HKS Racial Equity Now
We are a group of 100+ Harvard Kennedy School students demanding Racial Equity Now! We are calling on the Harvard Kennedy School to commit to creating an anti-racist culture and curriculum.
About Us
HKS Equity Coalition
The HKS Equity Coalition is a group of students committed to building a movement for equity and justice at Harvard Kennedy School. We are intentionally not an official student group. We are student organizers who mobilize our peers, pressure the administration to create transformative change, and hold each other accountable in community.
The work of Equity Coalition is race explicit, not exclusive. By this we mean our work explicitly names and centers anti-Black racism while demanding change that is intersectional and inclusive of gender identity, socioeconomic status, caste, ethnicity, sexuality, ability, immigration status, religion, nationality, age and more.
Equity Coalition seeks both equitable outcomes and an equitable process, one in which power is shifted to students to imagine, design, and govern a new culture and curriculum at Harvard Kennedy School.
Equity Coalition envisions a world where people create change from where they are. Though we all come from different backgrounds and experiences, we are all students at Harvard Kennedy School. As such, we acknowledge our privilege and seek a reckoning with the institution’s history, culture, and ideologies that have played (and continue to play) a significant role in shaping unjust policies and practices across the world.
Equity Coalition has no interest in maintaining the status quo.
What
We
Want
Course
Implement a semester-long course on global racism, colonialism, and public policy, mandatory for all four master’s degree programs (MPP, MPA, MPA-ID, MC/MPA) beginning annually in Fall 2021.
Faculty
Annually cluster hire a cohort of four BIPOC faculty who critically study the intersectionality of race, gender identity, class, caste, and power across a variety of disciplines and support their paths to tenure.
Audit
Conduct a comprehensive public audit of all HKS course curricula and research using an anti-racist, anti-colonial lens.
Workshops
Implement anti-racism workshops biannually for all students, faculty, staff and HKS affiliates.
Admissions
Address the underrepresentation of HKS BIPOC students by instituting admissions policy reforms, need-based financial aid, and supporting fellowships specifically for Indigenous, Black, and Latinx students.
Accountability
Create a system of accountability between HKS administration, faculty, staff, and students.
HKS Racial Equity Now 