#student historian

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Student Historian Sydney Tang on getting started

By Sydney Tang, Student Historian 2021-2022

When I first saw the Student Historian position, I began brainstorming ideas for potential research topics if I was offered the role. I thought about my identities as a queer woman of color, the different jobs and internships I’ve worked at, the various student organizations that I’ve been involved with, the opportunities and resources I took advantage of, and the culmination of experiences from all of these things. My list grew and grew, but two stuck out to me: the experiences of students of color that led the Wisconsin Union Directorate (WUD)––the Wisconsin Union’s student programming board––and student activism in relation to Asian American student organizations that have been formed. Both topics have been formidable in providing spaces for me to find community and have given me hundreds of stories to talk about.

In the end, I decided that I would apply as a Student Historian in Residence to highlight and share the experiences of students of color who have led WUD and the Wisconsin Union.

Memorial Union at Twilight, 2017s00801

The Union is considered the “living room of campus” and has a vision of being a place “where all belong.” These phrases were shared throughout my time with the Union. I saw the Union as a second home, a place where I felt like I could be me, a space to make and learn from mistakes, and a smaller community within the larger campus. At the same time, I also sometimes felt excluded and knew that not all people, especially other students of color, also felt like they belonged. As such, I wanted to pay homage to my predecessors that laid the foundations for trying to foster a welcoming community. I wanted to learn about how they paved the way for me to do the work I do at the Wisconsin Union as a past Director of the WUD Distinguished Lecture Series committee, current Vice President of Internal Relations for the Wisconsin Union, and as an employee in the Productions unit. In a way, this would serve as a reflection with my experiences with the Union and a project for understanding inclusion and exclusion in a community that pushes to create an environment where everyone belongs.

After receiving this role, the next step for narrowing down this topic was a bit harder. There were so many eras that I could research: the first students of color that made up Directorate, students that have pushed WUD to be more vocal for social movements, students that recently led WUD, and more. I spend time researching to see what information I could find that would best allow me to make my ideas come to life. I went through documents and oral history interviews related to the Wisconsin Union and WUD found at the University Archives and in the WUD offices. For a while, I thought about changing the topic to how student activists used Union buildings as a place for safety and a place for protesting during the anti-war period in the 1960s and 70s. But my mind kept going back to a sentence I found while reading a timeline of WUD, “in 2005, Janell Wise was the first student of color that became the Union President.”

I knew that I wanted to connect with Janell Wise and other students of color that were part of that era’s Directorate. I wanted to hear their experiences with leading the Union, the gripes they had that pushed them toward action, the success stories they are proud of, and reflections and advice for future student leaders of color at WUD. With the help of Cat Phan, my supervisor; Troy Reeves, the Head of the Oral History Program; Kacie Lucchini Butcher, the UW Public History Project Director; and a whole list of people I’ve connected with at the Wisconsin Union and the University Archives, I will begin conducting oral history interviews of these students. These interviews center the students and their stories. Throughout this process, I have learned how meticulous I have to be to ensure the narrators understand the logistics and details of my project and of the interview. I’ve also continued to be reminded about how the narrative of the interview changes both based on the questions I ask and of the responses that come out. In some ways, I’m a little bit anxious that this may lead to topics that I have considered yet. At the same time, I’m excited to hear about their experiences, to provide additional context to their stories through the materials found at the UW Archives and Wisconsin Union Archives, and to share their stories with other WUD people and with the public through the recordings and a website.

[uwmadarchives]

Sophia Abrams and "Black Artists at the UW-Madison"

On Monday, April 19th at 4:30 pm, please join the UW Archives Student Historians as they reflect on their research projects this year: "Black Artists at the UW-Madison" & “A Closer Look at UW-Madison’s Campus-Wide Diversity Initiatives.” Visit go.wisc.edu/archives for more information. Before the event, our social media assistant, Adrian, caught up with the historians to see how their research is going. Interviews were edited for clarity.

Sophia Abrams

I spent a large part of the first semester brainstorming topic ideas. I was taking an Afro-Am art history course, and I ended up reading articles by Black artists and professors who went to UW. I felt like it was something I could work with. By November, I had decided to research Black Artists at the UW-Madison.

