Perhaps the brave soul who vandalized City Hall and tossed a brick through the Mayor’s window thought that those,um, subtle gestures would nudge GNV’s blue city officials onto the red straight and narrow.
Not a chance.
Mayor Harvey Ward is not rethinking the error of his ways. In fact, now he wants to double down and get the City to offer some of the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) support services that the University of Florida is now forbidden by law to provide to its students.
“Those violent acts are intended to change public officials’ approach to public policy,” Ward said of the recent incidents of racial-tinged vandalism. “But because of that it’s even more important that we take action. If anybody thought that race is no longer a problem, and we are past all that, this” vandalism proves them wrong.
Which is why Ward, working with the City’s Office of Equity And Inclusion, wants to determine whether GNV can provide UF students with some of the DEI support services that their university can no longer offer under pain of state sanction.
“I’m going to reach out to various diverse students unions and student government,” Ward told commissioners recently. “We want to hold a listening session” with students. “We don’t know what they need but they can tell us what they need.”
After all, most UF students are also GNV residents, Ward notes. So “we owe it to them to at least hear them. We have a responsibility…to the young residents of our community.”
What sort of support might GNV offer to students of diverse backgrounds who may arrive here feeling out of place, unwelcome and even ostracized?
For one thing, the City’s OEI could direct students to appropriate community support organizations – GNV’s Pride Center, for instance, or the Alachua County NAACP.
Beyond that, the OEI has the ability to investigate and report on resident complaints. “If someone feels like they been discriminated against, that’s exactly the thing our office can support,” Ward said.
Ward’s wants to organize a student “listening session” in April before the semester ends. Then GNV officials will have the summer to put together a DEI student support plan in time for the resumption of fall classes.
“As a matter of convenience it would be better to do it on campus,” Ward said. But if that’s not possible for whatever reason, there are numerous city venues that will do.
Ward said he began to think about student outreach after a recent conversation with members of UF’s Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. “They were looking for ways to get students involved in local government,” Ward said. “But in our conversation they also mentioned that they and other students were feeling a little bit adrift now that UF is no longer offering DEI services.”
“That’s when a light bulb went on over my head,” he said. “They (UF students) are GNV residents and we owe them our support.”
While UF is forbidden by state law from spending public funds on DEI services, GNV’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusiveness is actually baked into the city charter.
“Bear in mind that this office (OEI) was expressly created by the people of Gainesville and intentionally placed in the charter of our city,” Ward told the commission after the first vandalism incident and after UF eliminated its DEI staff. “Equity is a core value of our community as written into our foundational document.”
The Great DeSanitizer, perversely, preaches that diversity, equity and inclusiveness is the threat to the Free State Of Florida Way Of Life. But we here in the People’s Republic of GNV still believe that racism, discrimination and bigotry is still alive and well and needs to be addressed.
So unless the Legislature decides – once again – to rewrite GNV’s charter from On High, GNV is still going to do the right thing.
FreeGNV 