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Admissions and the Black Lives Matter Movement: We Are Stronger Together – Part I

By Anita Hilson posted 06-26-2020 02:39 PM

  

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Admissions and the Black Lives Matter Movement: We Are Stronger Together – Part I

Anita Hilson, Executive Director, Open Door Care

The summer break for most schools nationwide has begun. But educators and administrators are not getting too comfortable – not breathing a sigh of relief just yet. In the time of COVID, which required schools everywhere to immediately shift gears into remote learning, teachers and administrators became instant best friends with Zoom and the terms “synchronous” and “asynchronous.” Now that summer is here, the normal time for rest and relaxation will be interrupted with significant work to perfect the remote learning program in the likely event that it will be required in the fall. Schools who managed to complete the school year successfully with distance learning may have a bit more of a reprieve. But for the many public and private schools that found the shift challenging, please know parental expectations for the fall will be much greater and less forgiving. Let the summer work begin!

For admissions professionals, the challenges in the spring ranged from how to onboard new families accepted before the quarantine, how to continue with spring admissions remotely, how to produce the best online open house and virtual tour and how to retain families as the realities of the recession set in. As schools prepare to open again this fall amid the uncertainty of just what school will look like without a vaccine, we find ourselves also in the midst of a growing Black Lives Matter movement, ignited by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, and after hundreds of years of racial inequity and violence against black people in America.

So what should be the response of the admissions community at such a time of unrest and a fight for equity that seems to have gained traction? Most independent schools and universities have joined the corporate community in issuing statements supporting the movement as allies in solidarity. Many schools have required summer reading for faculty to understand bias, discrimination and privilege so that there is increased awareness of differences. Putting action behind the letter and the hashtag is a good thing and necessary. But as you begin recruiting new students and families for fall 2021, what questions should you be asking?

It goes without saying that independent schools are committed to diversity and appreciate the strength that comes from a diverse community. It is also true that most schools have a reputation in the community concerning diversity. What is yours? What steps can you take to address shortcomings? This may be a difficult exercise, but it is a necessary step in the right direction.

What if you are at a school with a very small BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) population? What if your admissions staff is not diverse? How can you attract diversity if the “front door” is not representative of the school demographic or the demographic you hope to have? For schools that are fortunate enough to weather the COVID storm with minimal attrition, it is still likely that there will be hiring freezes at most, if not all, independent schools, except for “essential” positions that are vacant and must be filled, primarily classroom teachers. Now is the time to consider how your current faculty, staff and community may provide support in a way that is authentic and true as you engage families of color.

So what to do? The first thing to do is to come together to talk about how you can best welcome and engage BIPOC families. The current movement for racial equity seems different, and it is because Americans (and people all over the world) of every race and color are uniting to fight a battle that until now was largely a problem for African Americans. There is power in unity, and there is strength in our differences because we are stronger together. And the role of the admissions director in building a community has never been more important.

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