The Purdue chapter of the American Association of University Professors, endorses the requests of the Black Student Union released 4/12/2022 upon Purdue’s concluding report about the event of police violence against Adonis Tuggle on 2/4/2022. The Black Student Union, in collaboration with the National Society for Black Engineers, the Purdue National Pan-Hellenic Council, the Purdue African Students Association, and Purdue Student Government, requests a number of commitments from the Purdue Police Department and from the administration regarding transparency and additional support.
In short, the demands of the Police Department are:
- Comprehensive and formalized racial bias training approved by the Racial Equity Institute (with other endorsements);
- Non-violent or domestic violence calls should require a trained social worker, with bodycam in additional to any police officers;
- Bodycam footage made available within 48 hrs of an incident
- To record and present metrics on all interactions and engagements with student organizations and events to the Equity Task Force and Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (ODEIB), to be used to determine department funding and officer compensation.
The demands to Purdue’s administration:
- Creation of a Purdue Judiciary Review Board to review instances of rape, racial harassment, “severe criminal deviance” and any discriminatory actions reported;
- Creation of a line of communication between the Judiciary Review Board and the ODEIB to immediately communicate findings of the Judiciary Review Board to the campus community.
The full statement can be located here.
We join our voices with these student leaders to endorse and amplify these demands. We call on other faculty, graduate students, and staff, to do similarly, and to ask the administration in all opportunities available to respond promptly, publicly, and affirmatively.
The AAUP Purdue executive committee passed this statement on 5/9/22 after the statement initially failed to pass as a chapter statement. 37 members voted in support of this statement, with 0 no votes, and 5 abstentions. To pass as a chapter statement, 38 yes votes were required. The executive committee decided to release as an executive committee statement because there was no explicit member opposition and the vote came at a busy time during the semester. However, as an organization predominately filled with white people, we also recognize that abstentions might represent individuals’ unwillingness to confront white supremacy directly. Therefore we as an executive committee decided to trust and support Black students and amplify their request.