Then the fun part was finding the artists. I looked on Instagram and in student newspapers. I did an alumni request with the university because you can request majors and years broken down by race, ethnicity, or interest. I built a list of 15 to 30 artists who I wanted to interview. So far, I've interviewed 15 people for the project. I did most of the interviews in January. I don't recommend trying to do 10 Oral History interviews in the span of two weeks!

I think it's important to see art as a form of communication, but it also reflects the time you're living in and I saw so many parallels across time. I interviewed someone who graduated in 1972 and current students as well. There are a lot of parallel themes like Black artists or anyone who isn’t white, cis, hetero, kind of feels like their work has to be representative or serve a purpose to uplift their group. I think it's really telling that pretty much the same themes are being said by students nowadays that were said almost 50 years ago. You would hope that students feel a little more comfortable or that there's been progress, but there’s still tension.

I'm primarily focusing on the artists’ time at UW and the art that they made there if they are able to remember enough about it. One artist who I interviewed, Jerry Butler from 1972, was talking about how he wanted to create art that reflected the Black Power movement, which was prominent at the time. So he painted Angela Davis and other leaders, and just him painting those figures was not received well by his peers and professors. He said he had to accommodate their needs and kind of compromise his own artistic desires and mold to the university.

I think that artists now talk about having a lot more agency in terms of what they create. But I think in terms of the theme I talked about before of feeling like, do I need to create a work that is inherently Black? That's still a big theme. I think it's a lot about exploring identity, understanding your place, and understanding your relationship to UW. Art often reflects your own experience, so you're going to pull from how your peers treat you and whatnot.

Also, there aren't many Black art faculty at UW. Now there are two professors who are Black men, and there was one Black woman professor, Gelsey Verna, but she passed away unexpectedly in 2008. And there was Professor Freida High, who coined the term Afrofemcentrism.. She created it and helped establish the canon for Black women artists to be recognized. I'm actually interviewing her soon. It's going to be exciting to hear what it means to be the first one doing that work.

A lot of people have been supportive of the project because within art history, there's just really not much gathered about Black artists in Wisconsin. And that's partially because historically speaking, Black art wasn't considered an art form. It was seen as more utilitarian or whatnot. Honestly, the biggest barrier to the project has been technology. I had an interview last week, and it didn't record. I had one interview where the person's connection was glitchy, so I think there are six separate recordings of the Zoom. But that stuff happens.

If I continue to do this project for another year, that will give me a lot more room to flesh out a thesis. My goal for this year is to create a website and a podcast. Each episode will include the highlights from each artist’s interview. If people want the full interview, they will be archived and easily accessible, but I just want to give people five to seven minutes of the most insightful parts. If I have more time, I would also like to interview more artists to fill in the gaps from 1969 to now. And I would love to have an exhibition with all of their art. But with COVID and whatnot, it's hard.

I'm someone who always likes hearing about why someone's drawn to something or what steps have led them to where they are today. I think it's cool to see how UW served as a launching pad for some people. Just seeing what people have done post-UW as well as how UW was fundamental in terms of who they are, like maybe there was a professor who profoundly impacted their outlook, or maybe there was a residency that they did one summer.

Multiple artists have said, “I'm so glad you're doing this because I always like to tell people my story.” So I'm glad that I can be a positive project for them during the pandemic. Building this community of people through the project has been really cool. And as I'm doing this project, I keep thinking, wow, there's just so much that can be uncovered here. It makes me curious, and it speaks volumes in terms of the need for this project. I'm someone who loves art history and whatnot, so I feel like this topic is so fun and cool to learn about.

If anyone reading this knows a Black artist from UW who hasn't been contacted, feel free to email me ([email protected]). I hope my project inspires more students, especially students of color, to seek out the arts, be it through their major or just taking a class.

[uwmadarchives]

Finding my way as a Student Historian

Our second Student Historian in Residence introduces himself and his first steps in his work for the Archives!

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By T.J. Braxton

As a Student Historian for the University Archives, I quickly found that my first task was to be the most formidable one. Selecting a topic and research question about the experiences of the underrepresented at UW-Madison was not simple; I knew that a multitude of stories had yet to be told, and the expansiveness of what my research could cover was certainly no help. So, I decided to begin with myself, and my own identity. I am a Black man and African American

Studies is one of my majors, so I was very interested in researching UW-Maidson's African American Studies Department. Not only is 2020 the 50-year anniversary of the department, but the courses I had taken and the brilliant professors who had taught them had helped me establish a newfound connection to my Black identity. I knew, however, that the conception of the department had already been researched in-depth, so I figured that I would just look at the department's archival materials and go from there.

