Gabe Lipkowitz / The Daily Princetonian

Following weeks of civil unrest demanding justice and reflecting on 401 years of anti-Black racism and violence across the nation, the graduate students past and present of the Princeton School of Architecture (PSoA) have discussed how best to support our Black peers. In the words of Kimberly Dowdell, President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA): We must all leverage our positions of privilege to help our most vulnerable citizens, neighbors and colleagues strive for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If we are to truly resist anti-Black racism in the architecture discipline, we must first recognize and address the ongoing anti-Black racism and inequality within our own PSoA community. We must not ignore the daily realities and traumas of our Black students, faculty, and staff. Our support cannot simply be a statement of detached sentiment or a pledge to do better. Those of us who are white and non-Black POC students, faculty, staff, and administration must stand with our Black colleagues and unequivocally condemn and resist the violence that affects them. We must examine the ways in which we actively marginalize Black voices. We must commit to taking concrete steps to build an anti-racist institution where Black students and colleagues, as vital members of our academic community, can thrive. Black lives matter.

As we consider how to confront racism in our own community, we must remind ourselves that Princeton University has reproduced and protected forms of anti-Black racism since it was founded in 1746. Thanks to the work of Princeton students and faculty such as the Black Justice League and the Princeton & Slavery Project, which has carefully studied the University's support for the institution of chattel slavery, it is now widely known that Princeton presidents, faculty, and students all used enslaved labor while they pursued scholarship in the 19th century. We must recognize that this is not some distant history, but a legacy that continues with us into the present. In a particularly glaring example, the University continued until recently to honor the legacy of Woodrow Wilson, who promoted white supremacy in the United States and around the world, and enforced segregation at Princeton well into the 20th century. We must see and acknowledge the ongoing efforts around us to undo this legacy, including the campaign that successfully removed Wilsons name from the School of Public and International Affairs and which aims to critically transform its curriculum. If we are sincere in our efforts to address racism on this campus, we must raise up and support existing voices particularly those of our Black neighbors and colleagues who have already called for systemic change.

In response to demands for change from their students and alumni, the administrations of Columbia GSAPP, Harvard GSD, Pratt SoA, and Yale SoA have all issued public statements detailing commitments that their schools will make to address anti-Black racism. We join students of other architecture schools, colleagues from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, and the PSoA A.B. program (forthcoming) in voicing demands for racial justice. As members of the Princeton SoA graduate student community, past and present, we hope that the faculty and administration of the PSoA will join us in the building of an anti-racist institution, beginning with active resistance to racial violence in the Princeton community and its surroundings. We demand that the PSoA take immediate action on the following:

1. Divest from the Police

After the egregious murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson, and countless others at the hands of the police, it is not enough to express concern. We believe that the PSoA must use its institutional power to demand that the University end any relationship it has with the Princeton Police Department (PPD) and the New Jersey State Police (NJSP). The PSoA must recognize that the police brutality being protested across the country exists in our very own community. In 2016, African American studies professor Imani Perry was handcuffed to a table by two white officers over parking violations. Despite comprising only 5 percent of the towns population, in 2018, Black people comprised 15.4 percent of motorists pulled over by PPD, and half of use-of-force incidents.In June of last year, Princeton's Department of Public Safety supported Bill A-4553 of the N.J. General Assembly, which granted police officers working at private universities qualified civil immunity and protection from repercussions in civil court. The way forward is clear. We recognize the Black leaders across the country who have said unequivocally, Reform is not enough. We acknowledge demands made by Yale Black Students for Disarmament as well as those on our own campus, including faculty and alumni and Students for Prison Education and Reform, who have called for the abolition of the carceral state and its extensions in our universities. We must follow the footsteps of Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Oakland, and other public schools in actively rejecting police violence.

We demand that the PSoA:

2. Recruit Black Students, Faculty, and Speakers

In the statement Hearing the Call for Structural Change, Dean of the School of Architecture Mnica Ponce de Len stated that data drives diversity. Lets be clear: while data may be necessary, it is only a small first step, and does not constitute structural change in itself. Yes, the PSoA needs to actively recruit Black students and faculty. But simply increasing numbers is inadequate and ultimately self-defeating if not accompanied by the transformative change we outline in this letter. The lack of Black voices at every level of the PSoA has reinforced inequality and helped to ensure that white faculty define the center of contemporary architecture at Princeton and beyond. Black students are consistently underrepresented in the A.B., M.Arch, and Ph.D. programs. While we recognize that the PSoA has begun to address anti-Black racism through faculty hires and lecture programming, we ask that the school continue to do more to elevate the voices of Black architects and scholars in the school and the discipline.

