borges Beacon Staff
A consulting firm will release a report on student accessibility and racial equity later this month, bringing renewed attention to a year-long, student-driven effort to re-examine the way Emerson treats its marginalized community members. The report, slated to be released before the conclusion of the academic year, will draw on eight months of research by Beyond Racial Equity, a Maine-based group hired by Emerson’s Presidential Advisory Group. That decision came after Emerson’s Access: Student Disability Union unveiled the “Access Advocacy Project” in April 2021, urging the college to improve accessibility for its disabled community members, including the incorporation of policies in the classroom and the implementation of educational and training programs for community members on disability. “The responsibility of rooting out ableism falls upon every person and institution,” read the statement from Access SDU. “That is one of the reasons why we are calling upon Emerson College to do more
and to do better for its disabled students and community members.” In response, the college hired Beyond Racial Equity in September to perform an institutional review, with the goal of identifying areas for improvement in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) sphere. “[The obstacle to accessibility is] not necessarily one person,” said Quionna Allen, a co-founder of BRE. “We want to look at some of the processes and practices that may be in place, not because someone is doing it intentionally, but just because it’s been around for 100 years, or 50 years.” Beyond Racial Equity set up interviews with faculty, administration, staff, and students to identify the college’s gaps and limitations. “It was clear that people were saying, ‘There are some issues with the faculty and staff, or issues with the process [of the college’s DEI practices] itself,’” said Ruthanne Madsen, Emerson’s vice president for enrollment management who serves as interim supervisor of the Social Justice Center. “If you go back to those demands and some of the things that were requested of the institution, you’ll see that, clearly, there are
some gaps there and some areas of improvement necessary,” she added. Since its inception, Beyond Racial Equity has implemented focus groups, or “Student Visioning Sessions,” for select groups of students such as members of the LGBTQ+ community and students of color. The group also launched HiveWise, a virtual conversation platform designed to gather input from the entirety of the Emerson community. “HiveWise is like a combination of a conversation and a survey,” Allen said. “We develop specific questions in HiveWise based on what we’ve learned about Emerson…We’ve spent the last couple months of this span of time really trying to figure out how to get engagement from students,” Allen continued. While the interactive virtual platform was anonymous, each HiveWise contributor is able to see each other’s responses and respond with advantages and disadvantages to what people shared. Allen said that Beyond Racial Equity’s priority in their work with Emerson is to create an environment where students, faculty, and staff can be themselves in spite of their identities. “I do this work wanting people to have [inclusion] in their environments,” she said. “It’s an area that connects with wanting people to feel that they are in a place where they can be successful, where they belong, where they feel like they can be, [and] where they’re included.” Jenkins said that Emerson’s efforts to seek an external party for structural evaluation of diversity, equity and inclusion is a sign that the college is heading in the right direction. However, Madsen noted that while the college continues to work towards DEI, the process of working towards an equitable campus will take time. “There’s hope that we can be in a community where everybody feels comfortable, everybody feels included,” she said. “That’s the way the system was made and we’re breaking that down slowly.” gabriel_borges@emerson.edu
Students discuss holiday plans in Irish city Cont. from Pg. 1 pretty small, pretty local, very strong, community-based things which I imagine it’s like here as well,” she said. “I am going to the parade this year with some friends I have coming from home…I’m excited because I’ve never really celebrated here before.” Irish Americans made up roughly 22.8 percent of the city’s population in 2014—according to an article by the Boston Globe—because of the colonial immigration of Irish citizens to the colonies. Aware of the large Irish population, Reed is expecting a lot of celebration on Sunday. “I’m expecting to see a lot of people, I’m expecting a lot of commotion, but I’m excited for it,” she said. “I think it’ll be interesting. I love the people-watching aspect of it, so I think that I’ll get a lot of that on Sunday.” Despite being excited to engage in the festivities, Reed said she doesn’t think a cancellation of classes on the day would be justifiable. “People typically don’t do things on that day,” she said. “I know the parade’s a really big thing here and the weekend is a big thing and I don’t know anyone who has plans on doing anything tomorrow.” With a fixation commencing around most Catholic or Christian-based holidays, other Emerson students, while excited, believe
“I know Boston’s pretty Irish, so is New York City, so I’m curious to see which one is better because I haven’t seen the Boston one yet.” -Nikki Emma there should be more recognition of cultural and religious holidays. Sophomore theater and performance major Alex Goldman grew up in a Philadelphia Jewish community. He’d never celebrated St. Patrick’s Day before, but growing up Jewish made him question why some holidays were honored at the expense of others.
