coe-staff: A Notice of Departure: An Open Letter to the COE Community

[James Muruthi]

Hello COE Community,

We are writing this email to communicate that we will be leaving the University of Oregon at the end of this summer. We have accepted job offers elsewhere and are enthusiastic about the opportunities that await. We have enjoyed working with our colleagues, and the students have been a great joy to teach and mentor. And, of course, we all know that the COE does not function without the stellar skills and efforts of the COE staff. Thank you all.

As we leave, many people will reasonably ask why. Ultimately, we have decided that Oregon is not a place we want to live and work. The White Utopia and racist history of Oregon still hold a pungent stench in the way people do their business here. And quite honestly, the university is not immune to the White supremacy culture. For example, James was a direct target of racism when he received racist (xenophobic and homophobic) emails (see example attached) in response to his participant recruiting materials for LGBTQ and caregiving studies. Another case included racist chants yelled at our family as we looked for housing - our first week in Oregon. Our friends with school-age children express that their children are undergoing chronic racially related bullying and sidelining under the watch of teachers. Allies speak cliche social justice language without knowing the core of diversity issues while forcing their allyship on groups that do not deem them as such. The list could go on.

While the characteristics of Oregon cannot be controlled, the university and the COE (particularly) can do better to address the needs of racially diverse faculty. For example, leveraging the recent openness to online learning can ensure Black faculty can still work for the university while living in more racially welcoming environments. For instance, we must express our disappointment in the lackluster efforts to work with us to explore the off-site route. Our interpretation of the response from university leadership was that our feelings and experiences did not matter as long as the students who came in did not feel like the university environment was not conducive for Black professors who worked off-site.

We decided to use this tone of voice as the last act of activism for other racially diverse faculty and staff (and students) who remain at the COE or the ones that will join. We believe that this honest expression of our stories opens a window into the lived experiences of racially diverse faculty (staff and students) and encourages more profound empathy and activism across the board. Best of luck to you all.

With Gratitude,

Drs. James & Bertranna Muruthi
______________________
James R. Muruthi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
College of Education | University of Oregon
Office: 350 HEDCO
Phone: 541-346-2344
Email: muruthjr at uoregon.edu




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