We demand that the PSoA:

3. Provide Financial and Administrative Support for Black Students

Support for Black students must take place at all levels of teaching and mentorship: it should not be taken for granted that students in an overwhelming minority will naturally feel comfortable in an institution structured upon racist ideals. Black and non-Black POC students alike need dedicated staff and mentors whom they can turn to for advice, to discuss opportunities, and to address issues of discrimination. This need is especially, though not exclusively, visible in relation to student evaluation within the school. Currently, in the M.Arch and Ph.D. programs, there is a lack of transparency in evaluation, grading, and structures of advancement. In both cases, this lack of transparency results in unequal expectations, opportunities, and work loads between students. As long as protocols for grading and advancement are not clearly delineated, room for discrimination remains. In order to restore opportunities for BIPOC students and repair trust within the school, new financial and structural commitments must be made.

We demand that the PSoA:

4. Center Black Voices in the Curriculum

Addressing race in the curriculum should not be limited to seminars about BIPOC histories, or studios that engage with BIPOC experiences. Rather, we must recognize that whiteness is also racial, and that subsequently allstudios and seminars, even when addressing predominantly white communities and authors, must be attuned to issues of race. We must not continue making whiteness the invisible norm. This also means that Black and non-Black POC points of view cannot be cordoned off in one week of a syllabus as a topic. Rather, their points of view on weekly topics should be pervasive throughout. We must also recognize that the Black intellectual tradition aligns with the goals of History and Theory requirements in architecture and should be engaged with as such. In sum, we must recognize that issues of race are not topical, but rather foundational fundamental prerequisites in our understanding of the world.

We demand that the PSoA:

5. Dismantle White Supremacy in Studio

As in the curriculum as a whole, the school must make visible how whiteness operates as an invisible norm in the vast majority of existing studio pedagogy. Architecture lags behind other disciplines in the critical examination of its own methods and the subject positions of its practitioners. A view common to architectural education is the assumption that historical, social, and political contexts can be apprehended after a brief site visit or week-long trip. This method encourages extractive, rather than collaborative, design practices and forms of knowledge production that make expertise seem one-sided. Frequently, this creates a power imbalance, often racialized, between a student-designer and their prospective client. These practices are destructive, and reinforce political and economic processes that extract wealth from BIPOC communities in New Jersey and elsewhere around the world. Studio instructors must actively interrogate their ethical commitment and accountability to the communities that they seek to engage with.

We demand that the PSoA:

6. Ban Inequitable Labor Practices

The use of unpaid and poorly compensated student work is a barrier to career advancement for economically disadvantaged students and therefore disproportionately affects Black and non-Black POC students. Working in the private offices of faculty members provides students with a foundation for future professional advancement, garnering them long-term professional support and helping them to build their resume. Unpaid and low-paying internships have been shown to exclude BIPOC students to a greater degree than their peers, due both to their higher levels of indebtedness and the high opportunity costs of unpaid positions.

We demand that the PSoA:

7. Implement Anti-Racism Training

The PSoAshistoric lack of action on racial awareness has obligated BIPOCstudents to not only manage the challenges of architecture school, but also to expend time and energy in processing and confronting racist behavior. BIPOC students cannot be expected to take on the additional labor of educating their peers and professors about race. Instead, the school must assume responsibility for offering anti-racism training starting in the 202021 school year. Studies have shown that diversity and anti-bias training are ineffective when treated as one-off, isolated initiatives. If not coupled with structures of accountability and provided with ongoing institutional support, training can produce racist outcomes. To be effective, training in the PSoA must be undertaken in concert with other initiatives for addressing racism in the school and, wherever possible, be sustained over time.

We demand that the PSoA:

8. Build Campus and Community Alliances

The PSoA should work to strengthen existing student and faculty-initiated alliances with African American Studies, African Studies, the Carl A. Fields Center, and with scholars and institutions beyond Princeton. Strategic alliances should be part of the daily fabric of learning in the PSoA, reflected in distribution requirements and studio offerings. Although partnerships with outside programs, foundations, and departments are important in bringing Black (as well as non-Black POC) voices into the school, extramural efforts should also not replace the PSoAs own efforts in actively countering racism.

We demand that the PSoA:

9. Ensure Accountability and Transparency

In order to uphold any long-term commitment to racial justice, the PSoA administration must provide students and faculty with a list of actionable items along with an implementation timeline, the metrics used to gauge progress, and the methods with which to monitor the schools accountability.

