Message from the Trinity College Board of Trustees

June 5, 2020

To Our Beloved Trinity College Family,

As trustees, we take seriously our roles as stewards of the college. As part of those roles, we understand our responsibility to listen and to speak as leaders of the institution. This is a time for us to both listen and speak, to bear witness to the pain of so many in our community and in our country, and to add our voices to the cries that enough is enough.

We write today with a straightforward message of support and to lift up and amplify the words of President Joanne Berger-Sweeney, who wrote last weekend to express her outrage at the killing of George Floyd and so many others and to express hope for peace and justice in a world deeply divided.

Words are not enough. We know this. But as trustees, we know that our silence also can speak volumes. The history of racist violence in our country is long and shameful. The systemic racism that plagues every aspect of our society threatens our democracy and flies in the face of America’s promises of opportunity and equality. All lives cannot matter until Black Lives Matter.

We have much work to do and very far to go as individuals, as an institution, and as a society. This work is not done by a single college president, nor by a particular office or group, but rather it must be advanced by each of us alone and all of us together. We pledge, as trustees of this institution to which we are so deeply devoted, to listen and learn, to speak and walk with you, and to keep striving toward peace and justice.

In Solidarity,

The Trustees of Trinity College