Northwestern University Theatre Students Are Demanding Anti-Racist Actions From the Department

Northwestern University Theatre students are demanding the department take anti-racist action and accountability, The Daily Northwestern reports.

Communications student Grace Dolezal-Ng kicked this off on June 3, when she replied to a statement issued by faculty to theatre majors following the killing of George Floyd.

"I have been waiting for four years to see tangible change in the NU theatre curriculum and operations," Dolezal-Ng said in the email, "and would like to ask for there to be specific measures put in place to actively change the culture of this theatre program."

Some students are saying that the university's theatre curriculum is specifically geared toward white people.

Other students state that required readings are heavily focused on white writers. Problems were also addressed about the junior year acting curriculum which is currently split into three all-white parts: Shakespeare, the Greeks and Chekhov.

Students of color have been dropped out of the acting program because of the lack of diversity.

"There's been a mass exodus of (people of color) from acting classes, especially this year," said Communication senior Jasmine Sharma. "I really, really needed a teacher of color. I didn't feel as though any other acting class would have been safer than the one that I had already been in."

On June 8, following Dolezal-Ng's reply, the theatre department released a second statement, including a list of anti-racist commitments. Weeks later, when follow-up actions were never presented, Sharma led a group of students in another round of mass emails.

E. Patrick Johnson, the new School of Communication dean, was not permitted to reply to the emails until his start date on August 1.

On August 2, he replied, saying, "Unfortunately, some of the changes that you and I want to see may not come to fruition in this coming year. But it won't keep me from trying! I'm only in my second day on the job, but here I am, on a Sunday morning, working. And I will not stop until I see material change in the school."

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