We demand that the PSoA:

This letter has made many demands of the PSoA. At the same time, we, the PSoA student community, recognize our failure in uplifting our BIPOC peers and must hold ourselves accountable for inaction. For too long, students have remained silent when faced with a syllabus of white men or a traveling studio that reproduces racist, colonial dynamics. Many have not shown up to events that feature Black speakers, conferences on Black topics, and classes on Black history. In the recent past, numerous students have tried to start conversations about race and inequity but were ignored by their faculty, peers, or the school administration. It is impossible for the PSoA to pursue racial justice unless all members of the school community acknowledge their responsibility in such an effort. We recognize that while we are being shaped by a racist institution, we as students must actively resist its racist ideals. We, the undersigned students and alumni, pledge to actively confront racism in our discipline and in our worldviews.

In closing, let us remember the words of civil rights leader Whitney M. Young Jr., who in 1968 told the architects at the AIA National Convention in Portland: You are not a profession that has distinguished itself by your social and civic contributions to the cause of civil rights, and I am sure this does not come to you as any shock You are most distinguished by your thunderous silence. We are humbled by the fact that more than five decades have passed since we first heard his indictment, yet there remains so much work to be done. We, as a community, must not be silent once again. Let us move forward with his words as a reminder of how our discipline has contributed to and sustained white supremacy. This letter is only one small effort in the continuing struggle to dismantle anti-Black racism struggles that were happening both within and outside of Princeton long before this moment, and that will continue far into the future. We must not allow this to become a single moment in time, but rather an urgent reminder that we must struggle, actively and on a daily basis, to reject this legacy.

Sincerely,

The undersigned graduate students and alumni of the Princeton School of Architecture.

[Follow this link to sign this letter: https://bit.ly/3hYV0Jn%5D

Current Students (84)

Tairan An, Ph.D.

Zulaikha Ayub, Ph.D.

Fiorella Barreto, M.Arch I 21

Maeliosa Barstow, M.Arch I 21

Carrie Bly, Ph.D.

Barrington Calvert, M.Arch I 23

Landon Carpenter, M.Arch I 21

Gregory Cartelli, Ph.D.

Lluis Alexandre Casanovas Blanco, Ph.D.

Cole Cataneo, M.Arch I 21

Carson Chan, Ph.D.

Martn Cobas, Ph.D.

Jonah Coe-Scharff, M.Arch I 21

Eleanor Collin, M.Arch I 22

Evan Crawford, M.Arch I 22

Melinda Denn, M.Arch I 22

Megan Eardley, Ph.D.

Michael Faciejew, Ph.D.

Kaitlin Faherty, M.Arch II 21

Helen Fialkowski, M.Arch I 21

Clemens Finkelstein, Ph.D.

Chase Galis, M.Arch I 21

Curt Gambetta, Ph.D.

Henry Gomory, Ph.D.

Victor Guan, A.B. Arch 21

Bernardo Guerra, M.Arch I 23

Larissa Guimares, M.Arch I 21

Daniel Hall, M.Arch II 22

Jonathan Hanna, M.Arch I 22

Jane Ilyasova, M.Arch I 21

Zaid Kashef Alghata, M.Arch II 21

Anna Kerr, M.Arch I 22

Evangelos Kotsioris, Ph.D.

Ivan L. Munuera, Ph.D.

Ingrid Lao, Ph.D.

Grace Lee, M.Arch I 22

Simon Lesina-Debiasi, M.Arch I 21

Reese Lewis, M.Arch I 22

Piao Liu, M.Arch II 21

Christopher Loofs, M.Arch I 23

Tiantian Lou, M.Arch II 21

Elena MBouroukounda, M.Arch I 21

Austin Madrigale, M.Arch I 22

Matthew Maldonado, M.Arch I 21

Anoushka Mariwala, A.B. Arch 21

Jacob McCarthy, M.Arch I 21

Elis Mendoza, Ph.D.

Ruta Misiunas, M.Arch I 21

Jacqueline Mix, M.Arch I 22

Christina Moushoul, M.Arch I 22

Luis Fernando Muoz, M.Arch I 21

Christopher Myefski, M.Arch I 21

MaryKate Neff, A.B. Arch 21

Jessica Ngan, Ph.D.

Victoria Oeye, Ph.D.

Emmanuel Osorno, M.Arch II 21

Megan Pai, A.B. Arch 22

Chitra Parikh, A.B. Arch 21

Rafael Pastrana, Ph.D.

Bart-Jan Polman, Ph.D.

Juan Pablo Ponce de Leon, M.Arch I 21

Clelia Pozzi, Ph.D.

Lisa Ramsburg, M.Arch I 22

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Open letter on anti-racism to the Princeton School of Architecture - The Daily Princetonian