Dean's Announcements

The Fletcher School: Shaping the Future

Dean Rachel Kyte

Fall2021

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The Fletcher School is at the forefront of understanding and interpreting the complex challenges facing the globe. For nearly a century, Fletcher has led the study and practice of international affairs — defining the field, pushing its frontiers, and deepening and broadening its scope.

Today’s world is vastly different from the one at the time of Fletcher's founding. Global, digital, flatter, hotter, safer, and more prosperous — yet unequal. Old wars have been fought, but the causes of conflict remain. New rivalries are emerging. And in addition, we face a suite of new threats, some of which are existential. Threats stemming from nationalism spurred the School's founding, and they continue to ricochet around the world today. International cooperation is as critical as ever, and to achieve peace, there must be justice.

Fletcher’s founding was spurred by the need for international cooperation in the face of rising insularity and nationalism. Nationalism continues to pose threats today, making effective international cooperation as essential today as it was almost 90 years ago. Building and operating that cooperation, from the myriad of vantage points a leader secures with a Fletcher education, and which our scholarship illuminates, remains our purpose. Both our opportunity and responsibility are to carry forward the Fletcher tradition of innovation and courageous leadership.

Similarly, since our founding, professional education has constantly changed. Today, it is more global, digital, and open to all, remote as well as in person, yet too expensive and inaccessible to many. These trends, discernible for several years, have become more apparent and the pace of change quickened by COVID-19’s disruption. Our students’ needs are different too. An increasingly global and interconnected community, they are keenly aware that they must develop both the deep analytical capability and knowledge for which Fletcher is traditionally known, and greater facility with essential “know-how,” such as those skills associated with data science. As the original school of law and diplomacy, Fletcher has set the bar for other institutions that now offer competing credentials. In this more competitive and dynamic educational landscape, we pursue our mission to educate students, prepared to lead on a fast-moving, fast-changing, and increasingly uncertain global stage.

The next generation of leaders will need to be equipped to build new architectures of international cooperation using new technologies and leveraging new kinds of partnerships—many of which have yet to be imagined. They will need to lead and manage problem-solving for challenges that demand collaboration between public and private sectors and where the institutions, rules, and norms on which the world has relied for most of Fletcher’s history need to be reformed, retired, or replaced. They will need the courage and vision to seek new ways to build security by protecting others in order to protect us all. They will need to find ways to make peace with nature if we are to be at peace with each other.

To ensure that Fletcher continues to graduate agile, resourceful, and committed leaders, we will invest in our school’s unique integrated educational offering and approach to research across a focused set of fields of study. We will build on Fletcher’s track record by doubling down on what makes Fletcher, Fletcher:

• A faculty of global experts who are not siloed in departments but who are supported to build links between fields of study. Attracted by and producing interdisciplinary solutions, they deepen and broaden their fields of study from technology policy to international law, development economics to climate change, gender analysis to negotiation and conflict resolution, security studies and human security. They probe the interdisciplinary spaces between our fields of study to find solutions to cyber threats and pandemic disease, nuclear proliferation, biological threats, climate change, energy, food and finance system transitions, and the intersectionality at the heart of social justice everywhere. Our faculty actively contributes to the work of the Bretton Woods Institutions, the United Nations, and the World Trade Organization. They advise the foreign affairs departments of multiple governments, their military and defense establishments and international finance, aid, humanitarian and trade mechanisms. They are experts to the G7 and G20 and other institutions of international governance. They advise negotiators and design processes of negotiation. They advise business and financial institutions from start-ups to global brands. They are engaged in initiatives around the world to form and build new institutions and new ways of cooperation.
• An exceptional international student body that boasts greater global diversity than our U.S. peers. Our remarkable student body allows Fletcher to move beyond the transactional understanding of “international affairs” to an immersion in the study, research, and practice of global affairs and a globalist view. They are drawn to our interdisciplinarity, our unparalleled culture of community, and our commitment to supporting their careers as they traverse government, private sector, NGOs, and international organizations. Whether our students are studying in our buildings, or from locations around the world, Fletcher equips them to tackle complex global problems through multiple lenses, collaborating with like-minded community-oriented change agents.
• A category-of-one alumni network with ties that are revered and relied on throughout and beyond one’s career. Students and alumni choose Fletcher because of the vitality of our community’s engagement and the power of its camaraderie that begins in the student experience, permeating classrooms, hallways, and now zoom rooms, and extends for life. Uncommonly committed and connected, our alumni share a great pride of belonging to the Fletcher community.

These distinctions enable Fletcher to deliver a uniquely effective education with practical skills that our graduates carry with them for life. To secure our school as the destination of choice for scholarship and teaching for those who wish to design, influence, and lead in this fast-changing world, we will build on Fletcher’s essential elements in the following ways:

• For Excellence and Relevance
  We will anchor each of our eleven fields of study with world-class scholarship and leading faculty practitioners of the field. Having streamlined our study areas, we will invest in them, developing our faculty and fortifying our applied research. We will add new scholars, consolidate research centers, and expand our Ph.D. program. Equal commitment will be made to securing field depth and to working across fields of study.
  
  We will support our students as they explore the intersections of disciplines critical for the real-world challenges of the coming decades. The curriculum will continue to evolve to support interdisciplinary approaches to issues while ensuring students graduate with the foundations of those disciplines essential to their chosen path. We will maximize students' time at Fletcher to ensure they develop the skills critical to success in a digital world, regardless of their specific trajectory.
• For Flexibility and Affordability
  To train the students the world will need as its future leaders, we will make the Fletcher experience increasingly accessible to those from all backgrounds everywhere. We will mobilize resources to secure the financial aid needed to enroll qualified students and emerging scholars irrespective of their means, background or perspective. We will price our educational programs and offerings aggressively. We will support part-time, pay-as-you-go credentials and use the entire calendar year to support students and increase engagement opportunities for executive education students and others, including corporate and organizational partners.
  
  The unique collaborative relationship between our faculty and students is a premium of the Fletcher in-person experience. We aim to replicate that special connection online and have done so successfully already. We will offer experiences blending digital technologies alongside in-person teaching, identifying the formula for optimal learning, collaboration and engagement. To ensure that a Fletcher education can be delivered to students wherever they find themselves in their career and in the world, we will offer flagship degrees, with flexibility, and re-imagine our mid-career and executive education formats.
• For Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential for a complete understanding of international affairs. Our community must reflect the world for which we are training tomorrow’s leaders. We purposefully continue to strengthen the diversity of our student body. We have adopted hiring practices to ensure the diverse recruitment of faculty and staff. We are developing also a focused financial aid strategy to support greater diversity through mentoring, sponsorship, and internships. Fletcher will be known as a place where a curriculum that embraces diverse perspectives, taught by a diverse faculty — of both background and perspective — is explored by a diverse student body in the broadest sense of the word and is supported by a diverse staff. Diversity, equity, and inclusion in our student body, our staff and our faculty are essential to building a learning environment that will develop the leaders the world needs.
• For Fletcher for Life
  We will build on our commitment that Fletcher is “Fletcher for Life” with a portfolio of short-form, non-degree courses aligned with our fields of study designed for both individuals and groups. By growing our executive education programs, Fletcher will become the place for governments, international organizations, businesses, and civil society organizations, as well as our alumni, to refresh and augment their expertise and curate their careers to enhance and expand their impact. The content of our curriculum, the insights from our research, and the practitioner experience of many of our faculty mean that we may curate carefully designed experiences for leaders to explore and understand complexity in global affairs. By investing in new ways to engage with Fletcher, we will position ourselves as a destination of choice for those seeking to lead and influence at the highest levels of government, industry, and non-profits. Our executive education business platform and the sharpened focus of our mid-career degrees will make our scholarship and instruction available across the Fletcher community's career span and to others who wish to access Fletcher later in life. We will offer a “home” of learning, enrichment, and community that alumni and first-time friends can return to again and again.

Each challenge the world faces today will be resolved only by cooperation between states and among states and non-state actors. Often this cooperation will take new forms. Messy, complex, and challenging, this world has already arrived, and requires dexterity and a principled commitment to pursuing engagement. Fletcher students must be comfortable with the evolving nature of leadership demands in this environment — managing experts across multiple domains. They must be leaders who can succeed in workforces where effectiveness is understood to come from diversity.

By focusing on skills development and know-how as well as knowledge and analytical capability, by engaging the world through more structured internships, practicums, and research partnerships, Fletcher brings what we know of the world’s challenges to shape the educational experience so that it works best for our students, regardless of their pursuit, background, or circumstance.

At Fletcher's founding, amid growing isolationism resulting from the Great Depression and World War I, Tufts President John Cousens hoped that Fletcher would “deliver a practical service in a disorderly world.” Today's practical service is as likely to be an NGO worker using digital tools to track the involuntary displacement of people as it is to be an ambassador. It is as likely to be a division head for a global energy company committed to access to energy as it is to be an analyst in an international organization. That practical service is as likely to be a military officer deployed with colleagues on a soft power initiative as it is in a combat role. Whatever the leadership scenario for which Fletcher prepares our students, they are likely to meet fellow alumni across the negotiating table, as a technology partner, a commentator, or as an ally.

