Please see below for a summary of the antiracist Solutions we proposed to Groton on June 7, 2020, as well as the board’s initial response and where we currently stand on each point.
For a full timeline of our conversations with the board, please see our Timeline page.
Addressing Systemic Racism at Groton and Beyond:
Solution 1
Original Solution: Groton or its Board of Trustees encourage and match donations to organizations providing frontline support to antiracist efforts, such as The Movement for Black Lives, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Color of Change, and Equal Justice Initiative, and up to $200,000 or greater
Response from the Board: Alumni should establish fundraiser and solicit donations. Board will match up to $250,000.
Current Status: Anonymous members of the board have agreed to donate $50,000 to be distributed proportionally among the 5 organizations alumni donate to most. Details of the alumni-led fund here.
Solution 2
Original Solution: Encourage alumni to leverage their expertise (e.g., legal, legislative, medical, psychological) toward supporting those on the frontline of antiracist efforts
Response from the Board: Alumni should rally each other around leveraging expertise to aid antiracist efforts.
Current Status: As this is now alumni-led, and after protests across the nation have calmed down, we are still encouraging fellow alumni to leverage their expertise to aid in antiracist efforts, but are focusing on Groton’s antiracist efforts specifically. Please complete this Alumni Action Form.
We will use this form to better organize, update other concerned alumni, and to identify individual skill sets that can be leveraged to move these solutions/Groton’s antiracist efforts forward. Please complete the form if you would like to be involved in any way and/or updated on our progress.
Solution 3
Original Solution: Remediate all curricula (e.g., history, English, languages, ethics, ecology, STEM, etc.) and extracurricular activities (e.g., peer counseling, Wellness, theater) to better center the histories and perspectives of peoples of color; these curricula must delve into the history of structural racism and must incorporate an understanding of how oppressive narratives continue to shape the way we all think.
Response from the Board: Under purview of Mr. Maqubela and administration.
Current Status: There is a new Curricular Working Group initiated by teachers and faculty.
No stated commitment and plan to: expand this overhaul to extracurriculars; address racist behavior at psychological services.
Solution 4
Original Solution: Clearly communicate a plan to increase racial diversity and cultural competence among students, faculty, psychological services, office of admissions, leadership, board of trustees, and invited school speakers. Statistics must be made publicly available regarding specific categories of racial self-identification among these groups. Any effort to increase racial diversity must also center the retention of those who are hired, accepted, etc.
Response from the Board: Under purview of Mr. Maqubela and administration.
Current Status: School has shared the racial makeup of faculty. Board says that the school has already identified reasons for low BIPOC faculty retention. Board says that GRAIN is the mechanism by which racial diversity of the student body is being increased.
No stated commitment and plan to: increase racial diversity of faculty, psychological services, and invited school speakers; require annual all-faculty anti-bias training; require all-student anti-bias education; address BIPOC student and faculty dropout/retention issues.
Solution 5
Original Solution: Formally query and teach students about the institution’s historical and contemporary complicity in structural oppression. This includes, but is not limited to racist and gendered wage gaps, hiring practices, land ownership and disciplinary trends.
Response from the Board: Board will reach out to Black alumni about their experiences at Groton and develop solutions beyond those represented by the solutions. Query will include other constituents afterwards.
Current Status: Board has indicated interest in asking Black alumni about their experiences at Groton and creating a Black Alumni Network. Official communications have not been sent out, however the board is reaching out to Black alumni individually. Despite assertions by the Board that a council could be established in less than a month, as of September 13, 2020 (two months later), there has been no communication to all Black alumni inviting them to be part of such a council.
No stated commitment and plan to: formally query institution’s history of structural oppression beyond that which can be identified by alumni (e.g., racism, sexism, etc. as they manifest in: admissions policies, admissions practices, faculty and staff compensation, disciplinary trends going back to 1884. See Slavery and Justice report conducted by Brown University for an example.)
Solution 6
Original Solution: Publicly release a full list of its endowment holdings. Groton’s investment strategy must align with its dedication to “diversity and inclusion.” In the absence of such alignment, Groton must communicate its plans to divest from companies that recapitulate structural racism and environmental injustice (as current students have been advocating for). More broadly, Groton must work with students and alumni to develop and publicize Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria for its investments.
Response from the Board: Board working with students on this.
Current Status: Board has indicated that conversations about the endowment are ongoing with a group of students on the Sustainability Committee. They have agreed to create and publish on Groton’s website Social, Environment, and Governance criteria for endowment holdings— it is unclear when this will occur.