RISD Students and Institutional Governance

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

RISD and Race Forum

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD), Jada Akoto, Sarah Alvarez, and RISD Archives

A forum held on June 16, 2020, led by Jada Akoto and Sarah Alvarez addressing members of the RISD Administration (The President's Cabinet, the Dean's Council, Department Heads, Graduate Program Directors and Associate Provost, Social Equity & Inclusion & SEI Advisor to the President Matthew Shenoda).

“In this conversation we are asking you to actively listen, not speak. It is important that students have a forum to express and share their own stories about how this institution as a whole has never handled our identities to expected standards.

After this conversation, we then will allow you to address our demands within each department and administrative level. We hope that you will practice more than the performative allyship we’ve seen across all ranks. Within the following week, we want you to tell us how you are going to fix the problems we have presented across all departments and administrative levels. This is more than enough time to think of a thoroughly considered plan on how to help the students who fund the institution.”-Jada Akoto (GD'21)

Speakers in order of appearance: Matthew Shenoda, Jada Akoto, Sarah Alvarez, Lauryn Levette, Felicita Devlin, Afi Goncalves, Aya, Sara Park, Ezzy Goncalves, Mary Kuan, Nailah Golden, Lauren Rausaw, Joyce Kutty, Natyana Fonseca, Rey Londres, Leslie Ponce-Díaz, Soleil Singh, Elaine Lopez, Stephan Foster, Pooja Nitturkar, Namrata Dhore, Taj Richardson, and Cullen Dirgins. This video is also available on Vimeo.
2020 RISD BI+POC Student Demands for Racial Equity & Inclusion

RISD Anti-Racism Coalition (risdARC) and RISD Archives

RISD Anti-Racism Coalition (risdARC) demands document presented to the RISD Community, July, 2020.
President Somerson Announces Action Plan for Social Equity

RISD President, Rosanne Somerson, and RISD Archives

President Rosanne Somerson's announcement of an Action Plan for Social Equity at RISD.
The Waiting Room

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

The Waiting Room event poster.

Text Reads: Welcome to THE BAADEST Waiting Room, founded on May 3, 2017 in response to the blatant disrespect, and lethargic responses to BAAD's list of demands and the hours of free labor that SEA committee members volunteered in order to create concrete recommendations for the school to implement. We occupy this space as a display of discontent, disobedience, and radical self care in an institution that demands constant physical production. We demand that President Rosanne Somerson and administration members end the RISD cycle of two-faced bullshitting and back-stabbing. If we do not receive a response, we are more than happy [to] offer our art and design skills to build a crowdfunding campaign asking for compensation of the free labor that has gone wasted again.

In the meantime we wait.
The Waiting Room

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

The Waiting Room event poster.
The Waiting Room

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

The Waiting Room facebook event description.

Text reads: Join us at our pop up spa for a full day of healing. In reaction to institutional neglect following last years "Not Your Token" Protest and Teach-In, and lack of response to RISD's SEA recommendations, we will open up for a day of self care on the 4th floor of Prov Wash as we massage the supremacy out of our institution. We'll have some treats for yall so wear and bring whatever you need (homework too!) to be your best, comfortable self.

This spa cannot treat afflictions of: racism, class differences, supremacy, dishonesty, disrespect, and internal corruption. We may only provide recommendations of removal, before such afflictions spread. Thank you! The waiting room ~
The Waiting Room Photo Shoot

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

Photos of The Waiting Room event participants with spa face masks and sliced cucumbers.

Opening text reads: Welcome to THE BAADEST Waiting Room, founded on May 3, 2017 in response to the blatant disrespect, and lethargic responses to BAAD's list of demands and the hours of free labor that SEA committee members volunteered in order to create concrete recommendations for the school to implement. We occupy this space as a display of discontent, disobedience, and radical self care in an institution that demands constant physical production. We demand that President Rosanne Somerson and administration members end the RISD cycle of two-faced bullshitting and back-stabbing. If we do not receive a response, we are more than happy [to] offer our art and design skills to build a crowdfunding campaign asking for compensation of the free labor that has gone wasted again.

In the meantime we wait.
Letter to RISD Community

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD), Malaika Temba, Qualeasha Wood, and RISD Archives

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) Letter to the RISD Community January, 2017.
Not Your Token

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

Poster for Not Your Token protest organized by RISD BAAD (Black Artists And Designers), held April 6, 2016 in Market Square, Providence, RI.

