Last year as I marched through the streets with our Northwest Vista College and Alamo Colleges family for the annual MLK March, it was exhilarating to be among the crowd that walked for unity, respect and inclusion. Who would have imagined one year later, we would have been having this same march virtually due to the coronavirus?
The principles we marched for became even more important during the summer when people of all races marched in U.S. streets to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Even with the coronavirus, our own students marched in San Antonio streets to make change.
Alamo Colleges and NVC took a stand this past summer as well and voiced the need to eliminate racism. Soon after, our sister colleges and NVC had townhall meetings on race and equity, and our NVC employees launched the NVC Black Lives Matter Association, which is separate from the national group, to continue the conversation and make impactful change. You are welcome to join the weekly conversations at 4 pm on Thursdays. Learn more here.
In addition, each college has a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, which was formerly called AAIDE (Access Advocacy Inclusivity Diversity & Equity) that serves as NVC’s champions for eradicating racism, privilege, inequity, and social injustice. It will also help expand our knowledge of systemic racism and inequality. To learn more about the NVC’s DEI Council, contact Janie Scott.
While we couldn’t march this year together, you can view the San Antonio virtual march at this link. The Alamo Colleges had a short video during the annual event titled, “The Dream Continues: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
Yesterday or 58 years ago when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, at our nation’s capital, he said “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”
We must understand our unconscious biases today and open our minds for our students for tomorrow and the future.
Dr. King told the crowd in 1963, “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
– Northwest Vista College President Dr. Ric Baser