At that time, I had recently been announced as the new President of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Prior to DePauw, I was at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and I arrived there, sadly and equally tragically, not long after the death of Michael Brown in 2014, also at the hands of police officers. In 2014 and again in 2020, neighborhoods across the country erupted with frustration and anger about the death of another unarmed black man at the hands of the police. The murder of George Floyd was captured on a bystander's cell phone. The cell phone video was picked up by local, national, and world media, playing on loops over and over on network TV and on social media. It was kept in the forefront of the public eye through innumerable interconnected networks, and it lit the proverbial (and in some neighborhoods the literal) flame of protests. In fact, there are estimates that between 15 and 20 million people in this country participated in protests in 2020 (The New York Times 2020). This time, unlike the title of the Gil Scott Heron song from my formative years, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," the revolution is live (streamed).

I wondered, as a new, first-time President, how I would lead my university (a small liberal arts college) through COVID and, as the first African American president of my university located in rural Indiana, how I could manage the racial and other diversity issues already simmering on my campus and at colleges around the country in the midst of what some were calling a racial reckoning (NPR 2020). As I reflect now upon that time period, I will never forget Dr. Suzanne Rivera, the President of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota (and also a new college president in 2020), as she described driving across the country to assume her new role and arriving in St. Paul to a city erupting with collective anger and grief. (St. Paul being an epicenter of the George Floyd protests). I remember other colleagues who were also the first presidents of color, like Sue and me, wondering whether there would be additional and unrealistic expectations from their campus community to be racial-healers-in-chief. I heard white presidential colleagues express concern, in their efforts to guide their institutions through this racial maelstrom, whether their commitment to racial justice would be believed to be authentic. And I was attuned to the not-so-veiled whispers from my alumni, as I reminded our community of our core values of diversity and inclusion (values the DePauw University community articulated during previous presidential administrations), that the first black president was trying to make my university "too woke." During those very challenging weeks and months in 2020, the top priority for presidents across the country was to keep our campuses open and not go under financially due to COVID. And yet, in the midst of the many questions and concerns being raised about racial equity in America that George Floyd's murder magnified, we could not escape what so many of us believed was a clear and present obligation to demonstrate that our values as liberal arts institutions called us to be actively engaged in helping to build a more inclusive, equitable, and just campus community and country. Maybe, just maybe, some of us felt we had a window to engage in fundamental change around those issues of race in this country that seemed to be intractable. And, indeed, corporations and universities were taking up the calls with the Chief Diversity Officer being the hottest and most difficult job to fill in the country during that time (Harvard Business Review 2022).

 I was particularly interested in exploring how we might, working together, harness our collective voices as liberal arts colleges to "move the needle" on racial equity and related diversity, equity, and inclusion issues.   

If there was anything good about the 2020 Zoom world, it was that it enabled smaller groups of presidents to connect more personally across miles and time zones in ways that I am not sure were occurring prior to the pandemic. I wondered whether the model of regularly coming together to share COVID information, challenges, and response strategies might also be a framework for deepening our respective institutions' diversity, equity, and inclusion work. I remembered reading an announcement from the University of Southern California (USC) Race and Equity Center about an alliance of California Community Colleges working together to engage in shared professional development and data collection and wondered whether we, as liberal arts colleges, might form a similar alliance. I was particularly interested in exploring how we might, working together, harness our collective voices as liberal arts colleges to "move the needle" on racial equity and related diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. For example, sharing best practices for enhancing access to our colleges, as well as student success and faculty recruitment and retention for those populations historically underrepresented in higher education; collaborating across our institutions on ideas for improving campus climate; providing support and counsel to one another in response to campus and community demands for presidential communication; commitments and leadership with respect to world, local, and campus issues of injustice; and even perhaps speaking up together on critical issues, such as affirmative action and others. I tested the waters with a few presidents who were all enthusiastic about the idea of coming together more formally, and with the support of the USC Race and Equity Center, we launched the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance (LACRELA). In addition to the five founding members (DePauw University, Macalester College, Occidental College, Pomona College, and Skidmore College), other liberal arts colleges and universities signed on to be a part of LACRELA, bringing the total membership to more than 65 institutions.

Becoming a member of LACRELA, which includes a membership fee, conferred the following benefits and commitments:

