CU Boulder’s Scholar Strike
Just this past week, on Tuesday (9/8) and Wednesday (9/9), dozens of CU Boulder students and faculty came together to participate in the CU Scholar Strike supported by DiversifyCUNow.
In short, the CU Scholar Strike was an opportunity for professors and faculty to disrupt their everyday tasks and host a teach-in on racism, with a focus on policing and mass incarceration. While many professors and students discussed racial discrimination during their allotted class times, others organized an educational webinar to tackle many of the problems with our campus. Such problems include efforts to improve antiracism training and mental health resources and to provide equal, anti-racist experiences for those on and off campus.
A number of people participated in the scholar strike at CU Boulder, including, inter alia, faculty and staff from the School of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences, student-led groups, and campus workers. If anything, this event showcases our community’s innovative nature and our ability to come together to make a difference; during a time where social interaction has thinned, it is astounding to see such a large-scale collaboration occur, albeit in a different format.
Despite the CU Scholar Strike’s local success, it is important to remember that this is actually a national event. The problems that we are facing on our campus are shared by many others, and we are not alone in taking the necessary steps to identifying racism in the United States, educating others about its presence, and supporting all underrepresented voices.