Student Letter of Condemnation
To whom it may concern:
Bucknell must revive the Social Justice Residential College (SOJO) for this fall.
Bucknell has very few safe spaces for minoritized students. SOJO was a refuge for those students to discuss social justice issues. It taught minoritized students how to advocate for their rights at Bucknell. Additionally, SOJO was the only opportunity incoming students of color had to dorm together as freshmen. This eased the transition for students of color entering a PWI.
SOJO connected diverse communities across campus that would otherwise be isolated. It was also a space where minoritized students and allies could form relationships. SOJO did not only teach us the definition of mutual aid, but practiced it. In the past few days, student testimonials have flooded in about SOJO’s impact. Read about SOJO’s impact on students. SOJO alums mourn that incoming students will never experience it; especially the fifteen students who signed up for this fall.
Although Bucknell claims to have a “long-standing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion”, many minoritized students on this campus do not feel this way. This decision deepens the distrust and is especially crushing in the wake of the affirmative action ruling. SOJO was a jumping-off point for minoritized students to form diverse communities and get involved on campus. SOJO alumni have gone on to lead and participate in BSU, LACOS, APIDA, TEAM, Speak Up and many more organizations that culturally and intellectually enrich campus. Without SOJO, Bucknell is likely to struggle even harder to attract students of diverse backgrounds and retain them.
SOJO common hour was a student-run, discussion-focused, intellectually diverse, and challenging space. Canceling SOJO foundation seminars like Queer Country and American Apartheid devalues Bucknell’s academic excellence. These courses tell the history that rich and white institutions like Bucknell systematically ignore. As it says on Bucknell’s website, Residential Colleges like SOJO are “part of the reason Bucknell is ranked among the Top 10 Schools for Learning Communities by U.S. News & World Report.”
By canceling SOJO, the institution is getting rid of a space dedicated to making Bucknell a better place. Our community in SOJO is full of intellectually diverse leaders who recognize what needs to be done for Bucknell to live up to its “commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The first step is bringing back SOJO, now.
Signed,
Brooke Corpuz, Ella Uriu, and SOJO Alum