Text Reads:

Not Your Token

It is not our job to educate you.
But we will demand to be listened to.
Who does this "progressive" institution represent?
When 'western' education is the only thing of value.
Equality does not equal equity.
Our identities and experiences cannot be bought.
We are more than a statistic.
We are more than a data point.
We are more than loose change.
We are people with a desire to learn;
And we demand to be treated that way.

Protest: Wednesday April 6th 4:00 PM
Teach-in: Wednesday April 13th 4:00 PM
Chace Center Entrance

Wear Black.
We Demand

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and RISD Archives

We Demand poster. Demands focused on racial justice made by RISD students to the administration in 2016.
Not Your Token

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD), Selene Means, and RISD Archives

Video documentary of the Rhode Island School of Design Black Artists and Designers demonstration in Providence Rhode Island. Directed by Selene Means. Additional footage by Eloise Sherrid. Mentor: Julie Mallozzi. Additional Editing: Eric Telfort, Jelayna Stephens. Poster title by Uté Petit. Organizers offer special thanks: "Chantal Feitosa, Olivia Stephens, Uté Petit, Michelle Zhuang and David Guy. Thank you to every single person who attended Not Your Token and continues the conversation today."
The Room of Silence

Black Artists and Designers (BAAD) and Eloise Sherrid

Video created by RISD alumni Eloise Sherrid addressing race and identity from RISD student perspectives.

“The Room of Silence,” is a short documentary about race, identity and marginalization at the Rhode Island School of Design. Based on interviews conducted by myself and the campus organization Black Artists and Designers, this film contains well under a third of the stories we collected in March 2016, and an unknown fraction of the stories belonging to students we didn’t have a chance to meet with.

This video is meant to serve as a discussion tool and testimony on behalf of the growing student activist movement on our campus, and around the country. The video has been shown at faculty and departmental meetings, and its release online marks the next step in exposing these issues and fostering dialogue between students and school.

There are a lot of issues present in the extremely intersectional problem this video is attempting to tackle: issues that cannot and should not be simplified down and crammed into twenty minutes. Please consider this the first entry in a necessary conversation. - Eloise Sherrid

This video is also available on Vimeo.
"This is the City This is the World This is a Small School: Diversity and the RISD Population," Mixed Media, Vol. 1, No. 3, April 22,1996

Students of RISD and RISD Archives

Article from the Mixed Media, Vol. 1, No. 3, April 22,1996 student newspaper.
Minority Dean Job Description 1972

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

Minority Dean job description.
Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff Meeting with Trustees' Executive Committee May 12, 1970

Coalition of Minority Studemts, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff and RISD Archives

Coalition's request and administration's reponse regarding meeting with the Trustees' Executive Committee, May 13, 1970.
Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper March 16, 1970

Coalition of Minority Studemts, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff and RISD Archives

Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper.
Administration Response to Position Paper May 1,1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

RISD President memo responding to student demands.
President Rantoul Letter Responding to Student Activism January 21, 1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

President Rantoul Letter Responding to Student Activism.
President Rantoul Letter to Trustees Regarding Concerned Students May 7, 1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

President Rantoul Letter to Trustees Regarding Concerned Students.
President Rantoul Response to Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper April 15, 1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

President Rantoul Response to Coalition of Minority Students Concerned Students And Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper.
President Rantoul Response to Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper April 2,1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

President Rantoul Response to Coalition of Minority Students Concerned Students And Concerned Professional Staff Position Paper.
President Rantoul's Statement of Attitudes

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

Statement of Attitudes written by RISD President Talbot Rantoul to the RISD ocmmunity.
President Rantoul Statement Regarding Failed Negotiations with the Coalition of Minority Students, Concerned Students, and Concerned Professional Staff April 1970

Talbot Rantoul and RISD Archives

President Rantoul Statement Regarding Failed Negotiations with the Coalition of Minority Students Concerned Students And Concerned Professional Staff introducing a call to vote on a committee to form a college senate.
Student Response to President Rantoul's Statement Regarding the Demands for More Financial Aid April 16, 1970

Students of RISD and RISD Archives

Student Response to President Rantoul's Statement Regarding the Demands for More Financial Aid including the proposal to form a Student-Faculty senate.
"We Demand," RISD Paper, March 23, 1970

Students of RISD and RISD Archives

Article from the RISD Paper, March 23, 1970 student newspaper.