{"id":3472,"date":"2021-08-16T20:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-16T20:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2025-05-09T20:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:06:42","slug":"dr-sharon-pierce-declares-minneapolis-college-role-as-anti-racist-institution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2021\/08\/16\/dr-sharon-pierce-declares-minneapolis-college-role-as-anti-racist-institution\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Sharon Pierce declares Minneapolis College role as anti-racist institution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they face.  So, it is vital to educate them and explain that they should play a role in their country. <\/em> Nelson Mandela<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Sharon Pierce, President of Minneapolis College since July of 2016, can frequently be seen on campus engaging with students, staff, and faculty.  Sometimes she might be clad in purple, the college’s color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the senseless and tragic murder of George Floyd fifteen months ago and the conviction and sentencing of former police officer Derek Chauvin, she is poised to respond to the frequent public inquiry – What now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe truth is that as an African American woman, I’m tired and I need renewal just like you,\u201d she told students at the College\u2019s \u201cCultivating Seeds of Hope\u201d event following Chauvin\u2019s sentencing. \u201cYou look to me to lead. I look to you for inspiration, and you do not disappoint. I am inspired by each of you. Today I ask you to stand boldly in this place, and to stand beside me as we work together to dismantle structural racism in all its forms beginning at home, here at Minneapolis College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ask you to plant your feet here and proclaim this is where we make our stand together. And I ask you to take these seeds of hope and plant them in a place of special meaning to you. That you care for them, water, and nurture them. That you care for yourselves and each other, so that together we can more fully realize the transformative mission of Minneapolis College,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recognizing Minneapolis College\u2019s role as an anchor in the broader community, President Pierce is shaping an academic landscape that will impact the future of this historical institution and the city. \u201cThis is our moment as a community to face the ugliness of racial inequity and take a thoughtful and intentional approach to supporting change,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Pierce\u2019s leadership, the college declared its status as an \u2018anti-racist\u2019 establishment.  Minneapolis\u2019 Mayor Jacob Frye signed the banner that hangs proudly at the entrance of the college displaying their commitment.  The college looked at changing demographics and the needs of the student body, demanding that leadership and staff  understand students\u2019 realities, their lived experiences, their challenges and then figure out how the college could respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an urgent need for college leadership to respond to the current crisis of democracy and humanity\u2019s survival in a manner like never before, she said in a recent Conversations with Al McFarlane Facebook Live interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The College hosted a community vigil where those committed to equity and inclusion came to share their reflections on events of the past year and a half, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exacerbated by the pandemic, achievement gaps that hamstring students of color were highlighted. And with racial inequities being examined anew, Pierce said historic and detrimental policies and procedures that adversely impact Minneapolis College students and faculty had to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two thirds of the college\u2019s student body are from marginalized and underserved populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe majority of our students are part-time but having to tackle a post-secondary curriculum designed for full-time students.  They are in their mid-twenties and then some are in high school.  They have come out of a population having truly carried the burden of COVID19.  Many lost their jobs; had to drop out of school; or had to adjust their schedules if they were able to work.  Some had childcare needs,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said Minneapolis College supports African American and American Native American male students through two new initiatives. \u201cBridging the Equity Gap\u201d is a 2-million-dollar project that seeks to cultivate future leaders through an affirming learning-centered experience that encourages students to see greatness in themselves.  The initiative launches fall semester thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In partnership with the University of Minnesota and other higher learning institutions, the College\u2019s Minnesota Breathe project is one of several initiatives funded by a $5 million dollar grant from the Mellon Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant supports partnerships with different organizations and portions of the community to create knowledge. It affirms communities\u2019 ability to determine what knowledge they want to create and how they want their histories, their stories, narrated and constructed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnele Venable Powell, retired University of South Carolina law school dean and regular commentator on the Thursday webcast said \u201cEducation will play a critical role in how the nation will face this pivotal, national predicament. If we are going to embrace rationality, science, and learning, it is important to be public about where we stand on this touchstone.  We must ask ourselves how we should be using the time we are in and the clarity these challenges bring to elevate our position as we continue to strive for true freedom.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe share in a common vision of what democracy can be.  It\u2019s not perfect but we are in route to challenging our current status as a formerly enslaved, colonized, and annihilated people\u2026victims of a racist American political enterprise.  There are certain things that are known and knowable.  That being the case, we know we cannot afford to allow autocrats with certain destructive agendas to take hold of power and go unchallenged,\u201d Powell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI commend Dr. Pierce for her extraordinary vision, and I say more, more and a lot more is still not enough.  Every institution affecting the lives of African Americans must have Black professionals like Dr. Pierce seated at the table of decision.  We have to build through institutions that are evolving, starting with one mission at a time, and with resources no individual alone would have access to.  She is going in the right direction. But the real task is to measure the success of implemented changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce said Minneapolis College is looking at every operational policy and procedure through an equity lens, studying the data that reveal how policies and procedures impact students of color.  \u201cWe looked at the disparate impact of such structural realities as withdrawals for non-credits; pass\/fail grades whether racially or financially motivated or not; remediation status that kept students locked into four semesters of remedial coursework and causing them to drop out because they could never get to their desired major paths of studies,\u201d she said.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Shaw University President, Dr. Irma McClaurin, joined the webcast from Florida. \u201cWe have to challenge institutions to look at barriers in their structure that hamper their progress in serving all students,\u201d she said. \u201cJust as democracy is a work in progress and we have to deal with the fundamental contradictions between the idea of democracy and the imperfect practice, the same would be analogous in the case of colleges and universities. Leadership and staff are theoretically saying they believe in the intellectual concept of equity, but their practice says otherwise.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yusef Mgeni, also a regular Conversations commentator said, \u201cOn the other side of the tragic murder of George Floyd, some are asking can, should, and how they can do more to become more equitable and inclusive. In the past, there was the assumption students had to adapt to operational structures of the institutions.  The reality today is institutions must adapt to student needs, the demographics, the population, and the faculty work force.  These entities are in for some very unfortunate surprises in the very near future if they don\u2019t look and recognize challenges as opportunities for change.\u201d         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a retired educator, I was surprised to learn how integration cost the loss of a whole generation of Black teachers who were teaching our Black children. Today we have 87% white teachers in the public school system teaching 50% Black and Brown children.\u00a0 According to McClaurin, a letter from the then Governor of Kansas warned if\u00a0Brown vs. the Topeka Board of Education<\/em>\u00a0passed, Black teachers would lose.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think white parents will want you to teach their children,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0 When the Supreme Court banned school segregation, the Black teachers were fired, McClaurin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Without education, your children can never really meet the challenges they face.  So, it is vital to educate them and explain that they should play a role in their country.  Nelson Mandela Dr. Sharon Pierce, President of Minneapolis College since July of 2016, can frequently be seen on campus engaging with students, staff, and faculty.  Sometimes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[2367,155,2366],"class_list":["post-3472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","tag-anti-racist","tag-george-floyd","tag-minneapolis-college","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3473,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions\/3473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}