President Raymond's Response to Strike Demands

2/1/2021

President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

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President Wendy Raymond’s
Response to Strike Demands

Published on November 2, 2020 — in Haverford/News — by The BiCollege News

Editor’s note: This letter was emailed to Haverford students, faculty, and sta in response to the student
strike beginning October 29.

The Email
Dear students, faculty, and sta ,
Tonight I sent the attached letter to the student authors of the
HC Strike 2020 Statement & Demands document.
I see and honor the considerable labor and care that Women of
Color House, Black Students Refusing Further Inaction, Black
Student League, and networks of the BIPOC community at
Haverford have invested in racial equity and an anti-racist
future for Haverford College, through this letter, the related
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

strike, and their work every day in supporting BIPOC and FGLI
students. They have done so at a time of unrelenting physical
and emotional violence and anti-Black racism throughout the
nation. I thank them for their work.
I send this with every hope that the demands and now,
responses, will allow us to move forward, together and through
our di erences.
Sincerely,
Wendy

Letter Preface
November 2, 2020
Dear Women of Color House, Black Students Refusing Further
Inaction, Black Student League, and networks of the BIPOC
community who have contributed to the HC Strike 2020
Statement & Demands document:
I write with deep respect and admiration for the passion and
hard work with which Haverford BIPOC students, and
particularly the leadership groups Women of Color House,
Black Students Refusing Further Inaction (BSRFI), and Black
Student League, are pursuing a truly just and equitable society
and systemic change at Haverford. The Senior Sta and I, and
many people at Haverford, share the goal of making Haverford
College a racially equitable institution, through visible and
systemic institutional change, so that all BIPOC students,
faculty, and sta can thrive. The Senior Sta and I see much
overlap between the demands you have forwarded and our view
of what can and will be done, whether immediately and in the
near term, or as part of sustainable, long-term e orts. I will
articulate those ongoing actions and e orts designed to yield
real and tangible results in subsequent communications to the
campus.
Speci c responses to your letter of October 29, 2020,
enumerated below, are also grounded in the College’s purpose
to promote the personal and intellectual growth of students
enrolled at Haverford, and to foster the pursuit of excellence
and a sense of individual and collective responsibility. The
responses below include many acknowledgements of
institutional failures and shortcomings, gaps which, over many
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

years, students themselves have worked diligently and often
unrewarded to ll. I cannot make amends for all the years of
neglect of our BIPOC communities at Haverford, but I can make
a commitment to e ect change.
Together, let us nd ways—through alignment and di erence
—to enact our shared purpose in having Haverford College
leadership, faculty, sta , and students make structural,
systemic, policy, practical and cultural changes so that all
BIPOC students can thrive at Haverford and beyond, in lives of
integrity and consequence. I am immersed in this work as
president, as are the Board of Managers and the Haverford
Corporation.
As you and our community reads our responses, below, I hope
you will see therein a good faith and strong approach to meet
you where you are, with substantive, tangible, immediate
action.
To the extent that further work needs to be one before
implementing any particular aspect of the list, Senior Sta
members and I will collaborate in good faith with student
groups, faculty, and sta — in and across relevant groups,
departments, o ces— to enact and embrace change that
improves the Haverford educational and holistic student
experience for BIPOC students. With the goal of racial equity,
this work will build on common ground, and participants will
work with and through di erence to expand common ground.
This will require focus, dedication, exibility, and
intentionality, which I will lead, as will faculty, sta , student,
Board, and Corporation leaders.
I have invited you to a Zoom meeting with me and Senior Sta
on Wednesday, November 4 at 2 p.m. The invitation came
earlier today from Joan Wankmiller, as a follow-up to my email
from yesterday. I look forward to being in conversation with
you.
Sincerely,
Wendy E. Raymond

Response to the Demands
I. We demand removal of President Raymond as “Chief of
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