“If it’s a holiday that’s important to people, then we probably should get school off…it really annoys me,” Goldman said. “For [holidays] in the Jewish calendar, we didn’t get school off and it really pissed me off.” Ella Maoz, a first-year Creative Writing major from San Francisco, echoed Goldman’s sentiment. Growing up Jewish, Maoz reflected on her middle and high school years, where she would consider herself “lucky” if the academic calendar didn’t fall on Hanukkah. “The fact that I’ve never had to go to school on Christmas, but I’ve always gone to school on Hanukkah,” she said. “This year I had to be here at school which sucks because I want to go home and I can’t. It was so depressing. Somebody who celebrates Christmas has never had to deal with that, that’s what the annoying part is.” Maoz sang in a choir before coming to Emerson. The repertoire contained mostly Catholic songs, but every Jewish holiday was honored. “That was the first experience I’d ever gotten a Jewish holiday off. It was so funny too, because we were singing all Catholic songs but they were giving us every single Jewish holiday off and I feel like that was a respect for your religion or your culture,” Maoz said.
adrianna_pray@emerson.edu
Incident Journal: ECPD responds to campus security bypass
Beacon Archives
Vivi Smilgius Beacon Staff
The Emerson College Police Department provides the Incident Journal to The Beacon every week. Beacon staff edit the Incident Journal for style and clarity but not for content. Monday, Feb. 28 ECPD identified a student allowing non-Emerson guests to access college property via their Emerson ID, which violates the college’s access policy. The student was referred to Community Standards & Student Conduct. Tuesday, March 1 A bypass was reported at Piano Row residence hall, but an ECPD investigation found the person in question to be a registered guest of a Piano Row resident. Tuesday, March 1 An unidentified person entered the dining center, filled up a water bottle and left. When ECPD arrived on the scene the person had left the dining center and could not be located outside. Wednesday, March 2 ECPD assisted Emerson community members who had received a series of unwanted electronic communications. ECPD provided the community members with information on Massachusetts laws regarding electronic communications and possible solutions. Wednesday, March 2 ECPD received a report of an elevator entrapment at 25 Boylston Place. When ECPD and Emerson facilities staff arrived, the elevator was working and no one was inside. Saturday, March 5 An Emerson College staff member was assaulted by a dog at approximately 12:38 a.m. The individual was not injured and the dog owner was identified.
hall. HRE staff referred the involved students to Emerson’s Community Standards and Student Conduct. Saturday, March 5 ECPD secured and destroyed contraband items obtained by Housing and Residential Education staff in the Little Building residence hall. HRE staff referred the involved students to Emerson’s Community Standards and Student Conduct. Sunday, March 6 ECPD responded to a reported disturbance at the W Hotel. ECPD identified involved individuals, whom HRE referred to Community Standards and Student Conduct. Wednesday, March 9 ECPD responded to a reported fire alarm and evacuation at the Little Building. The Boston Fire Department responded, confirmed a lack of fire and deactivated the alarm. Wednesday, March 9 ECPD was informed of and began investigating a previous theft in the Ansin Building. Thursday, March 10 An unidentified non-Emerson community member vandalized the Walker Building but did not bypass security. ECPD is investigating the incident. Thursday, March 10 ECPD assisted a student with an off-campus larceny report. Another agency will investigate the report. Friday, March 11 ECPD responded to a reported fire alarm and evacuation at the Little Building. The Boston Fire Department responded, confirmed a lack of fire and deactivated the alarm.
Saturday, March 5 ECPD secured and destroyed contraband items obtained by Housing and Residential Education staff in Paramount residence
vivi_smilgius@emerson.edu
