The Journey Back to Home
Carlos G. Alemán
Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies and Professor in Residence at Harrisonburg City Public Schools
I have been teaching in the School of Communication Studies since 1998. I met and fell in love with my partner, Melissa Alemán, nearly 30 years ago in graduate school at the University of Iowa, where we both earned our doctorate degrees in Communication Studies. My first academic position was as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, a wonderfully diverse and inclusive campus where I felt at home. We chose to apply to JMU when several job postings were made late in the year for revolving term appointments. We saw this an opportunity to leave Chicago to again work together in the same department and to move a little closer to her family.
I felt unwelcomed at the outset of my career at JMU, as it was a radical shift from the campus environment in Chicago. I first experienced this culture shock when I left my home in Fresno, CA, for doctoral study. While I came to realize the otherness of my gendered, sexualized, and racialized self at Iowa, living Chicago helped me to realize the comfort of myself as Chicano and the grace of growing up poor. But teaching at JMU could be a whole different experience of polite othering from folks who respected my position in the classroom, to outright hostility from students who did not. Fortunately, long conversations with supportive students and colleagues helped me to embrace who I am, the lived experiences I’ve brought with me, and the questions I’m still asking.
I was invited to be a JMU PIR at the right moment in my career, and I can’t overstate how the PIR opportunity for building academic outreach and college access in our local community has continued to be nourishing and transformative for me. The PIR program was developed along with other bold initiatives, such as the JMU Centennial Scholars Program, at a time when many were looking for bold changes to address the lack of student and faculty diversity on our campus. The opportunity to mentor and support first-generation, immigrant and under-resourced students in our local public schools as a PIR faculty brought me back to home.
So many people write of our nation today as increasingly fragmented by groupings, if not hostile. That’s not a new experience for me, but it’s also not how I want to live my life. I find hope in the playfulness and optimism of the middle and high school students I have the chance to learn from, especially as they talk about one day going to college. I hope that we will listen to them when they get here.
Building Bridges towards Racial Equity
Rebeca Barge
Associate Director, CMSS
I am a woman, a partner, a mother and an enthusiastic JMU employee. One of the most significant steps in my career, and in my life, was being invited to join the Center for Multicultural Student Services as an Associate Director. I have been challenged and warmly invited into inter-racial relationships with colleagues and students that has shaped me profoundly over the last two years in this role.
I’ve understood myself to be a woman my whole life; I had not understood myself as a white woman most of my life. So much of my identity and self-expression was formed in Latin America. My parents worked in Central America in peacebuilding and development, and I was born and raised outside of the United States. I speak Spanish and English, and moved to the United States when I was 12. It took most of my life to understand who I am, and many people along the way have contributed to my growth. My grounding in who I am comes from embracing my identity as a white woman, as a native Spanish speaker, as being able-bodied, and using these privileges to build bridges towards racial equity rather than helping to maintain a system of white supremacy.
It takes effort, vulnerability, introspection and honest relationships to look at and understand my whiteness and other salient identities. We have such significant opportunities to model these actions in our roles at JMU, to each other and to students, that my hope is to be consistent as a practitioner in Student Affairs in displaying and living by these values.
I was moved by two comments Dr. Estela Bensimon stated this past spring in the Racial Equity Conversation. I paraphrase from my notes: “Reading about anti-racist work doesn’t make me anti-racist. Reading about mountain climbing does not make me a climber.” The second comment I remember was: “Don’t just share your outrage in private; stand up in public to the racist comment.” I took these both as clear invitations and challenges to intentionally apply my unlearning and embrace the learning that continues to takes place each week here on campus.
The Fight for Proper Action
Tyler Jones
President of the Black Student Alliance
My name is Tyler Jones and I am a Senior International Affairs major, minoring in Spanish, African, African-American Diaspora (AAAD) Studies and Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. I am a 21-year-old man of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. from Chesterfield County, Va. I attended James River High School through the Leadership & International Relations Specialty Center. I am the youngest of five siblings; three sisters and two brothers. I am an uncle to four nieces and five nephews.
My upbringing and support with which I was raised, fortunately by both of my parents, have inspired and driven me to achieve in life. My father was the youngest of three, born in 1960 in Indianapolis, In. to a driven educator from Tennessee and a former sharecropper from Mississippi. My mother is one of seven born in 1962 in Newport, R.I. to a first-generation Mexican-American and a first-generation Cape Verdean-American.
I am blessed to have traveled to eight countries so far in my life, and I have a lot more to go. I had the privilege to study abroad through the Honors College & CGE in the Dominican Republic, where we not only basked in the culture of la isla, but we learned about the history of Hispaniola and volunteered at a K-8 school. My future goals range from traveling the world, to leaving a legacy of a better experience for students of color here at JMU, to being of service to communities in need and living a happy life.
As a Black student, I experienced the common internal struggle: HBCU or PWI? My decision to attend this predominately and historically white institution of higher learning came at an opportunity cost. I recognized I would be sacrificing the culture and support system that HBCUs have to offer. However, in choosing this PWI, I perceived two things: the opportunities and doors that would be opened to me and the pathway I could forge for those behind me by continuing to dismantle its roots in white supremacy.
