Open letter to CU community on the Campus Week of Dialogue on Race

Dear Members of the Cornell Community:

During the week of April 6 to 9, 1998, the President's Initiative on Race will engage colleges and universities across the nation in a Campus Week of Dialogue on Race in order to "help us become one America in the 21st century -- a place where we respect others' differences and, at the same time, embrace the values that unite us." I am pleased to endorse the president's call for a national dialogue on this issue and to invite all members of the Cornell community to become involved.

Cornell was founded as an institution where any person could find instruction in any study, and the university's long-standing commitment to equal opportunity derives from those historical roots. Andrew D. White, the university's first president, was unequivocal in his support for inclusiveness. Writing to an inquirer on Sept. 5, 1874, he stressed that, while the university did not at that moment have any students of color enrolled, "if even one offered himself and passed the examinations, we should receive him even if all our five hundred students were to ask for dismissal on that account."

Today Cornell not only retains its historical commitment to inclusiveness; it acts affirmatively to ensure the diversity of its student body and its faculty and staff. Shortly after coming to Cornell in 1995, I issued a statement stating my commitment to affirmative action and equal opportunity in education and employment at Cornell. In it I stressed that, in keeping with a philosophy that has served the university well for more than 130 years, Cornell will continue to search broadly for candidates for faculty and staff positions and for admission to its student body and will consider not only quantitative measures of achievement but also candidates' contributions to the diversification of the Cornell community, which we view as a positive factor. That remains our policy.

But policies alone cannot adequately address complex, multi-layered and highly nuanced issues such as race. Only the community can do that. Indeed, a fundamental characteristic of a community, if it is to be truly a community rather than a loose federation of autonomous groups, is a willingness to engage in civil discourse on even the most emotionally charged and intellectually complex issues. Avoiding bitter invective and mindless sloganeering, such a community can undertake sustained and reasoned discussion that treats sensitive and complex issues with the care they deserve.

I believe Cornell has made substantial progress toward becoming that kind of community over the past year. To continue our community-building efforts and to help us gain a better understanding of racial issues on campus, we are organizing several forums for discussion and reflection.

Associate Provost Winnie Taylor will lead the university's participation in the Campus Week of Dialogue on Race. Already planned are a minority leadership conference on Monday, April 6, from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall, and a town hall meeting on race relations at Cornell on Thursday, April 9, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Willard Straight Art Gallery. Both events, sponsored by the Office of Minority Educational Affairs, are open to all students, faculty and staff at Cornell. Associate Provost Taylor also will be hosting a meeting with minority faculty members to discuss climate issues on April 9, from 12 to 2 p.m. in the Statler Ballroom. In addition, I have asked the Student Assembly to consider sponsoring a focused discussion of race at an upcoming meeting.

I plan to attend some of these events, and I invite all members of the Cornell community to join in the Campus Week of Dialogue on Race. The insights we can gain from such a dialogue promise to raise the level of campus discourse and to inform individual and community action on one of the most significant issues of our time.

Yours sincerely,

Hunter R. Rawlings III