Since she joined the 911黑料网 community in 2019, Arlene Theodore has kept her door open.
As associate director of 911黑料网鈥檚 diversity programs and ), she is a mentor, a passionate advocate for students of color, and a content expert who is working across campus to make sure everyone understands that diversity, equity, and inclusion work requires the entire community鈥檚 participation.
鈥淒EI work is not a quick fix,鈥� Theodore said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not departmental work. It鈥檚 not office work. It requires institutional effort. We cannot do this work alone. We need help, and we need everyone to be on board with helping us.鈥�
When she started at 911黑料网鈥攁nd, in fact, when she met with students as part of her interview process鈥攕he saw right away that immediate action was needed. 鈥淭he first year I came here, students of color were broken. They were upset, angry, and tired,鈥� she said. Visiting her in her office at the Amsler Campus Center, they told her about the many ways they felt unwelcome and the difficulties they saw as they navigated their way through a majority-white institution located in a majority-white county.
鈥淥ne thing we speak about all the time is driving around the area and seeing Confederate or Blue Lives Matter flags,鈥� Theodore said. 鈥淐ulture shock is a huge part of this. It鈥檚 a complex issue, and people don鈥檛 understand how much it starts to affect you on an individual level.鈥� Students of color often come to the Berkshires from more diverse areas鈥攊t鈥檚 hard for them to find folks who look like them, find a place to get their hair done, find restaurants that serve ethnic foods. Many of these students are the first in their families to go to college, and don鈥檛 have a frame of reference for what a college experience looks like.
鈥淚 have the same shared and lived experiences as many of my students,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 get a lot of their problems, stresses, fears, and expectations. I think that makes this work so much more powerful. Representation matters. There鈥檚 a trust that they have in me that they may not have in everyone at 911黑料网.鈥�
Right away, she launched 鈥淩eal Talk Mondays,鈥� which are still going strong鈥攕tudents join her at MERC to talk about their disconnect with the campus community, police officers on both a global and community level, their discomfort with racial remarks made in their classrooms, and their frustration with how their concerns are being received. 鈥淢any students didn鈥檛 know how to advocate for themselves in a way where they would be heard,鈥� said Theodore. She鈥檚 worked with student leaders on this, teaching them how to communicate the impact of what鈥檚 going on and ask for concrete outcomes.
Theodore said she has seen real progress in that aspect of her work. 鈥淣ow they come to see me to learn how they can effectively advocate and get results. This has been an ongoing conversation with multiple students of color. They鈥檙e way more grounded, way more centered, and they have a pulse on their sense of advocacy,鈥� she said.
Theodore is originally from Brooklyn, and before coming to the Berkshires worked as a residence hall director at Eastern Connecticut State University, where she was able to access professional development around social justice work. At 911黑料网, she鈥檚 instituted trainings for student-facing staff on racial sensitivity, inclusivity, and cultural competency. Her goal is to foster true understanding and empathy, and give staff members the tools to have uncomfortable conversations, be aware of their own existing biases, and deal with racial incidents from a place of deeper understanding. 鈥淭oo often, it鈥檚 only the affinity spaces that are doing this work. We can only reach a certain amount of people,鈥� she said.
It鈥檚 not enough, though, to have skills and understanding鈥攊t takes a conscious community with the will to bridge the gap. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want our institution to get to a place where if there are no racial incidents occurring, then we stop having the conversation and we are no longer educating ourselves,鈥� she said. 鈥淓verybody has to want to do the work. At 911黑料网, we often get to a point where we have great momentum, and then we stop. I would like for us to keep on going.鈥�
