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Dear Mason colleagues: As the next president for the Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, and Staff (ABFAS) at George Mason University, I would like to welcome you to the corresponding website. First, I publicly thank Dr. Dennis Webster (Associate Dean of Multicultural Education in University Life) for his tireless leadership as we begin the arduous task of carrying on this collective work while also attempting to fill his shoes. Second, as you may know, the purpose of this organization is to sustain a university environment as a neutral place for pedagogy and research, free of clandestine apparatuses of structural racism employees, but also students, may be affronted with. To do this work requires building a “healthy,” functioning community on all levels that exist at GMU where the exchange of ideas isn’t blocked by impenetrable layers of hierarchy. Indeed, ABFAS does not exist to form barriers between departments, offices, employees, and students, but on the contrary, to form alliances around Mason’s campuses, to safeguard equitable hiring and recruiting practices of potential professionals, and of course, to empower students through their educational experiences. For there is truth in the words of the “Father of Negro History,” Dr. Carter G. Woodson (d. 1950), who writes in his seminal 1933 work, The Mis-Education of the Negro: “Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.”[1] Echoing the thoughtful words of Woodson, cultural critic, bell hooks, writes in her book, Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope: “Educating is always a vocation rooted in hopefulness.”[2] I emphasize ‘education,’ because it is the commonality we share at the university regardless of our backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, or any other category that individuate us. Finally, ABFAS, our organization, i.e. mine and yours, exists to ensure that the Black professionals at this fine institution of higher education are able to work in an environment where pedagogy is the highest priority not their race. So, as you take a look at this website, and hopefully, make your way to our monthly meetings, my hope is that you will discover an organization that is at the service of the Black staff, administrators, faculty, and students of this university. And if you find me genteelly rolling up my sleeves, and taking a deep breath, I kindly encourage you to do the same to make our organization, and this university, better. In community, Mika’il A. Petin Mika’il A. Petin Associate Director, African American Studies and African American Research and Resource Center (Paul Robeson Room) |
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Copyright © - The Association of Black Faculty, Administrators, & Staff at George Mason University. |
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Last Update: 6.30.08 |
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