Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Letters to the Community

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Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,

I write to offer an update on the Campus Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) and a few early actions it has taken this semester.

In Spring 2021, the original Campus Safety Advisory Committee, comprised of students, faculty and staff, was charged with generating options for a community safety model that would support the range of needs within our community and reflect our commitment to equity and inclusion. Additionally, the committee was charged with making recommendations to various groups and individuals on specific safety issues at the College; they delivered their report (log-in required) on April 18, 2022.

One of their recommendations was to establish an ongoing committee to advise the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), Student Affairs, and the College administration on the creation and implementation of fair, equitable and effective campus safety policies and procedures and be responsive to the needs of the campus community. 

A new CSAC was formed this semester, and I serve as its chair. Its first monthly meeting of the new academic year was held October 6, and here are the group’s 2022-23 members:

Liz Agosto
Tapti Sen ‘25
Jeffrey Bird
Darien McFadden
John Carter
Allen Hart
Rob Johnson
Michael Kunichika
Andrew Carmody ‘26
Cara Sullivan
Angie Tissi-Gassoway
Carolyn Coulter: Notetaker
(Two students from AAS to be named)

One of the first orders of business at the meeting was to discuss whether ACPD vehicles should be marked or not marked, a topic that provoked a great deal of community conversation during the last academic year. The recommendation of the CSAC was to re-mark the vehicles, which was supported by Chief John Carter. We will be remarking the vehicles as they were originally: Of the five ACPD vehicles, three will have the markings restored on October 30 and two will remain unmarked for ACPD administrators and detectives conducting sensitive investigative work, traveling to and from court, and picking up dignitaries on behalf of the College. 

The next meeting of the CSAC will be on November 15, after which a summary will be made available via email and on our updated website. In the meantime, if you have questions or wish to learn more about the Committee, please contact us at Campus-Safety-Advisory-Committee@amherst.edu. 

In community, 

Angie

Angie Tissi-Gassoway, M.Ed., MPH
Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer

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Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

As I indicated in my April 18 letter regarding campus safety, based on the recommendation of the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, we will create a new committee made up of students, faculty, staff, and subject matter experts. The charge for the new group is provided below. During the coming weeks, I will work with the appropriate groups (AAS, the Committee of Six, and the Employee Council) to identify student, staff, and faculty representatives for the committee. 

I believe this is an important step in our community-wide effort to build a campus on which all members of our community can feel safe. I look forward to launching this group.

Biddy

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CAMPUS SAFETY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Charge and Membership 

Purpose: The committee will advise the Amherst College Police Department (ACPD), the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and the College administration on campus safety policies and procedures and related issues. The goal of the committee is to support the College’s efforts to be responsive to the needs of the campus community and to provide advice on the implementation of fair, equitable, and effective campus safety and police practices.

The committee will:

• Serve as the liaison for community concerns or issues that relate to campus safety
• Provide feedback and suggestions pertaining to campus safety policies and procedures (e.g., uniforms, unmarked police cars, body cameras, etc.)
• Provide feedback and suggestions about training, roles, and responsibilities (e.g., differential dispatch and the ACPD, Community Service Officers [CSOs], and Community Safety Assistants [CSAs] model)
• Provide advice on efforts to enhance communication between ACPD, Student Affairs, and the campus community about safety issues
• Identify problems or issues that arise in campus safety, and develop and recommend solutions to ACPD and to the CSAs/Student Affairs
• Publish a report annually, or as determined by the chair and the committee. The content and form will be determined by the committee, but it will include a summary of its work for the past year. Upon approval of the report in its entirety by a majority of the committee, the report will be submitted to the President and subsequently made available to the entire Amherst College community.

To be effective, the committee will:

• Have access to reports (redacted where appropriate) and data on ACPD activity, and be informed on relevant laws and issues related to campus safety and policing (local to national)
• Have access to external subject experts
• Meet regularly with members of the campus safety team (e.g., CSOs, CSAs, ACPD, etc.)
• Regularly solicit feedback from members of the community (through surveys, etc.)
• Consistently take into account implicit bias, racial and cultural differences, and best practices in overcoming prejudice and discrimination in policing.

Meetings:

The committee will meet regularly during the academic year, with at least two meetings per semester. The Chair may convene the committee for special meetings if/as needed.  All members are expected to regularly attend and participate in meetings.

