A Message of Support for our Native American and Indigenous Community
November 10, 2021
Native American and Indigenous Heritage Month is meant to be a time of celebration and support for our Native American and Indigenous community. It is a time to listen, to learn, and to reflect. It is not a time for hatred or division. We join our fellow University leaders in expressing our outrage and contempt for the recent anti-Native and Indigenous sentiments expressed at the Rock. We can and must be better than this as a community and as leaders of our shared society.
TGS commits to supporting members of Northwestern’s Native and Indigenous community in the face of this act by offering the use of our Graduate Student Commons for all of Northwestern’s Native American affinity groups, including IGSC (Indigenous Graduate Student Coalition) and NAISA (Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance) to meet and connect. Throughout the month of November and beyond, we welcome opportunities to be in relations with, advocate for, and support Native and Indigenous communities.
We invite our TGS graduate population to participate in the Indigenous Graduate Student Coalition (IGSC) Friends, Food, and Fire event on Tuesday, November 16 at 6:00 PM in partnership with our Office of Diversity and Inclusion outside of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR).
TGS also urges everyone to participate in the 30 Days of Indigenous Events hosted by Multicultural Student Affairs, to familiarize themselves with the graduate student resources provided by CNAIR, and to read Northwestern’s land acknowledgment and why it is important. We hope that the TGS community and the University at large can learn from this expression of anti-Native and Indigenous sentiment; we take it seriously as a sign of the ongoing work we all need to do to make our campus genuinely inclusive, welcoming, and healthy for all its students, postdoctoral trainees, staff, and faculty.
Everyone can and should expect a learning environment at Northwestern University in which their unique perspectives are appreciated, their contributions are valued, and their experiences are equitable. This is our pledge to you as leaders of The Graduate School.
Let us be the ones to sow the seeds of unity our world so desperately needs.
Sincerely,
Kelly E. Mayo
Walter and Jennie Bayne Professor of Molecular Biosciences
Dean of The Graduate School and
Associate Provost for Graduate Education
Damon L. Williams, Jr.
Associate Dean
Office of Diversity and Inclusion
The Graduate School
Categories: From the Dean