On Wednesday, Feb. 15, Dr. Kenneth Emmanuel Yarbrough began his tenure as Lawrence’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a title that has been rebranded to Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Antiracism and Support Services (IDEAS). Yarbrough succeeded former Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Institutional Research Dr. Eric Mayes, who departed from Lawrence in October.
According to Yarbrough, he is still getting a feel for the campus and seeing which issues need addressing. He defines his future success in terms of students.
“I want all students at Lawrence to have a great experience, regardless of whatever identities you have,” Yarbrough said.
Yarbrough added that as a Black man who has attended and worked at primarily white institutions, a trend that continues with Lawrence, he understands the challenges that Black and brown students face. He hopes to ensure that all students are welcome and valued at Lawrence. He added that Lawrence students can and do express themselves in a variety of ways and that he wants that environment to continue.
Lawrence students who represent a variety of marginalized identities spoke to the Lawrentian about their experiences at Lawrence and the changes they hope to see from the administration in light of Yarbrough’s hiring.
Pan-Asian Organization (PAO) president Isabel Dorn, a sophomore, noted that diversity organizations carry the burden of most cultural event planning, that funding for Asian-centered events such as Lunar New Year is insufficient due to being funded by the Lawrence University Community Council (LUCC) Student Activity Fund instead of the university and that Asians are underrepresented in the staff and faculty, including the DEI office. Specifically, she hopes for more Asian representation in the faculty and staff a network to connect different types of Asian students on campus, which she noted often feel fragmented by nationality, and more support from the university for cultural events. Junior Caleb Yuan, a former member of the Lawrence International (LI) Board, said that he wishes there was more support from International Student Services (ISS), more communication from the administration about issues that international students will face and more of an effort to ensure that international students feel that they belong on campus. Specifically, he hopes that international students have more opportunities to interact and mingle with domestic students during orientation week.
As a board member of PRISM, the queer-advocacy group on campus, Dorn would also like to see more support for queer students. As a Community Advisor (CA) in Ormsby Hall, she recalled a trans CA being dismissed when they brought up a concern about trans students being deadnamed on door decorations, which happened to them last year. This fall, the deadnaming happened again, and Dorn requested to meet with the director of Residential Education and Housing (ResEd) several times before she was able to get a meeting, which resulted in the policy being changed. Dorn was frustrated by how slow ResEd was to respond to this concern.
First-year Billy Greene also spoke on the issue of LGBTQ+ students’ treatment at Lawrence. They recalled a story shared with the Lawrentian in September in which they were placed on an all-male floor, despite requesting gender-neutral housing, and that ResEd framed it as an accommodation that they might not be able to meet instead of a need. Greene also spoke out against trans and nonbinary students being deadnamed by the email system.
“Admin argues that they keep your deadname for legal reasons, which I find absolutely ridiculous,” Greene said. “What laws are in place not allowing transgender and nonbinary folk [to change] their name at an institution?”
Senior Luka Santin also expressed a desire for a system in which students can request deadnames and incorrect pronouns be used with families that are unsupportive to avoid being outed and put in an unsafe situation. They mentioned that a friend of theirs was outed because this system was not in place. This friend, Ezra Marker ‘22, wrote a letter to the editor about this experience and accused former Vice President for Student Life Chris Card of paying them hush money by covering their legal name change. Card told Marker on a phone call that Lawrence was paying for this as an act of compassion, not reparation, which was able to be verified by the Lawrentian.
Yarbrough stated that, while there is a system in place to request a name change, it may be difficult without a legal name change. He added that he doesn’t know why the system doesn’t always work as it should and that he doesn’t know what he needs to do to address it if no one comes to him and tells him, an invitation which he extended to all students. He said that if he sees that there are issues, he will work to address them.
“If I find out about it, I can work to make sure we correct it,” said Yarbrough. “Feel free to contact me personally.”
Many students spoken to feel that Lawrence’s commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is purely performative, including Dorn.
“We are tokenized,” Dorn said. “Lawrence uses us for their diversity outreach to look inclusive, but there are no efforts to support us at an institutional level.”
In response to the argument that Lawrence is performative in its commitment to diversity, Yarbrough stated that, while he cannot answer for his predecessors, he does not consider himself to be performative. He recalled telling President Laurie Carter upon being hired that he is an action person and praised Carter for giving him the opportunity to take action. He added that diversity, equity and inclusion need to be “sewn into” the institution, and that it shouldn’t be one person’s job.
Senior Venn Peters, a member of the Lawrence University Native Americans (LUNA) board, feels that the taking down of the “Indigenize Education” mural at the Wellness Center while keeping the mural on the video for Lawrence’s YouTube page perfectly encapsulates this issue.
“That felt very tokenizing, when you have it up as public-facing when it was taken down with no discussion,” said Peters.
