by Rachel Blaydes,
Public Policy Chair
This semester marks the beginning of the Anti-Racism Coalition, a collection of representatives for student organizations all across the University of Florida coming together to combat racism within University systems and within student organizations themselves.
SWE is proud to join the coalition alongside other engineering organizations such as SHPE and NSBE in addition to organizations for journalism and leadership. The inaugural coalition meeting gave an overview of the ultimate goals for the coalition, and pushed representatives to think critically about how anti-racism work looks within their organization going forward.
The primary goals of the coalition are Education, Advocacy, Accountability, and Reform. During the first meeting, the focus was education as representatives discussed measures that their organization has established to sustainably integrate anti-racism into the foundation of their organization.
The meeting also worked on accountability through addressing critical questions such as:
● What are you currently doing? What anti-racist policies have you implemented, if any?
● What can we do as organizations/leaders to move forward and make positive changes?
● How can we implement meaningful change within our policies and practices?
I was able to discuss how SWE held a donation matching campaign for foundations which work to strengthen black communities and dismantle the systemic barriers which exist to this day such as the Black Women’s Blueprint and Black Girls Code.
We still have a long way to go, and I am excited to learn more ways we can implement anti-racist structures within SWE. Other representatives suggested hosting semesterly events about combating racist thoughts and integrating anti-racist work into our constitution so the efforts continue without fading.
The coalition will continue to have meetings throughout the semester, expanding on the goals of advocacy and reform. If you are interested in attending future meetings or have ideas on how SWE can continue to implement anti-racist policies - DM me (Rachel Blaydes) on Slack! I would love to hear from you.
Rachel is the UF SWE 2020-21 Public Policy chair, and is passionate about advocacy & plants! She is graduating this spring with a degree in Materials Science & Engineering, then moving to Salt Lake City, UT to work as a Supply Chain Operations Manager for FritoLay.
