Student Life & Dean of Students BLM Statement
To Our Gator Student and Campus Community:
We will soon be welcoming students into a new fall semester at SF State. On behalf of the Division of Student Life and Dean of Students Office, we want to acknowledge that this past summer has been one like no other in our nation’s history.
In addition to living through a global pandemic, we saw the strengthening of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, which was co-founded by SF State alumna Alicia Garza. Recent actions in support of BLM came as a result of the horrific deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Douglas McAtee, and many other Black men and women who were senselessly killed at the hands of police.
As the Division of Student Life and Dean of Students Office, we know these are only the latest mistreatments and injustices in our nation’s long history of racial oppression and violence. We condemn law enforcement brutality and add our voices with those who are calling for racial justice and meaningful actions and reforms.
We also fully recognize that systemic racism reveals itself not only in physical violence captured on video. There have been systemic inequities throughout history of denying Black and other communities of color equal access to health care, housing, employment, education, environmental quality, and other resources needed to live full and healthy lives.
Many of these inequities still unfortunately exist today and call upon us all individually and collectively to address them. We join with our SF State community in the racial justice and decolonization work needed to dismantle racism, anti-Blackness, and colonization on our campus, in our city, and in our country.
It is on each of us and will take all of us to do this, Gators.
As we start the fall semester, we encourage YOU to join us in this work by thinking about opportunities to dive into learning, conversations, and most importantly actions to support our Black students and Black communities everywhere.
We are committed as a Division of Student Life and Dean of Students Office to helping support a truly inclusive campus community where every student belongs and the student experience matters. We believe that every student has the capacity to live a purposeful life and can positively impact the world.
That is why we stand in recognition of and in solidarity with our Black community, students, faculty, staff, and campus community that Black Lives Matter. We share in your grief, heartbreak, and anger. We see you and hear you. Should you or any student need any support we are here for and with you.
We all have the responsibility to do and be better by learning, listening, and acting for change for a more racially just and equitable world. We are SF State and, as Gators, we stand for racial and social justice for all.
In solidarity,
Division of Student Life
& Dean of Students