I have publicly stated from the start that my role as chief
diversity o cer (CDO) was an interim measure for the rst two
years of my presidency because this was not envisioned or
intended as a long-term approach. As president, I will convene
by December 1 a CDO Advisory Group of students, faculty, and
sta to recommend the best way forward for a CDO structure
for Haverford. This will include budget and organizational
support, and how to ll that role at Haverford, with the goal of
appointing a new CDO e ective no later than July 1, 2021. I
invite students interested in collaborating to design the CDO
Advisory Group to work with me directly on this process by
lling out this form. Current protocols would turn to Academic
Council to recommend faculty appointments, Sta Association
Executive Committee to recommend sta appointments, and
Students’ Council to recommend student appointments, in
addition to any direct appointments that might be made.
II. We demand that you follow in the footsteps of Swarthmore
College and cancel classes on Election Day and provide paid
leave for college employees.
Responding to student initiative and demands, the faculty and
the Sta Association Executive Committee both support the
recommendation that Election Day 2020 be made into a paid
holiday for all sta , with all classes canceled. The Senior Sta
gave their full support. Hourly (non-exempt) sta who will
work on Tuesday, November 3, will be paid “holiday pay,” as
would be typical College practice for any hourly employee
working on a paid holiday.
III. We demand academic leniency for BIPOC and/or FGLI
students who are traumatized by the e ects of COVID and
constant police violence in their communities.
Many BIPOC and FGLI students have been disproportionately
impacted by the traumatic e ects of the COVID-19 global
pandemic, of repeated violence against Black and Brown bodies
continuing and throughout US history, and of the political
instability in our country. It is expected that deans and faculty
consider these impacts while teaching and guiding students. I
acknowledge that while there are formal systems at Haverford
designed to provide close, individualized support for all
students (e.g., O ce of Academic Resources, peer tutoring,
Writing Center, deans, ADS, CAPS, GRASE, Customs People,
UCAs, the Chesick Scholars program, Horizons, etc.), some
BIPOC and FGLI students’ experiences demonstrate that we can
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

and do fall short of what is needed in practice. I will ask our
Task Force on Retention & Persistence (discussed further in
Section XI below) to devote a portion of its research work to
learning more from these student experiences. Dean Joyce
Bylander, Provost Linda Strong-Leek, and I will engage with
faculty and deans on long-term structures as well as immediate
e orts to create failsafe means of support for BIPOC and FGLI
students. Some of this work has already begun within both the
Dean’s O ce and FAPC (Faculty A airs and Planning
Committee), focusing on reorganizations of support structures
and changes to the language and resultant framework of CSSP,
respectively. I know that some faculty are taking extraordinary
measures to ensure that students are able to complete their
work under extenuating circumstances. I applaud this and
encourage all faculty and deans to likewise nd creative
avenues to student success at this time when BIPOC and FGLI
students are experiencing the impacts of these ongoing
traumas.
IV. We demand that the school encourage and protect student
participation in supporting direct action.
The College supports students in living out their values with
integrity. I want Haverford to be a place that encourages and
supports students to act on their values in service of a more just
world, and that includes through direct action.
There are many steps Haverford has taken and will take to
support students’ engagement with surrounding communities,
including West Philadelphia. As a nonpro t, educational
institution, those investments often take the shape of civic
engagement opportunities for students—curricular, cocurricular, or extracurricular—designed intentionally to have
bilateral bene t to community organization partners. For
example, building upon long-standing work by the Center for
Peace and Global Citizenship (CPGC) and others, earlier this fall
the College announced a new Philadelphia Justice and Equity
fellows program for students made possible by a new endowed
fund created by the Board and Corporation of Haverford
College. I am interested to learn about opportunities students
see to use speci c “unused campus resources to directly
support impacted communities in West Philadelphia”; direct
payments by Haverford College to other not-for-pro t
organizations is not consistent with our own status as a notfor-pro t institution with a mission to provide a liberal arts
undergraduate education. While I understand the desire to have
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

Haverford demonstrate its commitment to anti-racism
through charitable contributions to worthwhile causes, this is
not an avenue the College will take.
I a rm students’ right to protest as called by their consciences,
and I understand that students undertake such acts knowing
the risks that have been demonstrated around the country
where white supremacist groups and police have escalated
tensions and promoted—directly and indirectly—violent
outcomes. As Dean Bylander and colleagues previously
communicated, the College has been providing—and will
continue to provide—necessary health-supporting measures
for students who engage in protest, including COVID-19 testing
and campus isolation spaces. There will be no disciplinary
consequences from the College for students engaging in
protests provided they meet the College’s health and safety
guidelines, including the Travel Policy.
V. We demand the institution recognize and resolve that the
increased surveillance and policing amongst students in
regards to COVID-19 primarily a ects students of color, who
have always been more prominently surveilled by the campus
community.
Disproportionate surveillance of BIPOC is a systemic and
national injustice; I recognize that Haverford operates within
this context. The College is committed to ensuring that its own
processes are free from, and have zero tolerance for, bias and
will investigate and follow up on any speci c concerns and/or
issues raised about surveillance or policing of the campus
BIPOC community. Students may submit concerns or
suggestions via their dean or, if they wish to remain
anonymous, through the web-based tip line. The College does
not currently have data that point to bias against BIPOC
students within campus e orts to monitor and respond to
health and safety concerns related to COVID-19. This does not
mean that we are free from such bias. I have asked my
colleagues in the Operations Planning Group to evaluate and
revise our monitoring and response systems around student
health and safety so we will be better able to understand the
extent and nature of any patterns of bias and then address
them.
VI. We demand Haverford honor and credit the work of Black
women driving institutional change instead of taking credit
for their continued labor and erasing their contributions.
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

