Friday Focus: A sense of responsibility
June 5, 2020
— by Keith Champagne, vice chancellor for student affairs and athletic director
I write this Friday Focus column with a heavy heart, pain, frustration, outrage and sadness. The numbers “8-4-6” will forever have a different meaning and vision that I will never forget for the rest of my life. These numbers represent the 8 minutes and 46 seconds that it took for George Floyd’s life to be taken from him, his friends, and family as he begged for his life and called out for his mother as he took his final breath at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers on May 25, 2020.
My faith leads me to these words, from John 14:27. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Today, I ask that you look to your own sources of inspiration to reflect on racial justice, social justice and social equity as we continue to live our lives in this COVID-19 pandemic state.
One day a wise mentor told me that as a leader in higher education, I would most of the time be viewed as a leader who is African-American working in a predominantly white institution. However, there will be moments and times when I will have to be an African-American leader.
I gave this some thought, but I did not dwell on his statement. In fact, I had totally forgotten about our conversation, which was many years ago, until the May 25 killing of Mr. Floyd.
Well, this week, I had to be an African-American leader with a real sense of responsibility for standing up and speaking up for what needed to be done as I, along with many others, was viewing the civil unrest transpiring in our country and around the globe. For example, I called for and encouraged some of our athletics associations and conferences to issue public statements in response to all of the protest and civil unrest happening day after day following the murder of George Floyd.
Moreover, as the UAF athletic director, I issued my own statement and announced that I was creating the Alaska Nanooks Athletics Director’s Inclusion and Diversity Council prior to the start of the 2020-2021 academic year. I vowed that we would make a demonstrated commitment to do our part in assisting UAF, the Division of Student Affairs and our own Athletics Department in dismantling and eradicating systemic racist, sexist and oppressive structures in our institutions and in society.
I do not want to spend the summer and the next six months being an angry “Black man” even though some may truly believe that I have a very good reason to be so. Nevertheless, that is not who I am as a person, human being and an African-American male who has truly lived the “Black male” experience in American society.
No, I will focus my energies on being a change agent and a warrior for racial justice, social justice, social equity, and eradicating racism and systemic racist, sexist and oppressive structures in our institutions and in society. I will build coalitions with others from all walks of life and racial, ethnic, cultural, social, and religious and socio-economic backgrounds to be about and be the change that I positively believe we all want to be.
For all leaders acknowledge and understand that the responsibility for bringing about change begins with each one of us who are leaders in our university, divisions, schools, colleges and institutes. Hence, I ask that we all together work in unity to make this society and world a better place for all America’s peoples.
Friday Focus is a column written by a different member of UAF’s leadership team every week. On occasion, a guest writer is asked to contribute a column.