Membership:

• Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer
• Chief Student Affairs Officer
• Director, Center for Counseling and Mental Health
• Chief of Police
• Campus police officer
• Community Safety Supervisor
• 4 students: 2 chosen through AAS, 2 appointed by the CSAO
• 1 staff member from an area not already represented on the committee
• 2 faculty members
• For the first year, the committee will be chaired by the CEIO.

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To the Amherst campus,

We, the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, are a group of students, staff, and faculty who have been asked to create a consultative process that will allow us to represent both the varied views of the community as well as a range of options for a community safety model. The resulting model will support the various needs within our community identified through this process while reflecting our commitment to equity and inclusion.  These findings will be presented to Biddy and the senior administration as options -- not as recommendations -- to inform their decision about how to proceed. As such, your involvement matters immensely to the process. 

We want to let you know about the work we’ve done so far and our plans and hopes for this fall. Our process has been guided by a strong collaboration with Cambridge Hill Partners (CHP), who specialize in helping organizations reshape cultures based on each institution’s values and priorities. CHP worked closely with the Advisory Committee throughout the summer. They were responsive to the committee’s concerns while helping us to prepare for the fall season’s important work. We met regularly and have:

• designed an infrastructure for a consultative, transparent, and inclusive process for co-creating and re-creating Amherst College’s community safety system, 
• generated a repository of resources (which we will make available), 
• developed a work plan for delivering on our charge, 
• developed as a committee coming together around our own diverse perspectives and experiences relevant to this work.

We are aiming to present a preliminary report to Biddy and the senior staff in early October and a more comprehensive report by mid-December.

We recognize that much work has already been done through the important conversations that students have been having; we intend to build on these, not try to recreate or repeat them and to provide spaces for experiences and viewpoints as yet unvoiced.

It’s important that we hear from a representative cross-section of our community. In order to have the most robust results, your participation matters. Whether you’re new to campus, a second semester senior, a staff member in Val, the Mead, or facilities, or a first-year faculty member, please know that we want to hear from you. In these early stages, we will be conducting restorative circles and focus groups. There will be constituency-based (e.g., student only, staff only, faculty only) and mixed (i.e., faculty, staff and students) groups. These conversations will be respectful and conducted by skilled facilitators. Any information gathered from the conversations will not be attributed to individual participants; rather, feedback from the groups will be shared with the committee in the form of consistent themes or headlines emerging from the conversations.  Upcoming restorative listening circles (conducted by the Center for Restorative Practices) and focus groups (conducted by CHP) will be advertised in the Daily Mammoth, Provost’s Newsletter, and OHR Newsletter. We have already reserved the following dates and times for restorative listening circles: September 13 (2-3:30), 14 (5-6:30), 20 (1-2:30)(to be held in person), and 21 (5-6:30), click here to register. Focus groups will begin the week of September 20th, registration details will be shared via the Daily Mammoth and other sources.

These sessions will not be the only means of engaging with this process. During a second wave of community engagement informed by these small group sessions, the committee will also conduct campus-wide surveys. We hope that this multi-method approach will allow all members of our community to contribute to this effort in the ways in which they feel most comfortable. In addition, we intend to co-sponsor other opportunities (e.g., readings, lectures, CHI salons, teach-ins, open meetings, drop-in hours) and draw upon other campus resources to educate each other and engage with issues of campus safety broadly defined. 

Community members can send thoughts, comments, and/or questions for the Advisory Committee throughout the fall to Campus-Safety-Advisory-Committee@amherst.edu. Note that individual emails may not receive a response, but they will be seen by the committee. Look for our announcements and solicitations for participation in the Daily Mammoth and social media outlets.

We look forward to working with you as together we strive for a more safe, supportive, and inclusive Amherst.

Sincerely,

Allen Hart, Chair, Interim Chief Equity & Inclusion Officer, Manwell Family Professor in Life Sciences
Lisa Brooks, Professor of English and American Studies
Maya Foster ‘23
Sofia Guerra ‘22
Michael Kunichika, Associate Professor of Russian
Eli Maierson ‘23
Jess Martin, Administrative Director of the Science Center
Chris Moulton, Academic Support Coordinator
Kate Salop, Chief Strategy Officer
Emily Tareila, Assistant Director for Internship Programs, Loeb Center