To the Saint Louis University administration,

We the students demand that the departments of African American studies and Women's and Gender studies be maintained, sufficiently funded, and uplifted.

These departments align with and serve as a testament to the University mission of cura personalis and caring for the whole person. Faculty in these departments have a reputation for creating welcoming and dynamic environments that go above and beyond students’ academic needs. These interdisciplinary fields strive for a wholesome understanding of minoritized groups. Not only are students nurtured in their minds, bodies, and souls through these programs, they get educated in how to provide the same for others.

Additionally, SLU has a dedication to social justice and community living through its Jesuit core. These majors help students thoroughly understand the context and communities in which they reside and therefore better prepare them to serve others in whatever field they end up in.

More specifically, SLU has a commitment to the Clock Tower Accords, which call for an increased budget for the African American studies program. These Accords are a testament to the power of student protest and to potential university collaboration, but SLU continues to move backwards instead of forwards. To cut the department would be to go back on this promise, and SLU would lose its credibility as a university that listen to and accept students’ concerns, especially Black students’ concerns.

To turn to diversity-based majors, as well as arts and social science programs such as theater, American studies, art history and languages as the first item on the chopping block is hypocritical and shameful. Reallocations should not retract from education built for creating more independent, empathetic, creative, and socially aware graduates. Treating degrees like they must equate a specific and lucrative career path as their primary goal is reductive and crude; treating degrees related to DEI as risky and superfluous ventures done out of courtesy is downright morally bankrupt.

Prove that the “mission” of SLU is a guiding principal instead of a mere marketing scheme. Don’t cave to the same degrading political forces that dismantled DICE. Fulfill your obligation to student interests and outcomes and maintain the African American and Women's and Gender studies departments!