I wish always to give credit and am mindful of previous errors
of omission, of coopting, and/or being perceived to co-opt
others’ work. In this, I recognize the extraordinary e orts and
commitment to antiracism on the part of Black women and
Trans people across the Haverford community and pledge to be
attentive and appropriately generous in acknowledging the
work of others in all of our collaborations, and I will expect the
same of my faculty and sta colleagues. The Libraries and
Archives are actively working with the Multicultural Alumni
Action Group (MAAG), Alumni A airs, the community, and
speci cally with BIPOC student-colleagues to more fully
illuminate the work of these individuals and, further, to correct
and address absences where the records of that work are less
evident.
VII. We demand that the school creates a framework to deal
with problematic professors and generates spaces of
accountability– the honor code is not enough and it never has
been.
The relationship with faculty plays a critical role in student
success. In order to ensure that Haverford is doing all it can to
foster a climate of thriving, the provost is now reviewing
faculty personnel and grievance systems, including the
processes situated in the Dean’s O ce and the O ce of Human
Resources. The provost will include Associate Provost Rob
Manning in this work, as well as the Faculty Liaison for
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Ben Le. These processes must
be consistent, robust, and widely—and clearly—
communicated. Given the requirements for faculty input via
campus shared governance, the provost will provide an initial
progress report no later than March 1, 2021.
The provost will work with Academic Council, Faculty A airs
and Planning Committee (FAPC), and others to provide support
for both tenure-track and visiting BIPOC faculty. Haverford
College has a robust program of faculty support that includes a
pre-sabbatical leave for eligible tenure-track faculty, as well as
generous resources for research. However, it is also true that
many BIPOC faculty take on disproportionate “shadow service”
in mentoring and advising BIPOC and FGLI students. Academic
Council began conversations this fall about how such “shadow
work” might be considered during the faculty review processes.
The provost also commits to individual meetings with all
tenure-track and visiting faculty to provide early opportunities
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

for mentoring that may lead to the goal of greater retention of
BIPOC faculty here at Haverford.
VIII. We demand that the school continue to pay the students
who are participating in the strike.
Student workers who elect not to work will be eligible to receive
up to 20 hours of compensation for scheduled but lost work;
guidance to managers will be forthcoming from the O ce of
Human Resources about how to handle this payment and enter
the compensation appropriately. Supervisors will accommodate
students who choose not to work, with no questions asked.
Further, the College will continue to pay additional
compensation to all hourly employees who work overtime
during the strike or otherwise, consistent with state and federal
law.
IX. We demand that no student, sta or faculty partaking in
the strike face nancial, academic or professional retribution,
or penalties of any kind.
In consideration of students engaging in the strike toward
e ecting productive change at Haverford, the College has taken
steps to provide extra exibility. This includes accommodating
students who miss work shifts and compensating them for up
to 20 hours (per the above). Professors have discretion about
whether and how to accommodate striking students in their
individual courses, understanding that faculty are responsible
for delivering the education they and the College are committed
to providing you this semester.
In acts of civil disobedience, individuals must and do make
decisions of conscience and consequence. A community
premised on trust, concern, and respect, is not premised on a
framework of penalties or retribution. In the event that
individuals fall short of our health, safety, educational, or other
rules and guidelines, the College pursues remedies that seek to
address the concern within a humane and restorative
framework.
To underscore the spirit in which Haverford operates in times
of disruption, I note that during the COVID-19 crisis, the
College went to great lengths to support sta members,
including continuous employment (i.e. no furloughs) even
when speci c jobs were signi cantly disrupted or impossible to
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

ful ll. The College paid student workers who were unable to
work through the Spring of 2020 because of forces beyond their
control.
X. We demand that the Bi-Co stop its violence against disabled
students.
Access & Disability Services (ADS), Facilities, Counseling and
Psychological Services (CAPS), and other departments will be
key partners in making tangible change in support of disabled
students. ADS and Facilities conducted an accessibility
de ciency survey of our campus and have been making annual
investments in accessibility based on the survey’s
recommendations. There is more work to be done. CAPS is
constantly striving to be available and accessible to any who
need treatment. For instance, as a result of changes made
between last year and this year, CAPS currently does not have a
wait list for students while having more sessions than we had
at this time last year. There, too, more work remains to be done.
I will work with campus partners to improve support for
disabled students including:
Continuing the process above, Facilities and ADS will
coordinate to make additional priority improvements to the
physical accessibility of campus next year. The director of
ADS welcomes student suggestions for speci c
improvements.
CAPS will foreground the priority of re ecting our diverse
student body in its current search for a senior CAPS sta
member and in its ongoing selection of trainees.
Pennsylvania licensing laws require CAPS sta to be
‘mandated reporters’ for issues involving child and elder
abuse. CAPS also must report information if there is clear
and present danger to self and/or others. Within these
strictures, CAPS will only report when absolutely necessary
and, whenever possible, with students’ consent.
ADS considers each student’s history, experience, and
accommodation request. While students are a vital source
of information, some accommodations legally require
documentation. If providing documentation is a nancial
hardship, ADS works with the student to help fund testing,
if testing is necessary, and/or assist in nding a health care
professional for an appointment/evaluation.
Faculty are required to implement the accommodations
identi ed in a student’s accommodation letter. If a student
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