My high school did not look much different from JMU, so I believed I was “prepared for battle” so to speak. I had researched the resources connected to my major of interest and student organizations/clubs that would provide programming and foster community on campus. This led me to the Center for Multicultural Student Services (CMSS) and, eventually, I pursued membership and leadership roles within the Black Student Alliance, the Latinx Student Alliance and the Intercultural Greek Council. I identify best with servant leadership, which has driven me to advocate for myself and others through the Black Leadership Coalition, the College of Arts & Letters Student Diversity Council, the Honors College Diversity Council, the CMSS Student Advisory Council, and the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Student Advisory Board. Apart from fulfilling my father and family’s legacy, the history, value of achievement and brotherhood of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. motivated me to become a Spring 2020 So1o initiate into the Nu Lambda Chapter here at James Madison University. All of these conversations, relationships and life lessons have shaped me into the leader and person I am today.
Being a member of these organizations has reminded me of how much power I possess as a student and as an individual. I should never tolerate gradualism or less than I deserve. I’ve become aware of the differences between genuine allyship and performative activism; to be a true ally means trading your comfortability and/or privilege for the inclusion and awareness of others. Everyone who I have had the privilege to work beside has motivated me to continue the fight for proper action toward Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion here at JMU and within the entire realm of higher education. It is never easy to work against the grain, to chart a path that others deemed cautionary or unthinkable. However, I am inspired by those who would not take no for an answer and by those who recognize the disparity in the chance for opportunity and choice, and create actionably just change.
It is no secret that the opportunity for higher education was once denied to those outside of the White race. And it is no secret that there are still barriers being broken within this realm of privileged academia. I am aware that I will never have the “normal” college experience that my fellow White peers have basked in for the past few years. While they walked into every space, feeling joyful and welcomed, I was apprehensive of what thoughts hid behind those judgmental eyes. I was wary of what events or resources would be provided in order for me to feel safe, seen and heard.
My hope for this university is that we stick by “Being the Change” and actually doing the work. Those outside of the majority, often unheard and misrepresented, should not only have two shelters in the rain: the Center for Multicultural Student Services (CMSS) and the Furious Flower Poetry Center (“conveniently” on the outer edge of campus). Student leaders of color are stretched too thin because if we do not do the work, then who will?! We must provide that home and community for our members on campus, all while battling micro-aggressions in the classroom and tearing down elitist barriers within the administration.
While it is uncomfortable to illustrate the true nature and history of this institution, JMU must come to terms with its roots being entrenched in indigenous upheaval and White supremacy. These roots never healed, but were paved over by beautiful bluestone, too enticing to ever peel back to reveal its true flesh. We cannot simply see an increase in the number of students of color here at JMU as an accomplishment if the lack of representative and qualified faculty, lack of resources/support and lack of accountability creates such a hostile, unsafe environment that they must leave.
I believe until we do some real introspective, mindful action and reevaluation of the type of higher education learning institution JMU wants to be, this university will never truly be a center that prepares leaders for a world operating within and beyond the 21st century. My hope for James Madison University is that while we have this focus on recruiting more students of color, that we are also hiring the faculty, staff and administration to match and support them as well. It is no longer and has never been fair to rely on a handful of students and staff to be the monolith for our communities. Lastly, if JMU truly desires to hear and understand the student experience, then we must go beyond a survey. You must hear from us directly to gain the true scope of being a JMU Dukes student on the daily. “Beyond our division, JMU recognizes it cannot sustain what we think of as our excellence without authentically embracing inclusivity.” * This is where we simply ask you to be about what you talk about.
*Quote from the Academic Affairs Anti-Racist and Anti-Discrimination Agenda
The Intersection of Generosity and Hope
Exuberance: Dialogues in African-American Abstract Painting
Madison Trust Faculty Funding Proposal Deadline
Stress Management and Self-Care with Marsha Mays-Bernard
Global Civil Rights Symposium
Women in Tech: Forging a Path
Collaborations Across the Commonwealth: Somos JMU Latinx Conference
Ballet Hispánico
Saving Democracy: Capitol Police Office Harry Dunn (’05)
Open, Affordable Textbooks Make Courses More Accessible
Faculty Leading by Example with Open and Affordable Resources
Read About Afghanistan: A New Book Display
Black Studies and Black Spaces Exhibit
The exhibit, currently on view throughout the ISAT/CS/EnGeo/Phys/Chem buildings, was recently celebrated at an event featuring contributing faculty and students.
Celebrate Hispanic American Heritage in Film
COVID-19: Part II, Straight Talk with the Virginia Department of Health: A panel discussion on the importance of understanding and overcoming healthcare misinformation in the Black community. Panelists included Black alumni and VDH experts. 
AAAD Accomplice Network 
Preferred Pronouns now Available in Cascade
Honoring National Coming Out Day
Madison Hispanic Caucus Banquet
Women Entrepreneurship Showcase
Ole School Alumni Scholarship Group
PIR Facilitates Hands on Learning Opportunity
