SCU Women's and Gender Studies

05/05/2022

11/04/2020

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11/04/2020

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09/17/2020

"There's still never enough evidence to absolve Black people. There's always a question of, 'Well, what happened before the video started? What happened you know in the past? What happened prior to the moment that the filming actually started? And how does this justify what took place?'"

08/28/2020

SCU President's public statement about the campus police "spokesperson" quotations in People Magazine:

I want to clarify publicly that the article in People magazine on August 25 incorrectly attributed several statements to “a spokesperson for Campus Safety.” Those statements were not authorized by the University and do not represent the views of Santa Clara University. No one was or is authorized to act as a spokesperson for Campus Safety in this matter. Strong steps have been taken to repudiate the quotes and to underscore that the investigation must not be compromised.

Dr. Danielle Morgan and Matthew Morgan are respected, valued and loved members of this community. I strongly condemn any statements that suggest that the University devalues their suffering, and I am sorry that these unauthorized statements occurred and have deepened their family’s pain.

We requested and received from People a correction that made it clear the quotes were not from a University spokesperson. We have also requested an editorial note be added to the web article reflecting what I have written above. We will continue to take strong steps against misrepresentations of University positions.

We are taking this situation very seriously and are committed to doing what is right and just. Shortly, I will inform the community of additional steps we have put into place to move our commitment forward promptly and comprehensively.
Sincerely,
Kevin F. O'Brien, S.J.
President

08/26/2020

And now this, in People Magazine of all places - a disgusting display from a "spokesperson" of SCU Campus "Safety."

"In a statement to PEOPLE, the SCU Campus Security spokesperson mentions its "very diverse team" and mentions the investigation.
"I look forward to the outcome that's going to vindicate what this situation was," the spokesperson says. "It was us asking somebody who was not supposed to be on campus to move along and that person moved along to a university house that we had to, at least, make sure that person was connected to that house."
"When the facts come out, it will paint a different picture," he adds. "This isn't to take away from [Morgan's] feelings or emotions of past events and things that have happened in her life, but that's not this case. We're not those folks.""

"They wanted my brother and me to know that we didn't belong here, that there was no safe space for us," Danielle Fuentes Morgan says after the incident near Santa Clara University

08/25/2020

Prof. Danielle Morgan is educating a lot of people through her generous willingness to talk to the media about the violence she faced over the weekend from Santa Clara campus security officers. Let's also read and learn from her amazing scholarly work. I'm looking forward to reading her important new book.

How African Americans have infused satire with a potent new dimension

08/25/2020

"One of the officers said to me, 'You don't own this house. This house doesn't belong to you'... This is the reality of Black life in the United States."

08/25/2020

Danielle Morgan, a Black assistant professor at Santa Clara University, was dancing in her room on Saturday morning when she said she was interrupted by a knock on her door.

08/25/2020

Update from President O'Brien on Santa Clara's response to the racist harassment of Prof. Danielle Fuentes Morgan and her family by campus security:

Dear Santa Clara University Community,

Since I sent my email Saturday evening, I have heard from many in our campus and extended communities. I have heard from current students and alumni of painful experiences of bias and exclusion in different forms on our campus. Many of you also expressed a feeling of disappointment, outrage, and sadness that our community is not free from the racism that pervades our society. This moves me deeply, and I offer my unflagging determination to lead Santa Clara to be a transformatively better community, dedicated to the struggle against racism. Only then can we realize the beloved community to which we all aspire.

As promised, I write now with the particular purpose to describe additional follow-up actions since Saturday:

We are retaining a highly experienced independent investigator, Keith Rohman, to conduct a fair, impartial and thorough investigation to obtain all material facts necessary for the University to make an informed decision on this matter.
Campus Safety officers are staff members of Santa Clara University. Pending the outcome of the investigation, the Campus Safety officers involved have agreed to take an administrative leave.
Longer term, we are also retaining an experienced, independent police auditor to evaluate past and present practices, policies, and records of Campus Safety. The auditor’s recommendations will guide our decisions and actions. I have asked Molly McDonald, Chief of Staff, to coordinate this process, which will solicit input from community members. Molly will send more information soon.

