Tiffany Dubon - Bronx Community College- CUNY
Yvonne Erazo-Davila - Bronx Community College
Monique Guishard - Bronx CC
Mara Lazda - Bronx CC
Yamilet Martinez - Bronx Community College
Gabriel Morillo - Bronx Community College
Allyson Regis - Queens College (former)
Nancy Ritze - Bronx Community College
Cynthia Suarez-Espinal - Bronx CC
Two CUNY campuses have created methods of tackling the pervasive challenge of systemic and structural racism in criminal justice, health care, and education that has been starkly exposed by the pandemic. The first, Bronx Community College, has engaged its faculty, staff and students by creating the BCC Social Justice Network (SJN). Sick and tired of being sick and tired of performative solidarity statements and status quo curricula, the SJN came together to enact socially-just practices and civic engagement activities. As a result, the SJN supported over a two dozen initiatives in the Fall of 2020 and Spring 2021. SJN members, will first share their experiences and identify the continued institutional challenges to social justice initiatives they encountered. The second example is from Queens College where presenters will discuss the inception and existence of the Black Latinx Faculty and Staff Association and the purpose of initiating an antiracist academy while fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community of administration, scholars, and learners. They will examine how Critical Race Theory (CRT) can be centered through the recreation of organizational systems with power, curricula, and understanding the experiences of the communities that remain at risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus.