The Board of Trustees, at their fall 2019 meeting, voted to begin the process towards holding a Transformative Community Conference. A group was convened across constituencies to begin design. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the TCC process was not begun until the fall of 2020.

Repairing the Breach

In June, 2020, Columbia announced their commitment statement titled, “Repairing the Breach: Deepening Columbia’s Commitment to Black People and their Flourishing” which outlines the following commitments:

1. In public recognition of her ground-breaking research, teaching, and dedication to this seminary that has often failed to appropriately appreciate and celebrate the contributions of black scholars, Columbia Seminary will name the NRH, Marcia Y. Riggs Hall (Riggs Commons) effective immediately.

2. Columbia Seminary will fully fund the cost of tuition and student fees for all Black students who apply and are admitted to the seminary’s Masters degree programs.

3. Columbia Seminary will expand our campus use policy to include Black Lives Matter and other organizations working to end racism against Black people. Such organizations will be granted free access to our campus to plan, strategize, organize, and offer care to one another and the broader community.

4. Columbia Seminary will develop and publicize a new grant program for community organizations working to end racism and police brutality against Black people.

5. Columbia will develop new agreements with Agnes Scott Public Safety and the City of Decatur Police Department to emphasize Columbia’s expectation that both departments commit to policies that immediately decrease the risk of harm to Black people on our campus and beyond. The seminary will also work to support and implement new paradigms for public and community safety that do not assume the necessity of police intervention or criminal charges as solutions.

Additional commitments were made regarding DEI, Ombuds Office, and other seminary programs and processes.

At their fall meeting, the Board of Trustees mandated the beginning of a process of institution reckoning with “conversation as a means for confessing past and present wounding, exposing the systemic roots and present dynamics of that wounding, and initiating specific strategic action plans for institutional change.” 

Dr. Riggs, Ombudsperson for the Seminary said, “I think that this is a kairos moment when all of Columbia’s past and present constituencies are being called to do the difficult work of dismantling white supremacy here and now in this place.”

Planned for Spring, 2020, the process was delayed due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. The caucus meetings were held in the summer of 2020 and the Community Conference is planned for October, 2020.

Erskine Clarke’s book, To Count Our Days, A History of Columbia Theological Seminary, was published in August 2019 and stirred conversations on campus and among alumni of the seminary. The book covers history of the school from it’s inception through more recent events.

Erskine Clarke is professor emeritus of American religious history at Columbia Theological Seminary. For his book Dwelling Place: A Plantation Epic, he received Columbia University’s Bancroft Prize for a distinguished work in American history.  

The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Council was formed with the goal of community education, advising the President and creating and implementing an EDI Policy and mechanism for reporting discrimination.

Also in 2018, a multi-cultural team working with Dr. Christine Yoder, then Interim Dean of Faculty, partnered with the Wabash Center to identify areas where Columbia’s pedagogical practices, readings, syllabi and curriculum might support or impede a multicultural teaching and learning environment. The faculty participated in workshops about multicultural teaching as part of the process. Dr. John Azumah, Professor of World Christianity and Islam, Dr. Raj Nadella, Assistant Professor of New Testament and, Dr. Marcia Riggs, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics worked with Dr. Yoder and the Wabash consultants to develop goals and criteria for periodic evaluation as well as mechanisms for collaboration with other institutional offices.

Black students and allies met on the quad in protest of racism experienced on campus. This “reimaging” of life together led to the We are Columbia campaign and other actions on campus.

We Are Columbia

Presbyterian Masters of Divinity Student, Kayla Johnson creatively used photographs of current students, staff and faculty to reveal how Columbia had become more diverse. The slogan, We are Columbia, was used at orientation to draw the community together.

Multicultural Organizational Development Team

In 2006, Dr. Laura S. Mendenhall, President of Columbia from 2000 to 2009, initiated a group of students, staff, faculty and administrators to study “how the CTS community can deeply and appreciatively receive the diversity that is (and may become) part of its life. A community wide survey was conducted to bring to light issues of diversity on campus.

The Multicultural Organizational Development team, co-chaired by Dean Cam Murchison and Professor Marcia Y. Riggs, presented to the faculty The Guideline to Support Multicultural Teaching and Learning which was adopted by the Faculty on May 6, 2010. In it’s recommendation of the Guideline to the faculty, the co-chairs state that it represents the “ideas and commitments expressed by the Seminary community through consciousness-raising activities, educational community forums, on-line forum discussions, and the collective wisdom of the MCOD Committee.” They characterize the framework of the Guideline as “multicultural justice, an umbrella term for commitments and practices that address discrimination, in this case with respect to the educational environment and practices of the Seminary.”

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