Combing through hundreds of pages of records, I kept seeing references to "plans," specifically the Madison Plan and Plan 2008. I had never heard of either of these plans, and I didn't even know their subject matter, but based on the way in which they were referenced by department staff, I knew they were problematic. After a quick search on the internet, I knew I had found my new research topic.

Throughout this Fall semester, I have been researching UW-Madison's past three (and only three) diversity initiatives: The Madison Plan, Plan 2008, and the R.E.E.L. Model for Diversity. Choosing this topic was a significant departure from my initial focus on the African American Studies Department, but it nonetheless pertains to my identity and my place at UW-Madison; if I had not received the Chancellor's Scholarship, one of UW's merit-based diversity awards, I would not be a student here. In looking at the goals of each plan, their outcomes, as well as the student reactions, I hope to shine a light upon the issue of diversity on campus, and provide a newfound historical perspective on the experiences of minority students.

[uwmadarchives]

Pay Your Students: Student Activism and Student Labor In Campus Archives

Or, “Building Trust Between Archives and the Student Body: Hiring Student Historians” or even, “My Undergraduate Experience at the Midwestern Archives Conference: Why More Paid Positions Like Mine Must Exist On Campus”

by Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Historian in Residence

“Student Memory: Then and Now” Poster by Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), presented at MAC 2019 in Detroit

This year, I had the honor of attending the Midwest Archives Conference (MAC) 2019 in Detroit, Michigan for a couple days sitting in on sessions, learning about the archival profession, and presenting my poster entitled “Student Memory: Then and Now”. I’d been to conferences before but the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) Agricultural conference was, as you might guess, a little bit of a different vibe than an Archives meet-up.

The conference was informative and occasionally quirky (including the damaged document recovery vendor giving out vacuum-sealed beef jerky as a freebie). I attended sessions on imposter syndrome in the profession, documenting the HIV/AIDS crisis in the Midwest, and #Archives4BlackLives. In the time outside the conference, I wandered around Detroit with a friend, checking out a public installation in honor of organized labor, exploring the Detroit Institute of Art, and walking by the Church of Scientology up the street from our hotel. Critiques of many sessions included, the conference was an enriching and enlightening experience -- especially considering that, a little over a year ago, I had only a basic understanding of what an archives even was.

I may have been the only undergraduate at the conference, my age surprising many of the University Archivists who approached me to discuss my poster. While the poster discussed parts of my research and its relevance to the present, the bulk of my presentation centered around questions of archives outreach and community engagement, documenting the experiences of the student body and peer-educating about what an archives is and does. In my presentation, I wanted to suggest that archives can be supportive spaces for student activists on campus and archivists can be their accomplices in their pursuit of justice. I made a short list of action steps.

How can archivists support student activism?

Collaborate with student organizers, government, and groups to preserve student memory, especially for contemporary issues

Listen to the needs of students, especially marginalized students, asking: how archival collections can be of service to them?

Host events and workshops about relevant historical campus movements and protests

Encourage students to think of themselves as historical subjects by leading workshops teaching students how to document their experiences

Provide accessible opportunities for students to contribute their own meaningful, modern materials to the campus archives

But most importantly...

Fund paid student staff positions, employing students to do archival research, outreach, and modern documentation

On my poster I was transparent about the wages, conditions, responsibilities, and privileges of my position as Student Historian in Residence, which is well-paid, supported by the staff, and flexible in terms of time and content. By being compensated for my labor, I’ve been able to spend the time that I need to in the archives working on all sorts of projects that benefit the archives and (I hope) serve the student body.

Though the Student Historian position began this year as a pilot research opportunity, the work has sprouted into other projects, like creating a teaching kit about the Black Student Strike, spreading the gospel of archives by presenting to classrooms around campus, leading late-night archives sessions on topics like “Queer History”, teaching student government about self-documentation, and most recently, conducting interviews for a modern oral history project on UW-Madison student activism from 2016 - 2019.