These recent conversations and actions all take place in the context of the national conversation about racial injustice and Santa Clara’s ongoing commitment to concrete actions advancing diversity and inclusion on our campus. In July, Professor Russell, Provost Kloppenberg and I sent an update detailing our progress, with more work to do. One of these is to resume the search for the new position, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, which was suspended in the spring because of the pandemic and will begin again in September.

In the coming days and weeks, we will share our progress with you. I am grateful for all you bring to this community in reaching our goals for authentic equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Sincerely,

Kevin F. O'Brien, S.J.
President

08/24/2020

Here is the WGST Department's letter to the SCU administration regarding the harassment of our friend and colleague Danielle Fuentes Morgan and her family:

Dear President O’Brien,
We write collectively in the voice of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department to articulate our horror, but not shock, at the racist and threatening treatment our colleague Professor Danielle Morgan, her brother, and other members of her family were subjected to by campus “safety.” We also wish to articulate our concerns about the University’s response to those events, which must be linked to a longer trajectory of racialized police violence and anti-Blackness on this campus that has hurt Black faculty, students, and staff for far too long.

Women’s and Gender Studies is a discipline rooted in activism, social change, and a commitment to interrogating the intersectional manifestations of gender-based violence and oppression. Professor Morgan and her family were subjected to violence by SCU campus security that was shaped by elements of race, gender, and class-based oppression -- rooted in legacies of white supremacy that have permeated structures ranging from police and the healthcare system, to the academy. Never has this been more stark and evident as in the face of the dual pandemics we as a nation currently confront. In your public statement you mentioned “home” and “community.” The events that transpired are jarring and instructive with regards to what we actually mean by those terms. That Santa Clara has never felt like a home or a community for many students and faculty was only made more vivid and public by the violence against Professor Morgan and her family, but it is something we have known for a long time. ​We urge the University not only to investigate the officers involved, but the entire office of campus safety. The University must address the fact that campus policing plays a major role in creating a hostile and unwelcoming environment for Black people on this campus.​ A​ failure to acknowledge this reality or to limit our response to a framework of individualized “bad apple” responses will only magnify this wrongdoing.

The trauma and violence that Professor Morgan and her family faced -- linked as it is to similar patterns of racism and profiling that have manifested on campus and harmed the lives of faculty, staff, and students -- can no longer be met with apologies, trainings, and investigations. We have the institutional memory and documentary evidence (​Strategic Implementation Plans of the Task Force of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, Unity 4 Statements, etc.)​ to know we are long past that point. We now also have a very public indictment of that institutional culture in the powerful words Professor Morgan courageously expressed on social media.

Many searches are taking place this year, including ours for a new faculty member in Critical Race and Gender Studies, which will surely be affected by the events that took place on our campus and by the University’s response. Beyond the critical question of ongoing recruitment of faculty of color is the important issue of the retention of amazing women of color faculty who are currently part of this community. Faculty like Professor Morgan represent the very highest achievement of the teacher-scholar model. Their work and contributions to our scholarly community and institutional reputation are unmatched, and too often those contributions extend far beyond the existing metrics of our review procedures and policies. ​The risk of losing our esteemed women of color colleagues as we have in the past is a concern as urgent and vital as those tied to the egregious racist behavior of campus "safety."

If we have any hope of recruiting to our campus Black students, faculty, and staff, our response to this and other acts of harassment and violence against communities of color on our campus must be resounding and unequivocal. If we passively stand by in the face of this injustice, then we as a University have no right to claim social justice as central to our mission.

Respectfully,
The Women’s and Gender Studies Department
Sharmila Lodhia
Linda Garber
Laura Ellingson
Mukta Sharangpani
Joanna Núñez
Catherine Murphy
Amy Randall