Reed College
Reed College

President’s Office

President’s speeches, letters, and articles

Subject: What should we do now?

October 30, 2018

I want to experiment with a few messages from the president’s office this semester with some items of interest to campus and perhaps a few personal reflections. I welcome your ideas about this format and ideas for transmission.

My desire to write was prompted by the terrifying shootings and murders of congregants in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this past weekend. It was a horrifying hate crime that illuminated increasing violence against people with faith traditions, ethnicities, or gender orientations seen by some as outside some mythical mainstream of American life.

So what should we do now? Raise voices in outrage. Pray. Work to afford better protections for innocents. Vote. All of this. I have listed a set of resources and support services below.

But what more can we do, especially when we are consumed with work at Reed? At a presentation last spring by activist Abe Bergman ’54, a Reed graduate responsible for many lasting impacts in pediatric health care, students in attendance were compelled to ask, “What should I do now?” to address current maladies. Abe’s response was that he understood the urgency but encouraged patience when working to make change. He then went on to urge students to first complete their educations.

In the context of the evening, these words rang true. While Abe’s advice carries somewhat less weight at this moment, I do believe the educational work of Reed is critical to developing knowledge, tools, communications, and broad networks necessary to challenge violence and bigotry. Driving into work on Monday, some of you may have heard former white supremacist Derek Black, the subject of Eli Saslow’s book Raising Out of Hatred, say that kindness may also be critical; for it was in the acts of kindness shown to him even in his inhumanity that turned him from violence [Fresh Air].

My participation in this community gives me hope, and my hope has been renewed this week with overtures of kindness both big and small. A convalescing faculty member was inundated with visitors from the Reed community. Three students who visited my office hours asked nothing for themselves but all requested in different ways for the Reed community to become stronger in its support for traditionally marginalized communities, for those attacked, and for a less endangered environment. This past weekend, more than 90 volunteers gave their time to restore the Reed Canyon. Last week, many of you participated in an important conversation with consultants on the various ways we can all contribute to the success of all students in the work of the student success committee.

This week, the college is undergoing an important visit by our regional accrediting agency (the group that licenses Reed to grant degrees). They will examine our accreditation report and share their preliminary findings with me later this week. Perhaps, unfortunately, this visit will not attempt to measure the strength of our community, its aspirations and its actions. Taken at this moment, such a measure would weigh many stones of kindness in a scale balanced against the devastating events in a sometimes hostile world.

With best wishes for your work at this busy time of the semester,

Hugh Porter
Acting President
Reed College

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