Changes to the University Calendar
May 13, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
As part of our commitment to make Boston University the diverse, equitable, and inclusive community that best embodies our values, I asked Senior Diversity Officer Andrea Taylor to engage with our Antiracism Working Group (AWG) to consider whether the holidays we celebrate as a community reflect those values.
The AWG convened a subcommittee chaired by Christine McGuire, Vice President and Associate Provost for Enrollment & Student Administration, to take on this task. Among the changes to our calendar that the subcommittee proposed and the AWG endorsed are:
- to add Juneteenth, traditionally celebrated on June 19, as a University holiday to celebrate and reflect on the meaning of the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States were told that they were free.
- to rename the holiday that we traditionally celebrate in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day to acknowledge and reflect on our complicated colonial history and celebrate the traditions and achievements of Native Americans.
These proposals were endorsed by University Council. I am pleased to announce that we will adopt both.
We will begin the recognition of Juneteenth starting this summer. Because the holiday falls on a weekend, we will celebrate Juneteenth on Friday, June 18.
Communications will follow from Human Resources about pay policies and reporting for this holiday.
I want to thank the Antiracism Working Group and the subcommittee led by Christine McGuire for their thoughtful and informed deliberations on these changes. The membership of the subcommittee is listed below.
Sincerely,
Robert A. Brown
President
Antiracism Working Group Subcommittee
Christine McGuire, Chair
Vice President and Associate Provost
Enrollment & Student Administration
Kenneth Elmore
Associate Provost and Dean of Students
Kenneth Freeman
Vice President ad interim, Human Resources
Suzanne Kennedy
Associate Provost ad interim, Undergraduate Affairs
Ayse Parla
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
College of Arts & Sciences
Linda Sprague Martinez
Chair of Macro Practice & Associate Professor
School of Social Work
Ex-officio:
Andrea L. Taylor
Chair of the Antiracism Working Group and Senior Diversity Officer