While non-student staff keep the wonderful Archives ship afloat, this kind of outreach work can only be done by a student. I’m not saying that I’m the student who should do this work -- this isn’t about me, it’s about student labor in general. The importance and value of archival peer education is immense. The benefits of trust between the student body and their campus archives are best achieved when student staff members are given the opportunity to take ownership over the archives and bring that passion to the rest of their circles, letting other students know that their campus archives is a place where their collective work can be remembered. This quality of work can only happen if students are paid for it -- and paid well.

At the conference, I had one university archivist approach me and ask how their archives could create these student community connections without a budget. Was there a way she could get the same results without paying students for their work?

As the Student Historian, I have the profound opportunity to spend hours familiarizing myself with materials, reflecting on my learning, meeting with staff members, creating projects to serve my fellow students, and sharing my work with the rest of my community. This position requires a lot of time each week and has yielded projects that the Archives staff and I are proud of. Yet for many marginalized, low-income students -- all of whom would offer unique, necessary perspectives into these archival pursuits -- this opportunity would be inaccessible were it unpaid. Many students can’t afford to work for free. I answered that, while there are many steps an archives can take to support student activism and document these corners of student life, by not paying students for documentation or research, an archive creates a barrier for access and excludes the brightest, most marginalized students on campus from sharing their perspectives and benefiting from the enormous opportunity that archival work has to offer.

To University Archivists interested in the above: Apply for grants to fund student projects. Find funding for student staff members to do research, outreach, and modern materials collection.

Archives are a place for activism, for students to reclaim campus memory as their own. Do yourself and the student body a favor -- create more positions like mine and spread the archives love inside the reading room and beyond.

-- Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Historian in Residence 2018-19

[uwmadarchives]

Grappling with State Violence at UW

Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Historian

As part of my research in the UW Archives, I’ve been reading through the Subject Files of the Black Student Strike, from Fall 1968 - Spring 1969. During the Black Student Strike, hundreds of students boycotted classes, marched, and disrupted business-as-usual in pursuit of 13 Demands drafted by the Black People’s Alliance. The 13 Demands included the admittance of 500 more black students, a Black Studies Department, and student control over the proposed department and the Black Cultural Center, along with several other proposals.

While the events of Black Student Strike took place over a period of months in the ‘68 - ‘69 school year, student actions came to a head around February 1969 -- and consequently, violent state actions followed.

“13 Demands”, Black Protest February 1969 Subject File, UW Archives

Most of the materials that speak to student perspective on the strikes, like protest pamphlets and literature, are in the Wisconsin Historical Society. The The UW Archives collections heavily include the administration’s perceptions of the strike, providing an intimate and harrowing look into the perspectives of the powerful during this era.

In the Black Student Strike archival subject folder there is a chronology of events narrated from an administrative perspective, likely created by the chancellor’s office from the voice and tone of the document, which frequently describes Chancellor Young’s personal schedule and other internal commentary, though the official source is not stated. The chronology details administrative interactions with black student leaders, starting in November 1968. The document narrates these events largely as inconveniences for then-Chancellor H. Edwin Young. 

Using a chronology created by people in a position of power creates historical dilemmas, or at least a number of important opportunities for questioning. The chronology consistently lacks concern for student well-being, especially those of student protesters. The report often reads like a crime report against black student activists. While the record of events is helpful in providing a clear timeline of events, what is included and excluded (and what is known and unknown) by the administrative writer is informative of agenda. My selective recounting of the document is a further redaction. Do I trust the writer of this chronology? Do you trust me as a student writing about these events?

According to the document, in November and December, students engaged in talks with Young and began their protests and class boycotts. By February, the 13 Demands were brought to Chancellor Young’s office. On February 8th, “several blacks demonstrate[d] inside Field house during Ohio State-Wisconsin Basketball game, while police hold 300 demonstrators at bay outside.” The report includes that 4 policemen were injured. It does not include whether or not students were harmed.

On February 9th, the Student Senate of the Wisconsin Student Association “votes to support strike and to provide bail money.”

On February 10th, “1,500 students and sympathizers peacefully picket major classroom buildings while strike leaders emphasize at rallies that their aim is a non-violent confrontation with the University administration.”

On February 11th, “180 city policemen and county sheriff’s deputies and traffic officers -- all riot equipped -- clear demonstrators from Bascom Hall and four nearby classroom buildings.”

On February 12th, “Governor Knowles activates 900 Wisconsin National Guardsmen at the request of UW President Fred Harvey Harrington and Chancellor Edwin Young.”