opts not to implement accommodations in a course, the
student should notify the director of ADS immediately. If a
student prefers not to speak directly with a professor on
their own, ADS can assist in notifying professors of a
student’s accommodations and/or meet with students and
their professor to discuss accommodations. The provost, in
her review of faculty personnel systems above, will ensure
that there is accountability for faculty who provide
inadequate attention to this responsibility.
CAPS will review the use of Campus Safety during mental
health emergencies and explore alternatives to ensure that
students are able to access the on-call counseling services
they need, in a safe way.
All of our campus partners are open to dialogue and committed
to accountability and partnership. I have invited them to
produce expanded documents about the concerns you have
raised that they will make available to the campus community
for fuller engagement of these important issues.
XI. We demand more robust aid and support for queer and
trans students of color.
I share your concern about the experiences of LGBTQ+ students
and BIPOC LGBTQ+ students. Last year, building o our
learnings in the 2018-19 Clearness Committee’s report, I
convened a Task Force on Retention and Persistence with
leadership from Associate Director of Institutional Research
Kevin Iglesias and Professors Matt McKeever and Ben Le. This
group is undertaking a detailed study of student experiences
especially among student cohorts identi ed by the Clearness
Report, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ students, in order to
identify causes of student attrition and ways Haverford can
better support thriving.
Consistent with Section X above, CAPS will prioritize the
identi cation of candidates with demonstrated successes in
support of LGBTQ+ clients in its current and future hiring
processes in order to better re ect the needs of the student
body.
In direct response to this request, we will immediately
provide new, ongoing nancial support to enable BIPOC
and LGBTQ+ students to access therapeutic practices o
campus with diverse professionals.
Students must be able to identify and work with clinicians
of their choosing and have that priority be supported by
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

CAPS through its intake procedures. CAPS will explore the
possibility of reserving speci c hours for LGBTQ+
identi ed students and other strategies to ensure that CAPS
meets LGBTQ+ students’ needs.
The College will support students working through trauma.
In cases when an accommodation is legally documented, it
will fall under the framework discussed in Section X above.
In other cases, the work I described in Section III above
about mechanisms to support students’ academic work
under extenuating circumstances will apply.
This summer, our new Bi-Co Title IX Coordinator
developed and implemented a new comprehensive Sexual
Misconduct Policy that applies to students, faculty, and
sta . This policy and the accompanying procedures provide
multiple options for addressing and resolving complaints,
including an alternative resolution option. The College is
committed to equitable treatment for any community
member who has experienced sexual misconduct or
gender-based discrimination. Our Bi-Co Title IX
Coordinator is available to meet with students to further
understand concerns about policing.
XII. We demand that the college terminate all relationships
with the Philadelphia Police Department (PPD), and actively
work toward police and prison abolition. The (college) will
also divest, both in and of themselves, from any partnerships
that may exist, with companies that rely on prison labor.
The College does not maintain a relationship with the
Philadelphia Police Department.
The endowment has no direct investment in prison companies
and does not seek to invest in such companies. Our Investment
O ce also performed a look-through analysis to the
underlying holdings of investment funds in the endowment to
determine any indirect exposure to prison companies. The
endowment has no indirect exposure to prison companies
based in the U.S. Underlying holdings of an international equity
index fund, which is meant to provide broad exposure to all
international equities and holds approximately 4,000
companies, results in e ectively zero, or about 0.001%,
exposure to internationally-based prison companies in the
endowment. This exposure is due to the nature of index funds’
investment in all publicly-traded companies. The endowment
maintains no actively-managed funds that seek to invest in
such companies, as the College maintains open dialogues with
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President Wendy Raymond’s Response to Strike Demands – Haverford and Bryn Mawr Bi-College News

investment managers regarding our condemnation of such
investments. With respect to prison labor, the College does not
invest directly in any companies at all and are unaware of any
indirect exposure through investment funds; the Investment
O

ce will continue to investigate how we can learn more.

Our Investment O

ce has been engaged with students

interested in these issues and has already been in the process of
completing a DEI and ESG survey of all investment managers in
the endowment. Findings from this survey will be shared with
the community through our annual endowment letter, which
will be released by the end of November 2020 and discussed by
the Investment Committee of the Board of Managers by
December 15, to determine the impact of our investment
policies with regard to these areas and to determine additional
steps for further progress.
Image credit: Haverford College, “President Raymond on Becoming
Anti-Racist”

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