At 5:12pm on June 6th, 2020, President Beebe sent an email to all faculty, all staff, all students and parents to "to share with you an update on the Voskuyl Chapel window since its relocation has recently occurred." The email failed to name the content of the stained glass window in the Chapel (White Jesus Standing on North America), gave no reason for why the window was moved this past week or where the window currently is. He also made no mention of student organizers who have been organizing for the removal of the window since January of 2019. The email announced that the President would reach out to the six Intercultural Programs Organizations (which he misidentified as "intercultural student groups") for the first time since student organizing to remove window began. [UPDATE 10/14/2020: President Beebe has not contacted intercultural programs after four months.] President Beebe also announced that further updates to "curricular and co-curricular initiatives that focus on and amplify our support for diversity and address racism and implicit bias" will be announced July 7th. The contents of the email can be seen in the screenshot below: As the content of the email is difficult to read because it is so small a text version of the email can also be read below: June 22, 2020
Dear Westmont Community, I wanted to share with you an update on the Voskuyl Chapel window since its relocation has recently occurred. The chapel window became a significant distraction to its primary purpose as a place for prayer. In my Tuesday, June 4 call-in session, I referred to an update about our next steps in addressing it. We’ve engaged in several conversations, including with the Voskuyl family, who have been incredibly understanding and supportive. Earlier this spring, we decided we would relocate the traditional image and replace it with a series of images that will broaden our understanding of the universal reach of Christ, thereby providing us with a powerful educational moment. Professors Lisa DeBoer (art history) and Telford Work (theology, religious studies), along with Campus Pastor Scott Lisea are working with me and others from diverse cultural backgrounds to help us in this endeavor. We’ve also engaged outside religious architects and consultants. Together, these and other voices within our campus community, including students and especially members of all six of our intercultural student groups — Asian Students Association, Black Student Union, Latinx Student Union, Global and International Student Association, Multi-Ethnic Student Association, and White Students for Racial Justice — will be asked to participate as we craft a plan that will add a variety of images to the chapel to more fully educate us and represent the global life of the church and the various images that distill the life and impact of Jesus. We’re working on many other curricular and co-curricular initiatives that focus on and amplify our support for diversity and address racism and implicit bias. I’ll be sharing more progress at our July 7 All-Westmont Conference Call. A webpage has been prepared to share various resources and voices from our own community and others from around the world giving thoughtful insight to help us learn. I ask you to join me in praying for each other and our country that God will renew us with his guidance and mercy. Blessings, Gayle D. Beebe -- Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D. President Westmont College 955 La Paz Road Santa Barbara, CA 93108 -- allstudents mailing list [email protected] ***if above link to westmont webpage is broken please visit the archive at: web.archive.org/web/20200618074630/https://www.westmont.edu/dojustice_micah6***
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