‘Education battles ignorance, bias, and hate’

Announcement Date: February 4, 2022

SIT President Dr. Sophia Howlett responds to bomb threats against HBCUs and other institutions

We are dismayed and incensed at the recent bomb threats made against Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other members of our academic community in the United States.

As our faculty and staff globally join in the U.S. recognition of the achievements and contributions of Black people during Black History Month, we must remember that incidents such as these are sadly not new. Black students, academics, and learning institutions have dealt with threats and violence for centuries.

Terror is rooted in fear of the unknown. As educators, we know that teaching, learning, and the pursuit of knowledge can be radical acts. Education works at the deepest level to battle ignorance, bias, and hate. Knowledge and education fuel democracy and empower and open possibilities for all. It is vital as we seek to counter ignorance and hate with a vision for an equitable and inclusive society – one in which  we can teach, learn, and research in an environment free from racism, discrimination, threats, and violence.

World Learning and School for International Training stand shoulder to shoulder with our colleagues and their students as they pursue their work under threat of intimidation and violence. We stand strong in our commitment to advancing knowledge, understanding, and a vision for a more just society. At home and abroad, the battle for human and civil rights can never falter.

Today and every day, when we declare that Black Lives Matter, we must back our words with intention, purpose, and action. I encourage us all – faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends – to foster learning opportunities this Black History Month and beyond in our own communities, and to have open, honest discussions with family and friends, even when that seems difficult. We all have much more to do – internally at World Learning and SIT and in the world at large. At the same time, we must be encouraged by the progress we make with every class, every lesson learned, every thought noted, every action taken.

Through these individual and collective acts, through our insistence on the pursuit of education, we continue to strive for a more sustainable, just, and peaceful world.