from thE hEad of sChool

Fulfilling Our Mission

By EDwaRD V. PaRSOnS P’17

Last spring was an obvious watershed moment for the nation—and the world—when the gruesome video of George Floyd’s death shocked and awakened many Americans to a reality that exists in our midst. It’s not a new reality, of course; this reality has played out publicly many times before, on more occasions than we care to remember. At protests over the past several months, the names were incanted like a mantra or a prayer: Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people whose lives were brutally cut short. So, why now does it seem to have sparked our outrage and encouraged our collective action?

The answer to this question in the larger arena—that of the nation and the world—is a subject for another writing. But for Rivers, the question “Why now?” is answered by our mission and the duality of its challenge to “prepare our graduates for leadership in a world that needs their talents, imagination, intellect, and compassion.”

Significantly, the call in our mission is twofold: To prepare students for leadership, and to serve a world in need. Though that need has always existed, George Floyd’s death, among too many others, threw into stark relief the systems within our own organization that lead to injustices, disrupt lives, and interrupt the kind of opportunity we seek for all of our students. Our students and alumni saw this, and they pushed us to address systemic inequities in our school culture.

In particular, the Black@Rivers Instagram account laid bare for us some of the painful realities our students of color confront regularly here. It said, forcefully and unequivocally, “Enough.” In concert with the Black@ Rivers page, a letter sent to the administration by alumni, signed by more than 500 people, made it clear that for all our commitment to an equitable environment, we were falling short of the promise inherent in our mission statement.

At Rivers, we’ve been immersed in the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion for many years. But it is clear that the time to ask harder questions and seek more meaningful answers— to become steeped in that work in even deeper ways, with long-range goals and short-term changes that will impact school culture forever—is now. These longstanding challenges must now be our highest priority, and we cannot plead ignorance or good intentions. At this summer’s graduation, I asked our newest alumni a simple question: “What will you do with what you know?” As an institution committed to equity, we have to ask ourselves the same. And the question needs to be answered.

To be clear, Rivers’s dedication to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion has not changed in its fundamentals. Well before my arrival here seven years ago, Rivers was demonstrating a commitment to a just and equitable experience for our students and faculty. But we’ve refocused our work and prioritized the many facets of it, from curriculum design to admissions to internal systems. And we have brought all of that work to bear on the urgent issue at hand: the issue of equity of experience for all of our students.

We have developed a path forward, building off the new structures in place for DEI work across campus, and have set about developing a timeline for the completion of projects, strategies, and programs. We answered the challenges set forth in the alumni letter. By year’s end, we will have much of the work we promised either completed or in process, as well as a clear schedule for completion—although, by its very nature, the work is never completed but rather is ongoing, dynamic, and evolving. Please see our story on page 16 for more details on our DEI work.

We cannot claim to serve our dual mission—either for our students or the world into which we send them— if the experience here is one of inequity or if students’ comfort level is compromised by the reality of their daily experiences. And we will not sit still as long as we have work to do to reach our goal—a goal we’re committed to not just for now, but forever. Our mission requires nothing less.