Diversifying the HNGR Office
Dear HNGR,
The danger in writing a petition letter from our perspective—young 20-somethings—is that we could come across as recent alumni who think they have figured out how things should be. So we begin this letter with one important caveat: we have not figured out how things should be. Rather, our desires and thoughts in this letter represent our accountability to the community that made us who we are. It is a single suggestion that we thought should be written in a letter, though we hope it does not read as a confrontation. We hope that choosing to write a formal letter does not appear self-righteous; we just couldn’t figure out a better way of presenting our thoughts.
The Human Needs and Global Resources program has always been a unique entity on Wheaton College’s campus. It has very different values and is, in more ways than not, concerned about very different things compared to the majority culture at Wheaton: justice, poverty, liberation, and hope. The fact that HNGR is in the basement of Schell hall is, in our view, a geographic symbol of both the way the college often perceives HNGR and where HNGR chooses to be: in the places that not many want to go. Indeed, the program stands for association with the margins, restructuring of power, and learning from the so-called poor.
Given these values, the fact that HNGR specifically reaches out to and receives from those in the Global South, and because there are an increasing number of non-white and non-American students doing HNGR, we think that the HNGR program should make an effort to consider replacements for both Barb’s and Chris’s job openings who are non-white and/or non-American. Since HNGR is a microcosm of an alternative way of thinking and being in the world, we think that welcoming non-white and non-American individuals into the program could be an incredible opportunity to demonstrate to the student body what HNGR in a place like Wheaton means: to better reflect the diversity of God’s Kingdom and to model a more just international system.
We are confident that the new faculty member is a good fit for the program, but we are aware that he is a white male. We are concerned that a group of white people discussing poverty, justice, and power in the economic center of the Wheaton suburb is removed from the realities of the world—theologizing and philosophizing without current, concrete memories and experience to inform beliefs and conclusions. Thankfully, Sydney, Dr. Yoder, Ryan, and Dr. Huff have significant experiences around the world, and the program encourages students to build such experiences themselves, but we still ask that the HNGR office seriously consider applicants for future job openings who can both provide a balance and a challenge to the current racial and global situation, even if they may not be as qualified or experienced as their white competitors. Ultimately, we will always support the HNGR program whoever is a part of the office. For us, HNGR was not only a six month experience abroad. It is a community to which we will always be tied and in which we will always serve and belong. We still feel diversifying the HNGR faculty and staff would be a positive contribution to such a community and to the Wheaton body as a whole.
Sincerely,
Your trustworthy, loyal, and spunky HNGR alum
No signatures yet. Be the first one!
Comment