Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

We are deeply saddened and outraged over the acts of bigotry, hatred, and intolerance targeting members of Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities this week in Atlanta, and over the last year in California, Chicago, and New York. These attacks are part of a disturbing trend of increased hate crimes against AAPI community members across the nation. We have always had a very large AAPI community within Illinois Tech—within our student body, our faculty, and our staff. Every member of this community is vital to our success as a university, as well as being our friends, our colleagues, and part of our university family.

We must all commit ourselves to doing everything in our power to seek out the root causes of bigotry whenever we see it and to put a stop to it, both on our campus and throughout our communities. At this time, we would ask you, as one Illinois Tech community, to show true support, care, and concern for our fellow students, faculty, and staff.

One of the most important feelings that we can develop is a sense of belonging, where all of our community members see our university not only as a safe haven, where they can work and study and grow, but also a place where they are appreciated and valued by each other. At this time, as we reach out to our AAPI community, we should also reach out to our other communities—our African-American, our undocumented, our Muslim, and our LGBTQ communities, who have also been subjected to intolerance and abuse—and continue to support them.

Thank you for your support for one another and for always working to strengthen our community. We pledge to continue partnering with each of you to make our community more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable—where everyone can develop a true sense of belonging. This should be the Illinois Tech way.

Sincerely,

Alan W. Cramb
President, Illinois Institute of Technology

Peter Kilpatrick
Provost, Illinois Institute of Technology