Letter from SIT president on the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

Announcement Date: July 5, 2022

Dear members of the SIT community, 

The U.S. Supreme Court has ended the national right to safe and legal reproductive rights in the United States. We are alarmed and distressed at the implications that this decision will have on many levels. By intervening in the most private of decisions – about whether and when to have children – this ruling will undermine equitable access to reproductive health in the U.S. and have broad implications for the most disadvantaged members of U.S. society, especially those in communities who are fighting deeply embedded exclusion and marginalization. As Vice President Kamala Harris has stated, overturning Roe v. Wade is a direct assault on freedom and the fundamental right of self-determination to which all those who live in the United States are entitled.

If you live in the United States or call it home, you know that this decision will no doubt exacerbate existing divisions that polarize our country along deeply divergent ideological lines, and it bodes ill for the future security of an individual’s right to privacy, right to contraception, freedom of movement, and the rights of individuals to marry whom they choose.  

Inevitably, many in the U.S. are reflecting on a more difficult future ahead. SIT is proud to be headquartered in Vermont, a state that has committed to defending access to reproductive rights. SIT is also an international institution with students, staff, and faculty working across the U.S. and across the world. We are proud to stand up for a strong set of values. But we are also aware of the threats of political change that can suddenly impact our faculty, staff, and students’ individual freedoms. We have always worked hard, and will continue to work hard, to ensure that the impact of such threats on the SIT community is minimalized.

Last week, I spoke with several potential applicants to SIT’s EdD program. I asked what led them to think about a doctorate in international education with us and their answers were remarkable. They told stories of service in pursuit of more inclusive communities, the search for an educational space where diversity is truly valued and heard, the ambition to make a difference at the national level, the desire to find a program where they could find their own way—where individual freedom and choice were celebrated. I was profoundly moved that each of these women felt that SIT could be the right place for them. There is much that we could say about the mission and impact of what we do but let this be what I offer you today to remind us that our work and our commitment is so worthwhile. It truly does make a difference and a difference that can be seen beyond our classrooms and learning centers. 

So, today once again, we stand for the rights of everyone to determine the course of their lives to reach their full potential. Today, we will teach and learn to lean in, not step back. We will do our research and be ready with the argument. We will speak up and out, and we will make our voices heard. We will volunteer, take action to make a difference, and keep working toward a more just and peaceful world. We will do so because we believe that a global network of empowered, educated, passionate individuals can change the world.

Wherever you are, I wish you a world full of hope for a future that we will help build.

Sincerely,

Dr. Sophia Howlett
President
School for International Training