Spring 2015 Stories

By Karla Scott
Associate Professor, Department of Communication,
Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion,
Saint Louis University 

As a Jesuit institution committed to social justice we tell students when they choose Saint Louis University (SLU) that they will be a part of something special. More specifically our mission states we “develop men and women with and for others” who will “transform society in the spirit of the Gospels.” When the Class of 2018 arrived on campus in fall 2014 they had no doubt heard about the mission, but certainly could not have anticipated how the fires of Ferguson, 20 minutes away, would challenge it.

When the August 9, 2014 killing of Michael Brown ignited the smoldering embers of racial injustice across the country with protestors demanding “No justice, no peace,” and “Black lives matter,” it was clear that fall term on our campus could not be business as usual. Under the leadership of our new President, Dr. Fred Pestello, we responded to the challenge. We held prayer vigils and dialogue sessions, and faculty in our College of Education and Public Service even sponsored a “Teaching Ferguson” forum for local educators. In my Introduction to Human Communication and Culture course, most of my 35 students were members of the Class of 2018 and the majority White. I knew my 25 years teaching and dialogue facilitation training would help me in this challenging term but on October 8, 2014 when another young Black male, Vonderrit Myers Jr., was shot and killed about one mile from our campus, the challenge intensified.

What happened soon after on our campus is captured quite poignantly in the October 3, 2014 remarks of Dr. Cornel West at Santa Clara University: “It is just magnificent to come on this campus and see the cross. How rare it is to see that symbol of unarmed truth and unconditional love. The Jesuit tradition says that a condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak. And it has the audacity to believe that justice is what love looks like in public.” Nine days after his visit to Santa Clara, Dr. West spoke at Saint Louis University and the evening ended with a protest in the city and occupation of The Clocktower—a central campus icon. President Pestello led efforts for a peaceful resolution to what would come to be known as OccupySLU, allowing the “suffering to speak” while defending his decision to let protestors stay. One response to the protestors resulted in the “Clocktower Accords,” 13 items SLU committed to implement to redress poverty and social inequality in St. Louis. There has been tremendous support for President Pestello’s leadership but also criticism—reminding us of the history of SLU

The Jesuit tradition says that a condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak. And it has the audacity to believe that justice is what love looks like in public.
Cornel West

leadership challenging social inequality in the name of mission. In 1944 Fr. Claude Heithaus, S.J. delivered a homily condemning racial segregation at SLU. Though his words angered many, later that year SLU became the first white institution of higher learning in a former slave state to admit Black students. For transformation to occur, fear cannot interrupt our commitment to invite the suffering to speak. After OccupySLU I asked my class what good might be present here. The first comment from a student was: “What was the point? It did nothing but disrupt midterms.” Some students were supportive, some angry, and many White students expressed confusion about the concept of White privilege itself. I asked my students: “If this was the first time you heard the voices, the anger, and the pain of Black people living in America in-person, not on YouTube, in a movie, or through rap song—but in real time, raise your hand.” Practically all the White students raised hands. Class dialogue continued the remainder of the term and while not always easy, it happened. At the conclusion of the term, my students expressed appreciation, many of them relieved to be able to honestly acknowledge how hard it is to have a conversation about race.

The fires of fall 2014 forever changed our country, our city, and the SLU campus where leadership— and love—in the Jesuit tradition of education became visible.

Several other faculty at SLU hosted meaningful dialogues this year as well, including Dr. Robert Wood, the White male chairperson of the biology department who created the space and place for conversation on race in his course on fish. He told me students were surprised when they entered the classroom and learned what was about to happen that day. He said he was nervous, but determined. What he did not know was that one of his students, Sibani Mangal, had taken a SLU Intergroup Dialogue course on race and was in facilitation training at the time. He told me when he “got stuck” she helped keep dialogue going. I am a strong advocate of Intergroup Dialogue for social justice education and believe it can be a critical component in the Jesuit tradition. This young woman’s experiences with Intergroup Dialogue demonstrated the power of pedagogy designed to cultivate understanding across social identities and inequality—an education to develop leaders who can affect transformation. As Dr. West noted about the Jesuits: “Yes, indeed ...Those brothers years ago had the vision in this space to say we are to engage in a grand exploration of education, and thank God they didn’t say schooling. There’s a difference between education and schooling.”

The fires of fall 2014 forever changed our country, our city, and the SLU campus where leadership—and love—in the Jesuit tradition of education became visible. During OccupySLU I was actually visiting Santa Clara University, speaking on the transformative practice of Intergroup Dialogue for the Bannan Institute. While there I met many faculty and staff members who were graduates of Santa Clara and I remarked how inspiring it must be to our students to have alumni return. Reflecting further, I recalled how many of my own students had returned to SLU after graduation—and how many faculty I knew who had attended Jesuit institutions—including me. Perhaps we return because it is how we can meet the challenge of St. Ignatius of Loyola to “go forth and set the world on fire,” to affect change. Perhaps we return because this is where we first learned about educating the whole person—mind, body and spirit—and we want to be a part of that ongoing transformative work.

Karla Scott is Associate Professor of Communication and Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Arts & Sciences at Saint Louis University. Her scholarship focuses on the communicative contexts of Black women’s lived experiences and the role of Intergroup Dialogue in communication across racial divisions. She received her B.A. in Communication from Saint Louis University and her Ph.D. in intercultural communication from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.

Endnotes

1. Mission Statement, Saint Louis University, available at: www.slu.edu/x5021.xml
2. Cornel West, “Black Prophetic Fire: Intersections of Leadership, Faith, and Social Justice,” lecture, 2014–2015 Bannan Institute: Ignatian Leadership series, October 3, 2014, Santa Clara University. A video of the full lecture is available online at: scu.edu/ic/publications/videos.cfm.
3. Intergroup Dialogue is a community building approach to social justice education that integrates educational theory and research to bridge understanding across social and cultural identities. The goal is to create a space and place where the invitation to speak and be heard facilitates shared understanding. The pedagogy and strategic communication practices of Intergroup Dialogue can support the Jesuit tradition of education to transform self, others, and society. For more on Intergroup Dialogue consult the National Intergroup Dialogue Institute at the University of Michigan: igr.umich.edu/article/ national-intergroup-dialogue-institute.
4. West, “Black Prophetic Fire: Intersections of Leadership, Faith, and Social Justice,” lecture.