On February 13th, “1,000 more guardsmen called up” in addition to to the 900 from the previous day. That day there were “ten arrests, several injuries.”

“Chronology of Activity Regarding Black Students” p.2, Black Protest February 1969 Subject File, UW Archives.

The Chancellor and President of the UW called in 1,900 armed National Guardsman against unarmed student protestors. 

According to the newspapers, the UW Regents advocated heavily on behalf of this decision as well. One regent even called for budget cuts to the UW “unless University takes prompt action” ( “Legislators Label Protestors at UW ‘Long Haired Creeps’”, Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, February 12th 1969). A headline from the Madison Capitol Times intoned, “Troops to Remain at UW ‘As Long as Needed’: [Says Chancellor] Young”. Armed guardsmen "used clubs as they made their way through demonstrators” and left unrecorded numbers of students “injured in strife”, according to the Milwaukee Sentinel. (“Knowles Calls Out Guard to Restore Order at UW,” Milwaukee Sentinel. February 13th, 1969.)

I’ve read over this section of the chronology several times. Each time something inside me sinks. Right now, I can’t look at this piece of history with cool eyes. I am not removed from it, rather, I inherit it. As a student, how do I reckon with the knowledge that the leaders of my school called for state violence against their own students? 

The response I have to anticipate from modern readers is common: “But that was 50 years ago. Things are different now.”

But they aren’t.

The UW Board of Regents just last year proposed and passed a piece of legislation ironically titled “The Free Speech Bill,” (SB 250) which could suspend or expel students for “disrupting” speakers invited to the UW, never mind the fact that what constitutes “disruption” remains ambiguously defined. Administrators in power within the UW system remain unfriendly to expressions of civil disobedience and free speech via protest, despite UW being a public school. Last year, I heard many professors and law students describe this policy as possibly unconstitutional, and dangerous due to its potential to create a “chilling effect” and reducing civic protests writ large. Outside of “The Free Speech Bill”, echoes of withdrawing funding from the UW because of the political actions of its students are loud and clear today. I wrote about my fears regarding the policy in a Letter to the Editor published the Daily Cardinal.

The Regents’ modern policy is not removed from the UW Administration’s past. To understand this modern connection to the armed troops employed by UW administrators during the Black Strike is to more intimately understand a legacy of state violence against student activism at UW.

As a student historian, I find it important to grapple with this legacy. If students brought these grievances up to the UW Regents and UW-Madison Chancellor’s office today, would they be remorseful or would they stand behind the violent decisions of their predecessors? Would they seek reparations? Most saliently, and perhaps most hauntingly, I need to ask: would they do it again?

For students in a particularly politically tumultuous time, when the impacts of local, state, and national policy directly harm members of student body, and the tensions between school and state seem to grow each year, the answer to that question is precarious and high stakes. 

Would they do it again?

- Rena Yehuda Newman (They/Them), Student Archivist

#StudentHistory

[uwmadarchives]

T.J. Braxton and “A Closer Look at UW-Madison’s Campus-Wide Diversity Initiatives”

On Monday, April 19th, please join the UW Archives Student Historians as they reflect on their research projects this year: "Black Artists at the UW-Madison" & “A Closer Look at UW-Madison’s Campus-Wide Diversity Initiatives.” Visit go.wisc.edu/archives for more info. Before the event, our social media assistant, Adrian, caught up with the historians to see how their research is going. Interviews were edited for clarity.

T.J. Braxton

My topic focuses on the three, broadest and most extensive diversity programs at the University of Wisconsin Madison, starting with the first one, which happened in 1988 and was called the Madison Plan. Then, Plan 2008 was started in 1999 and finally, starting in 2015, the university implemented the REEL Change Model.

When I first started doing this project, I wanted to study the African American Studies Department, but I found out pretty quickly that it has been researched to death and I wanted to contribute something new. When I was looking in these old boxes, I kept seeing something about Plan 2008. I didn't know what that was, but from what I could tell it was causing a lot of problems within the African American Studies Department and the other ethnic studies programs. So then I started looking into it and found out what it was and I thought, oh, that could be something interesting to think about. I wanted to compare these diversity initiatives to see how far we've really come and to see whether or not the university is changing its tactics or looking at diversity in a different light as time goes on.

