Alumni of Color weekend set for April 22-24

As part of the Year of Reconciliation theme, Messiah University will host an Alumni of Color Weekend April 22-24.

“So many have reached out in the past year wanting to know how they can support current students of color, and this weekend will be a special way for all of us to come together in fellowship,” said Todd Allen, vice president for diversity affairs.

The planning began months ago, when Allen gathered 20 alumni from a range of grad years via Zoom to talk about their Messiah experiences.

 “We were from all different decades. We just talked about our interest in wanting to help and connect,” said Gina Gilliam ’83, former chair of the Alumni Council, who was part of the call.

For Carl Jefferson ’94, a pastor in Rhode Island who also joined the call, he says many diverse alumni left Messiah feeling disconnected. He says he hopes the event involves true reconciliation.

“If any place should be dealing with love, reconciliation and loving our neighborhoods, Messiah should be the model of what racial reconciliation and healing and forgiveness look like—and a microcosm of what our country should look like,” he said.

Why now?

The event also can serve to bridge alumni to current students.

Jefferson says that after the death of George Floyd in May 2020, he began calling fellow alumni. He was worried about current students of color and how their experience might not have progressed much from when he was a student in the early ’90s.

“The students would feel an insurmountable burden,” he said. “I did not want students going back to Messiah [in the fall] feeling that way.”

Gilliam has returned to campus to talk to students and let them know alumni of color came before them.

“I hope these students know they have contacts when searching for a job after graduation. Get on LinkedIn and connect with me,” she said. “Many of us had the same issues they’re going through, but we can help them.”

No sugarcoating

Some alumni of color express a bittersweet duality of their time at Messiah. Gilliam recalls being called the n-word during a movie on campus. Jefferson says students wrote anonymous, hateful messages on the Wittenberg Door, a bulletin board in the Eisenhower Campus Center.

Delight Yokley ’98, a dean of the learning commons at Mt. Oliver University in North Carolina, recalls attending an orientation event where she couldn’t find a seat. The person facilitating the event did not offer her a seat but then welcomed a white student who came in after her.

“She ran and got that student a seat. It still bothers me 20 years later. I decided in that moment that I wasn’t going to Messiah. I applied to other schools but neither could provide me the funding that Messiah did,” she said.

She and her parents prayed about it, and she then ultimately attended Messiah, not because the institution welcomed her but because a few special people she met reinforced to her, “You’re needed, you’re wanted here.”

“We’re all telling the same stories: There were good times but there’s also a bit of hurt,” said Yokley. “I love Messiah, despite the bad, but question how does the institution move forward and support its current students of color?”

What does reconciliation look like at this event? It might involve uncomfortable conversations.

“We don’t sugarcoat it,” said Jefferson. “When we leave that weekend, maybe there’s some forgiveness and hope, some sense of connection of where we spent four years of our lives.”

Stay tuned

The event’s theme is Connecting the Generations.

“As a young alumni of color, I am appreciative of the intentional attempts of Messiah’s leadership to create events uniquely for the alumni population of color to find belonging and feel valued within the institution,” said Marianne Ramirez Gomez ’19, a Messiah admissions counselor.

The event will include a town hall with President Kim Phipps, panel sessions, a coffeehouse, a gospel concert, worship service and more.

“During Messiah’s Year of Reconciliation, I can think of no better way to live out our missional commitments than to gather together as beloved children of God and encourage and spur one another on toward biblical reconciliation,” said Phipps.

As alumni assist in living out Messiah’s mission, it’s an event you won’t want to miss.

“I’m truly excited and looking forward to welcoming back alumni, many of whom have not visited the campus in some time. This weekend is a way to say we honor and thank you for your contribution to Messiah, first as a student and now as alumni,” said Allen.

— Anna Seip