Our nation continues to struggle with the enduring legacy of slavery and racial injustice as well as the pervasive and deep impact of those traumas on the Black community. As the country reckons with these realities, the Suffolk Law community recognizes that lawyers and law schools have a special role to play in addressing continuing injustices.
We start from the basic idea that Black lives matter. This should go without saying, yet throughout history, our nation failed to recognize that the lives of Black people matter as much as the lives of others. In many contexts, this failure persists today. As an institution committed to the idea that everyone is equal under the law, we stand in solidarity with Black members of our community as they demand that their lives matter and deserve equal respect.
At the same time, we must do more than stand together. We must take action to ensure that our own community reflects our values. These efforts are highlighted in Actions Speak Louder, an overview of the action items Suffolk Law is currently taking to foster a more diverse, equitable and inclusive community for all.
As part of these efforts, we launched a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Steering Committee chaired by three academic deans. These academic leaders are working with the chairs of existing faculty committees, including our standing DEI Committee, to examine all of our work through a DEI lens. We are reviewing our curriculum, our admissions efforts, the recruitment and retention of faculty, the use of scholarship funds, and more. The idea is that DEI issues cannot and should not be addressed by a single committee. Rather, they must be addressed systematically in all parts of our work.
The problems of racial injustice we face as a nation are longstanding, and as an institution committed to justice and the rule of law, Suffolk Law has an obligation to work towards remedying the problems that exist. We invite you to participate in these efforts, both within our own community and in our society, as we work towards a world where every life is afforded equal dignity and respect.
Yours in Solidarity and Action,
Andrew Perlman
Dean & Professor of Law