At the beginning of my project, I expected that the university would have tried to paint itself in the most positive way possible. I was surprised by how much they're holding themselves accountable, and how they are willing to publish their shortcomings regarding diversity. But it also surprised me how much they're repeating the same language and tactics but expecting different outcomes. I think they need to be more creative with how they approach the subject of diversity. I also think they need to be a little bit more equitable with who they're targeting because they're always talking about different targeted groups, but it usually only comes down to African Americans, American Indians, and Chicano students. I wish they would look beyond race and talk about sexual orientation and things like that because I feel like we need to be as representative of the world as possible before trying to realize this Wisconsin Idea.

The Madison Plan came out amid a bunch of racist incidents at fraternities. A few months before it came out, there was a big blackface scandal. And then a year after it came out, there was another similar thing where a fraternity had a slave auction or something like that. There was an editorial written by a UW professor that said we cannot punish these students because we cannot violate their right to free speech under the First Amendment. It's interesting for me to see this and think if a professor could come out and say that, how does that make students of color feel? Does it make them feel like they're welcome on this campus and that they're valued?

I think the most interesting things I've looked at are newspaper articles from the Daily Cardinal and the Badger Herald from around the times when each plan was released and when students were collaborating with the administration on how these plans will be implemented. Some of the most interesting newspaper articles I found were editorials from students about how they felt the diversity initiatives were going. Honestly, it was very surprising, when the Madison Plan was coming to an end and when Plan 2008 began, how many students thought that there was reverse racism going on. Some students felt that ethnic studies classes were teaching them that America was anti-white and that if we created these spaces and resources for students of color (like the Multicultural Student Center) then white students were in turn being treated unfairly. I think it was just really interesting to see how many students actually thought that and to see the remnants of that today.

To learn more, I reached out to two people, one of who was a chairperson of the steering committee that published Plan 2008. She's a retired professor. I also reached out to the former Chief Diversity Officer of UW who was in charge when the REEL Model was created. I asked if they would be able to talk to me formally or informally and didn’t get a response. Both of them could be too busy or maybe they don't want to talk about it. But it's interesting that I have gotten no response whatsoever.

I think one of the problems with these initiatives is they're all very vague and massive and you don't really know what exactly they're trying to get at or how they envision diversity. Through my project, I'm looking at things that show that diversity goes deeper than numbers and things that can be seen and counted. It's more about creating an environment where students feel they're welcomed and that they can express their culture and themselves. But the university tends to neglect the campus climate side of diversity in these plans compared to tangible things like the number of instructors, students, or administrators of color on campus.

Campus climate is a much more complex idea and it's a lot harder to measure. We have campus climate surveys and diversity forums, but how much of that is for show and how much is actually being done to change things? Ever since the civil rights movement, a lot of prominent higher education institutions have tried to make it seem like racial justice, diversity, and inclusion are top priorities, when in reality that's just not the case. That's the reason why you see lots of faces of color on admission and recruitment catalogs and things like that, just because they want to make it seem like it's so diverse. It's almost like a superficial goal, rather than a profound one.

One thing I’ve found hopeful in my research is that the student body at Wisconsin has become a lot more progressive at least with the diversity initiatives. In Plan 2008, the students were very much involved in trying to push the UW Faculty Senate to focus more on intangible things and to get more money for the Multicultural Student Center, and add another ethnic studies requirement. So it may have helped make the plan more expansive and actually cater to students of color. It made me happy to see that at least. ASM (the Associated Students of Madison) was involved in that too. ASM was very much pushing for a Plan 2008 that was even more progressive than the one that was published sadly.

What I would hope people would gain from my project is a broader understanding of what it's like to be a person of color on campus from an administrative standpoint. Like, how is the administration trying to deal with me and how do they conceptualize my importance on campus? I also hope that they realized that the students and faculty of color are really the central actors in all of this.

At the end of my project, I am planning on thinking about what my suggestions are for addressing diversity on campus from the perspective of a student of color at a predominantly white University. This is my senior year, so I've been here for a while and I’ll just give my suggestions. I'm very proud to be a student here at UW and in no way is my research trying to disparage the experience I had at UW or to say that it wasn't an inclusive enough environment for me as a Black man because it very much was. I'm just saying there's work to be done. There're ways to make it better for everyone because there are people who don't have good experiences. So let's fix those problems.