Graduate Career Consortium Condemns Racial Violence, Commits to Change
6/4/2020
On behalf of the Graduate Career Consortium, we declare in the strongest terms possible our condemnation of anti-Black racism and violence in its many forms. The Graduate Career Consortium’s leadership and members all share the grief and pain that has arisen in response to recent events in the United States and Canada. Silence about racism and violence is not acceptable.
We extend love and solidarity to our Black community members during this extremely difficult time. We recognize that the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey and ongoing violence against people who are demanding justice has exacerbated an already enormous burden of pain, fear, and anger. We join together with many other individuals and organizations in demanding justice and working toward lasting change in our society.
The GCC has a strong commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity; we support each other and will continue working together to confront and eradicate anti-Black racism, in our own organization, on our campuses, and in the world around us. The current moment presents us with an urgent challenge – as an association, a profession, and as individuals. As a community, we must be proactive in continually educating ourselves on issues of racism, while drawing on our knowledge, experience, courage, and willingness to change, in order to address racism and the resulting range of long-standing social, economic, and political inequalities.
We thank the many GCC community members who are already engaged in addressing these most urgent and important issues. In particular, we acknowledge the wisdom and work of our Diversity Committee, led by current co-chairs Laura Schram and Devin Horton, and outgoing co-chair D’Anne Duncan, including Millie Copara, Blessing Enekwe, Stephanie Eberle, Steve Lee, Jennifer McCauley, Lawrence Milks, Sonya Newlyn, Sina Safayi, Brandy Simula, Shoba Subramanian, and Lily Zhang.
As a GCC community we will be taking steps to address institutionalized racism in ways that are relevant to our professional community, and will update our membership with these initiatives as they develop.
We also want to call to mind discussions and programming from last year’s annual conference in New Orleans. Many of our keynote speakers engaged us around issues of racism and injustice, especially as they pertain to our professional community. Resources from last year’s conference, including from our keynote speakers, can be accessed via the GCC Resource Repository by logging into your GCC account and going to the Members Area Features. Millie Copara, Laura Schram and Deborah Willis presented "Best Practices for Equitable, Accessible and Inclusive Programming" and the resources are available here.
To members of our community who may be struggling in the wake of recent events, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us on the executive board. A hallmark of the GCC’s community of practice is our unwavering support for one another, and as GCC leadership we are committed to supporting you as we continue to build our caring community. In the coming weeks and months, as a community we know we will reflect on our practices, and will grow in understanding as we learn to make our community and our work as graduate career professionals more inclusive.
Natalie Lundsteen, President
Michael Matrone, Past President
Briana Konnick, President Elect
Ruth Schemmer, Treasurer
Briana Mohan, Secretary.
Alfreda James, Communications Chairperson
Liam O'Leary, Conference Chairperson
On behalf of the Graduate Career Consortium, we declare in the strongest terms possible our condemnation of anti-Black racism and violence in its many forms. The Graduate Career Consortium’s leadership and members all share the grief and pain that has arisen in response to recent events in the United States and Canada. Silence about racism and violence is not acceptable.
We extend love and solidarity to our Black community members during this extremely difficult time. We recognize that the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey and ongoing violence against people who are demanding justice has exacerbated an already enormous burden of pain, fear, and anger. We join together with many other individuals and organizations in demanding justice and working toward lasting change in our society.
The GCC has a strong commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity; we support each other and will continue working together to confront and eradicate anti-Black racism, in our own organization, on our campuses, and in the world around us. The current moment presents us with an urgent challenge – as an association, a profession, and as individuals. As a community, we must be proactive in continually educating ourselves on issues of racism, while drawing on our knowledge, experience, courage, and willingness to change, in order to address racism and the resulting range of long-standing social, economic, and political inequalities.
We thank the many GCC community members who are already engaged in addressing these most urgent and important issues. In particular, we acknowledge the wisdom and work of our Diversity Committee, led by current co-chairs Laura Schram and Devin Horton, and outgoing co-chair D’Anne Duncan, including Millie Copara, Blessing Enekwe, Stephanie Eberle, Steve Lee, Jennifer McCauley, Lawrence Milks, Sonya Newlyn, Sina Safayi, Brandy Simula, Shoba Subramanian, and Lily Zhang.
As a GCC community we will be taking steps to address institutionalized racism in ways that are relevant to our professional community, and will update our membership with these initiatives as they develop.
We also want to call to mind discussions and programming from last year’s annual conference in New Orleans. Many of our keynote speakers engaged us around issues of racism and injustice, especially as they pertain to our professional community. Resources from last year’s conference, including from our keynote speakers, can be accessed via the GCC Resource Repository by logging into your GCC account and going to the Members Area Features. Millie Copara, Laura Schram and Deborah Willis presented "Best Practices for Equitable, Accessible and Inclusive Programming" and the resources are available here.
To members of our community who may be struggling in the wake of recent events, please do not hesitate to reach out to any of us on the executive board. A hallmark of the GCC’s community of practice is our unwavering support for one another, and as GCC leadership we are committed to supporting you as we continue to build our caring community. In the coming weeks and months, as a community we know we will reflect on our practices, and will grow in understanding as we learn to make our community and our work as graduate career professionals more inclusive.
Natalie Lundsteen, President
Michael Matrone, Past President
Briana Konnick, President Elect
Ruth Schemmer, Treasurer
Briana Mohan, Secretary.
Alfreda James, Communications Chairperson
Liam O'Leary, Conference Chairperson