Peters also expressed a desire for better bias reporting, a concern echoed by Black students, who in the past have expressed that the bias reporting system feels more like complaint processing than a serious effort to address bias incidents at Lawrence. Senior Mahina Olores, who serves as LUNA’s President, also feels tokenized by Lawrence, and said that Indigenous issues are not always brought up with care. He pointed out that Lawrence only has one Indigenous professor, Associate Professor of Music Brigetta Miller, a concern also echoed by Black students, as there are only a few tenured Black professors, including Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies Jesús Smith, who will be promoted to Associate Professor in the fall, and Associate Professor of Anthropology Carla Daughtry. Olores also pointed out that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not considered a campus event and LUNA has to pay for it entirely, despite being one of the lowest-funded clubs on campus.
Yarbrough said that he is working on overhauling the bias reporting system, which will take place over the summer of 2023. Specifically, he hopes to make sure students who submit reports are made aware that action is being taken, even if not all of the information is able to be shared, and he wants to work on releasing an annual report detailing bias incidents, similar to the annual Safety and Security Report put out by Lawrence. He agreed with Olores and Dorn that a lack of representation amongst staff and faculty is a problem and added that he wants to make sure that the diverse candidates that get hired are the best ones for the job.
Olores and Peters also expressed concern over the land acknowledgment. Peters doesn’t feel that Indigenous students should have to read an acknowledgment they characterized as surface level, with no action behind it, and feels that students who are settlers should be reading it instead. Olores agreed with this criticism. Appleton Area School District student Isabella Ruston, who attended the LUNA meeting on Tuesday, April 18, echoed these sentiments.
“A lot of land acknowledgments seem shallow and off-putting and a way to avoid being criticized,” Ruston said. “It’s important […] to understand that they’re not just something to get over with quickly but to take in and understand that it’s an important part of an area and the history of a community.”
A Latine student, who requested anonymity, said that, while there are a lot of staff who care about diversity, equity and inclusion, the administration should do more to ensure this burden does not fall on individuals, a sentiment echoed by a Black student who spoke off the record. Students from Alianza have also requested an office for immigrant students, where they can go for resources, advice and scholarships, and also wished for more support for undocumented students.
First-year Gilliana Hope spoke about how her multiple marginalized identities have been affected by Lawrence’s policies. As a Jewish student, she recalled being marked down in class when she missed class for Jewish holidays, despite offering to make up for it and being denied the opportunity. She also noted that the First-Year Studies lecture on Plato’s “Republic” was scheduled on Rosh Hashanah, resulting in many Jewish students feeling like they had to choose between their faith and their education. Hope wants Lawrence to institute a policy requiring accommodations for Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other non-Christian holidays. Hope recalled that the same professor that marked her down for being unable to participate shamed her for being unable to participate in a group activity due to a disability. As someone who lives in a hall with no elevator, Hope feels that many of the residence halls on campus are inaccessible, a point that has been made repeatedly by students and staff in past years. Alex Chand ‘22, former president of the Lawrence University Disability Working Group (LUDWiG), said that Lawrence is decades behind on accessibility in an interview with the Lawrentian last year. Hope also recalled being denied a medical single on the first floor of her hall.
As someone who has experience with disability, Yarbrough said that accessibility is near and dear to him. He noted that accessibility services is now under his jurisdiction with the recent rebranding of his office to the Office of IDEAS. He added that he needs students to come to either himself or Director of Accessibility Services Noemi Delgado so he knows which accessibility needs require attention.
In addition to being Jewish and disabled, Hope is also a survivor of familial domestic abuse and is a low-income first-generation college student. Her legal last name is traumatizing to her and often triggering, and she wishes that Lawrence offered a preferred last name policy in addition to first and middle. She recalls being told it was a Lawrence-specific policy, not a legal policy, and noted that it costs money that she can’t afford to spend to go through the legal system to change it.
In response to Hope’s concerns about Jewish students’ religious needs not being respected, Yarbrough stated that he was unaware that it was a problem at Lawrence, but now that he is aware, he will watch out for it in the future, and he added that it is an industry-wide problem in higher education. In response to her concern about last name changes, he said that the issue would have to be brought up with Information Technology Services (IT) and the Registrar’s Office, and that it may require a legal change, but he is not sure and is open to working on the issue.
Due to time constraints and a scheduling conflict, Yarbrough could not answer all the concerns brought up, but he encouraged students to come to him. He added that he will be hosting pop-up office hours all around campus on various days and times and at various locations where students can meet him, discuss issues or give him ideas. He said that he does not want to be seen as someone who just sits in his office.
“I welcome anybody and everybody,” said Yarbrough. “I don’t want students just to see me when there’s an issue. Just come by and say hello, introduce themselves to me, I want to be able to know as many students as I can […] Anybody that wants to come see me, they can.”
Although students interviewed expressed a variety of concerns and criticisms of Lawrence University, many of them believe the staff dedicated to diversity on campus, including Diversity and Intercultural Center (D&IC) Director Lisette Cruz-Jiménez, Assistant Director of the D&IC Jessica Quintana, Affinity Group Coordinator Helen Boyd Kramer and Yarbrough himself are truly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion that goes beyond words, and they hope the administration as a whole does more to reduce the burden on those staff, as well as students.