• Professional development opportunities on a range of topics for a select number of participants (e.g., presidents, provosts, student affairs professionals, faculty from a variety of disciplines, chief diversity officers, cultural center staff, and many others) from each campus (which has evolved to now include no limits on the number of participants from each campus in the various professional development opportunities). Participants consistently rate the quality and usefulness of the LACRELA professional development options very highly. Participants have also shared that they appreciate the communities and connections that have been built across institutions as a result of the opportunity to learn together.
• Participation in annual campus climate surveys of faculty, staff, and students (on a three-year staggered schedule). Our goal has been for LACRELA institutions to be able to compare their campus climate survey data with that of other LACRELA institutions. However, the participation percentages across institutions have been sufficiently uneven and, while many individual campuses have found their respective survey data helpful (my campus certainly has), the comparative data has not been robust enough to be as useful as we originally imagined. Each campus is still working to increase campus participation in the climate surveys.
• Resource Portal: The Resource Portal contains a wealth of information, including diversity, equity, and inclusion related articles, studies, and other resources and is also a vehicle for establishing communities of practice—for example, the Chief Diversity Officers or faculty in particular disciplines.
• Presidential Convenings: Quarterly and/or when needed, we create space for LACRELA presidents to discuss critical issues, lean on one another for support, discuss strategies for engaging in more collaborative work, explore opportunities to use our voices in ways that we think can have impact, and learn from one another and from the various speakers whom we have invited to join us on occasion. Presidents, as we all know, belong to many consortia and have many demands on their time. Most of our consortia cover a range of areas and, in founding LACRELA, we wanted a dedicated environment within which to discuss DEI-related topics specifically. This primarily virtual space for presidents, as with COVID, has helped us provide strength, idea exchange, or emotional support to one another in navigating the ever-changing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) landscape.

We founded LACRELA in 2020 during a time when it felt as if there was a sense in our country that we needed to acknowledge that not all members of our communities have had full access to educational and economic opportunities, nor been treated equitably. Many institutions (higher education, corporations, law enforcement, etc.) determined the need to take more deliberative and affirmative steps for our institutions to make good on the promises of our democracy. Yet, we have witnessed a backlash against DEI (The Chronicle of Higher Education 2024), with some believing the focus of DEI is to advance minority interests at the expense of the majority and some also believing that anti-Semitism on college campuses is a direct result of what those same people believe is a misplaced focus on DEI (Vox 2023). Fast forward to 2023-24: legislatures have banned higher education funding for DEI staff, offices, and programming in several states, including Texas, Florida, Utah, and Iowa, shuttering DEI offices, defunding related programs, and laying off DEI staff—even though on many campuses, "institutional equity" staff and programs may also encompass support for first-generation students; students with disabilities, women, and veterans; Title IX and EEOC compliance; and student success initiatives.

As private colleges and universities, members of LACRELA are not directly affected by state legislation banning DEI. However, private institutions are not immune to questions raised by government officials, alumni, parents, students, Boards of Trustees, and others as to our DEI related programs and policies. Many of us also receive state support in the form of state scholarships for students attending our institutions. So, even though we are private liberal arts colleges, we, too, are subject to the changing landscape and the politics surrounding DEI. Our founding members still believe in the promise of LACRELA, and our LACRELA member institution faculty and staff continue to share that they appreciate LACRELA's professional development offerings and the communities of practices across our institutions that LACRELA has helped to foster. It is also important to note there are other existing and emerging new higher education collaborations, in which several LACRELA presidents are also involved, addressing important and connected issues, including the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness sponsored by the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Academic Leaders Task Force on Free Expression, InterFaith America, and the Council of Independent Colleges' Belong Community. The issues are too big and too complex for presidents not to be involved in as many groups as we feel can help us lead forward.

 The issues are too big and too complex for presidents not to be involved in as many groups as we feel can help us lead forward.   

Given the DEI backlash, as LACRELA members, we need to find more effective ways to illustrate the ways in which our institutions invite and call together a diverse residential student body, supported by diverse faculty and staff, to wrestle with what I would describe as the inevitable messiness of trying to form community across a range of wonderful differences. In a country that has sadly become re-segregated by race, culture, income, and ideology, a small residential liberal arts college, because of the type of education we offer—our focus on critical thinking and learning, built on the foundation of the liberal arts disciplines and supporting the free range and expression of ideas—and the educational setting in which we provide it (residential communities, small classes, and close faculty-student interaction)—may be one of the true places left actually preparing young people for what it really means to live in a democracy.

Those who know me well, know I like to sing. Spirituals from my African American heritage and hymns from my United Methodist upbringing are my sources of inspiration. We must continue the work of sustaining our democracy and ensuring all members of our communities are affirmed for who they are and desire to be. "We ain't gonna let nobody turn us round."

Special thanks to Suzanne Rivera, President of Macalester College, and Marc Connor, President of Skidmore College, for their contributions to this piece.

References

1. Beauchamp, Z. (2023, March 16). How Republicans are talking about Jews. Vox. https://www.vox.com/24010858/republicans-antisemitism-dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-jewish-students 
2. Buchanan, L., Bui, Q., & Patel, J. K. (2020, July 3). Black Lives Matter may be the largest movement in U.S. history. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html 
3. The Chronicle of Higher Education Staff. (n.d.). The assault on DEI. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/package/the-assault-on-dei 
4. NPR Staff. (2020, August 16). Summer of racial reckoning: The match lit. NPR.https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/902179773/summer-of-racial-reckoning-the-match-lit 
5. Thomas, D. A., & Creary, S. J. (2022, September). What has and hasn’t changed about being a chief diversity officer. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/09/what-has-and-hasnt-changed-about-being-a-chief-diversity-officer