In June of 2021, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) task force released its final report detailing the work the committee completed during weekly meetings and through outside engagement between the summer of 2020 and the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
The DEI task force is a group separate from the more widely recognized Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office and the Driving Equity at Choate (DEC) committee. Last year, the administration created the task force to tackle concerns regarding equity in the community in light of protests for racial justice across the country and the creation of multiple social media accounts that surfaced, including @blackatchoate, @lifeatchoate, and @queeratchoate.
Initially, the task force consisted of senior officers, as the administration did not want to impose extra work on faculty and staff members. However, upon receiving feedback, it was found that many of those individuals were passionate about the goals of the task force, and the group was restructured to include faculty and staff.
While grappling with national, world, and personal events in 2020 and hearing stories of community members’ negative experiences, Fifth Form Dean Mr. Will Gilyard ’98 spent time reflecting. “What that did was highlight that while we may be doing some things well, there is still a lot of room for growth. So, I think the task force served as that commitment to effective, authentic, and sustainable initiatives to create the most just, inclusive, and equitable Choate possible,” he said. “What we did was we work on developing a plan of action — that looked at the entire school — every department, from top to bottom.”
Although originally slated to work exclusively from July 2020 through September 2020, the task force quickly realized that more time was needed for the group to dedicate the effort needed to build more equitable practices and policies at the school, and primarily those that shed light on unheard perspectives and critical topics of injustice within our school community. The task force’s extension allowed them to approach their goals in three distinct phases.
The goal of the first phase was to reach out to the school community. “We worked with students and alums to try and get a full view of people’s experiences at Choate,” Mr. Gilyard said. This initiative included the previously mentioned social media accounts that provided insight on the day-to-day struggles that members of the community face.
The second phase involved drafting, receiving feedback on, and revising policies to address the topics of interest and concerns established during outreach. The third and final phase divided the task force into two subcommittees: one dedicated to writing and communication and the other to constituent meetings.
Dr. Edrik Lopez, a member of the Constituents Meetings subcommittee, described the work of the two committees: “The constituents group would go and meet with the folks, take notes, report back, and hand the information off to the document and writing group. This group took the notes, listened to what we said, and provided the writing of the document by drafting the short-term, long-term, and longer-longer-term initiatives.” In other words, Dr. Lopez said that they were the investigators, handing off their conclusions for someone else to write.
A full list of projects undertaken by the task force can be found on Choate’s Equity and Inclusion page under Choate’s website. Examples of short-term initiatives achieved by the task force include the creation of the Bias Incident Reporting Form, the Identity-Based Slurs policy, and the Dehumanizing and Derogatory Language and Content in Class policy. Student leaders were asked to offer input on the creation and implementation of these policies. “I reviewed and suggested comments on the language used in the bias-incident reporting form and identity based slurs to best represent the student experience and perspective, ” said Fifth Form President Ava Maha ’23.
The task force also established long-term projects, including modifying the hiring practices of faculty and staff of color, and prioritizing the empowerment of student identity and empathy. A DEI Accountability subcommittee was created within the DEC to ensure these initiatives are followed through. This entails regular, possibly biweekly, check-ins with the departments that were given projects to work on.
Dean of Equity and Inclusion Dr. Rachel Myers is most excited about a couple of initiatives assigned to the Andrew Mellon Library team and the Archivists, particularly tangible projects about Choate’s historical ties to marginalized groups. “For me — and this is definitely a reflection of why I’m an English teacher — I like stories and being a diversity practitioner,” she said. “Just seeing how far we’ve come and celebrating where we’re going and the fact that we are living our values.”
Another objective of the task force was to make these projects collaborative, not forceful. “We would have conversations with each department, ask questions … there were some things departments wanted to do but hadn’t gotten off the ground,” Mr. Gilyard said. While the task force’s initiatives were not given arbitrary goals, the process of researching and working on such initiatives inspired departments to grow and served as guidelines to continue developing.
Ms. Cindy Okrah summed up the importance of equity and inclusion practices at Choate, stating, “It’s important to make sure that everyone is included before they even get accepted, to when they get accepted, to when they decide to come to Choate, and even afterwards, beyond, when you actually graduate and some of the efforts being made to make people more connected to the school.”
