Trinity Hosts First Ever Solidarity Summit

The First Solidarity Summit at Trinity
(photo by Alexandra Gereda-Gordon)

By Alexandra Gereda-Gordon

Nearly 80 students, staff, and administrators filled the Fiesta Room on Friday to attend the inaugural Solidarity Summit hosted by Trinity’s Diversity and Inclusion Office (DIO). 

This brand new event was created to increase awareness of diversity issues on campus and for students and faculty to come together to support one another.

Joshua Anaya, a first year student at Trinity, decided to attend the event to find out “what kind of action we can take as students to take accountability and embrace more solidarity on our campus.”

The summit highlighted messages of being open-minded, participating in discussions, and listening to all perspectives and points of view. 

Participants also got into breakout sessions to discuss more specific issues of diversity, such as allyship, poetry as a political action, and the difference between being an African American and being an African in America. The breakout sessions featured student presentations, panel discussions and other activities.

One of the breakout sessions focused on the White standards of beauty. Participants watched the music video, “Good As Hell” by Lizzo, and then had a discussion on how hair in women of color is used as a statement. The session informed the audience about how women of color feel the pressure to look a certain way, but concluded with the notion that these women should embrace their natural beauty and be proud of their heritage. 

“A form to just talking about these conversations is one of the best ways we can start improving things on campus for these marginalized identities,” said sophomore Camille Johnson, a participant of the session as well as a student assistant at the DIO. 

Alli Roman, director of DIO, had the idea of holding this summit when she started her position at Trinity in January 2018. She was impressed by the energy at the very first summit. “The students were phenomenal in their presentations.”

Roman’s office hired a group of students to be the Social Justice Peer Educators, who helped organized the summit. Junior Arisha Ali, one of the peer educators, said of the summit, “These conversations are obviously not comfortable, but I think the fact that they are uncomfortable is a good stepping stone in the right direction.”

The peer educators also provide training sessions on diversity and social justice issues for all student organizations on campus. The sorority Alpha Chi Lambda just had their second training on allyship last week.

The DIO plans to continue this summit annually, while organizing other events related to solidarity and diversity.