Evergreen State College

Evergreen's leadership stated, "We will aim to use our collective skills in anti-racist and anti-oppression education to promote community awareness and racial healing through a range of coordinated programming, workshops, and opportunities for learning about the historical legacies and contemporary manifestations of racial injustices, and to work together to imagine a world beyond racial hierarchies."

Through "college-wide activities, training, and initiatives," Evergreen will "support a complex campus culture and promote dialogue and discourse across significant differences in all parts of the college and its offerings."

Evergreen committed to "integrate black history and contributions into our curriculum in arts, sciences, and technical classes and programs."

As of the 2016-2017 academic year, 84% of undergraduate programs "address oppression, privilege, and difference."

Evergreen provides an Inclusive Community Leadership Certificate.

As part of Evergreen's 2020-2023 Strategic Plan, Evergreen will "design, develop, and execute interventions to strengthen equity, inclusion, and belonging for students, faculty, and staff experience." The college will also conduct a climate survey and analyze the results in order to "identify the aspects of campus climate that undermine a sense of belonging and create barriers to an inclusive education."

Annually, Evergreen has a day of absence where students and faculty of color leave campus as a way to symbolically ensure their impact and contribution on campus is felt. In 2017, the opposite happened: white students and faculty were asked to voluntarily take a day of absence. When Professor Bret Weinstein questioned this move and stated that he felt this was an act of oppression, he was labelled a racist on campus and harassed by students. This compelled him and his wife, also a professor, to sue the college and to leave their positions as professors. They gained a settlement from Evergreen as a result. The college library provides many articles on this matter.

In June 2021, Evergreen brought in a new interim president and executive vice president. Dr. Dexter Gordon will serve as the executive vice president, and he was the previous director of the African American studies program at the University of Puget. He also founded the Race and Pedagogy Institute at the university. Evergreen made this changes in leadership in order to "advance our strategic plans at an energetic pace" and "evolve in appropriate new directions to serve students."

Evergreen's three graduate programs are "grounded in values of service, community, social justice, and stewardship."

Evergreen has a President's Equity Fund which "provides funding to equity and inclusion initiatives and programming." This fund will "particularly encourage proposals that advance racial justice and support members of our black community."

The college library provides an Anti-Racism research guide. This research guide comprises numerous resources such as books, videos, and articles. Ibram X. Kendi's book, "How to Be an Anti-Racist," is recommended in this list.

Evergreen's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment "conducts a variety of research and assessment projects related to diversity at Evergreen."

As part of Evergreen's core theme of diversity and equity, the college provides "outreach programs' that "facilitate greater connections for underserved populations."

On July 29, 2020, Evergreen joined local colleges in stating "we want alumni who are prepared to live and lead with diversity, equity, and inclusion as a framework that guides all that they do in our community." Furthermore, the leadership said that "the focus in this moment needs to be on our Black students, staff, and faculty."

In response to Derek Chauvin's conviction, the college released a statement saying, "Derek Chauvin’s conviction Tuesday on all counts in the murder of George Floyd marks the latest chapter in our ongoing national reckoning on race and policing. Our relief that justice prevailed in this case does not reverse the fact that George Floyd was murdered by a police officer. The nation witnessed as Floyd’s life ebbed away on the pavement. The video that helped convict Chauvin also starkly exposed the ingrained systemic injustice still very much present in our country."

Critical Leadership for Restorative Justice

Anti-Racism in Education: Research, Theory, Practice

Re-entry, Repair, and Reconciliation Around the World