Isabella Sanchez ’16: The EA Speakers Series’ stated intention is “to bring a diverse, talented group of speakers to campus to introduce ideas, provoke thought, and encourage discourse across a range of topics and perspectives.” Many students have been left, however, asking “what diversity?” Most speakers have been white men.
Dr. Catherine Hall, Assistant Head of School, acknowledged this concern, emphasizing that “this year was the most challenging in this aspect because it was being constructed late, it made it much trickier to be able to take that step back and really make sure we hit all forms of diversity going through.” Hall also made the point that the statement implies diversity in a much broader context. “We look at diversity in lots of fronts. We look at diversity of perspective, diversity of experience, diversity of walk of like, ideology, field of study…”
Although the Speaker Series offers a unique opportunity to students, Walidah Justice, Diversity Coordinator at EA, explained, “We do a great job in saying we are diverse with having a diversity of topics and diversity of people from different geographic regions or diversity of interest, which is wonderful but the inclusion piece means that I should be able to see myself as a person of color represented and that’s the key piece we need to improve upon.”
So far the two speakers, E. Gerald Coriggan and Brian Long ‘02, have come to share their message with the Upper School. The worry that has arisen is that they seem to be from the the same background. On paper the two speakers are strikingly similar: white, male, and involved in business. This brings up the question: what about representation for racial and ethnic minorities and women?
Photo Courtesy of Michael Leslie
In terms of similarity, Hall clarified, “The two that we’ve had really come from two pretty different walks of life. People can look very much the same on the surface, but we are being very thoughtful about wanting students to hear from very different perspectives.” In this situation the diversity piece came from the differences in age and how the amount of experience they have influenced their perspective.
Though this is true, with only two examples representing the program as a whole, students rightfully remain skeptical of just how different the perspectives will be over all. Hall mentioned that this will change with upcoming speakers, stating, “The next event that we have is an education access and equity panel. That event alone will embody within itself huge forms of diversity of perspective and just about every form of diversity you could imagine in one conversation.” The “Equity and Access: A Symposium on Education” is planned to be “very diverse in terms of race, gender and perspective and it is a female lead and indicated event.”
As Justice explains, at the end of the day it comes down to “really looking and thinking ‘who’s missing’ and what can we do to include them in a larger conversation.”
Hall admitted, “We’ve done a pretty good job this year, but I do think we could do better next year when we have more time to really look and ensure that its sequenced in a way where students can see the list of speakers and visibly notice the diversity of thought and experience.” In the mean time it is important that students continue demanding equal representation in all aspects of their academic lives and that we keep an open mind to the speakers who have yet to come for this year’s Speaker Series.
Though this is true, with only two examples representing the program as a whole, students rightfully remain skeptical of just how different the perspectives will be over all. Hall mentioned that this will change with upcoming speakers, stating, “The next event that we have is an education access and equity panel. That event alone will embody within itself huge forms of diversity of perspective and just about every form of diversity you could imagine in one conversation.” The “Equity and Access: A Symposium on Education” is planned to be “very diverse in terms of race, gender and perspective and it is a female lead and indicated event.”
The future proves promising as EA reaches out to more people. Hall expressed that in this process “we have to be very aggressive about being as non-insular as we can.” This will allow for diversity to come more organically.
As Justice explained, at the end of the day it comes down to “really looking and thinking ‘who’s missing’ and what can we do to include them in a larger conversation.”
Hall admitted, “We’ve done a pretty good job this year, but I do think we could do better next year when we have more time to really look and ensure that it’s sequenced in a way where students can see the list of speakers and visibly notice the diversity of thought and experience.”
In the mean time it is important that students continue demanding equal representation in all aspects of their academic lives and that we keep an open mind to the speakers who have yet to come for this year’s Speakers Series.
As Justice reminds us, we must consider that “even though we are the Episcopal Academy located in Newtown Square, a wonderful, privileged area, not everyone from our community space comes from that same place of privilege.”