Fletcher has never observed history. Fletcher puts its hands on history. The Fletcher School is and must continue to be the gold standard of global affairs study and practice in the 21st Century — the essential, world-class provider of the knowledge, skills and network our students and their employers require in order to be the shapers of the future we need them to be. With a flatter, increasingly digital world convulsed by climate impacts, new great power rivalries, and severe risks of deepening inequality and weaponized extremisms, Fletcher and its community now need to redesign the forms of international cooperation for the future.

Fletcher has always understood that there must be justice to achieve peace. Therefore, we must invest in training an ever-more diverse group of students in the disciplines most critical to this world that is moving at warp speed. Fletcher graduates will continue to lead the way in securing a better world for everyone. I could not be more proud of our community’s commitment to the global leaders and leadership that the world needs now more than ever. As your Dean, I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with you for the benefit of us all and for the planet.

Dear Fletcher Community,

Today, in one of the most pivotal trials in recent memory, a case emblematic of the systemic racism that pervades our society, justice for the death of George Floyd was served. A jury in Minneapolis delivered a guilty verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin.

This evening, I join President Monaco and my Tufts colleagues in our commitment to reforming and healing our country, starting at home with our campus-wide efforts to eradicate racism and injustice in all forms.

Above all else, we must seize this moment to find strength in each other, listen and learn, and deepen our support to furthering human rights for all. There is still much work to do, and it must be done.

Sincerely,

Rachel Kyte

Dean

Dear Graduating Students,

President Tony Monaco has just announced that, due to the extraordinary efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and keep our community safe, the University-wide commencement ceremony will be virtual. 

Please know that the entire community shares in your disappointment in not being able to celebrate this momentous occasion in person. Nevertheless, we plan to commemorate this important milestone and The Fletcher School will hold a virtual celebration on Sunday, May 23, 2021 that will include all the key elements we associate with Fletcher’s Class Day and Commencement Ceremony.  

The Fletcher leadership team has also been exploring scheduling individual photo opportunities with each graduate and Dean Kyte and Academic Dean Gallagher. This would be available for all graduates participating in the university’s COVID-19 testing protocol. Due to state and local crowd limits and social distancing requirements, unfortunately, only our graduates may participate. Friends and family will not be able to join. More details will be forthcoming, and any in-person opportunities are subject to change based on local health conditions and guidelines. 

For our graduating Ph.D. students, we hope to have an in-person hooding ceremony for students in the testing protocol to mark this important occasion, again with limits on participation and required social distancing. The hooding ceremony will strictly adhere to all COVID-19 safety guidelines, occupancy limits, and protocols. More information about the hooding ceremony will be shared with the class in the near future. 

We all look forward to the time when we can come together to celebrate your achievement on our Medford campus. Last year, we informed the class of 2020 that when we did come together we would offer them an opportunity to join in a future commencement celebration. One year on, we are not there yet. That commitment to the class of 2020 still holds, as does a similar commitment to the class of 2021.

With best wishes,

Dean Kyte

Dear Fletcher Community,

Together with others across Tufts University, we are saddened and outraged by the most recent lives lost in the tragic killings yesterday in Georgia. 

While the police investigation into the motive for these murders continues, the deaths of these eight people — six of whom were Asian, including five women — stand out not only for their violence, but also for the backdrop against which they occurred: an appalling increase, over the past several months, in racially motivated attacks across the country directed at those in the Asian and Asian American community. 

That is why at Fletcher in our curriculum, scholarship, and activism we take seriously violence that is motivated and shaped by sexism, racism, xenophobia, and toxic masculinities.  We seek to better understand and counter this violence as it manifests in individuals, institutions, and systems to ensure the well-being of all.

We grieve with the families who have lost loved ones and stand with our Asian students, faculty, and staff. We are part of a global community that strives to embody and emulate the dignity and safety of every person, on and off our campus.

If you are feeling emotionally impacted by this event, we would like to remind you that you deserve support and someone to talk to. We encourage any students who wish to seek support during this time to refer to:

• Counseling and Mental Health Service
• Asian American Center
• Tufts Chaplaincy
• Office of Student Affairs

Sincerely,

Dean Rachel Kyte

Dear Fletcher Community,

There are times when you search for the right words to elucidate a moment, or a movement, and then there are times when it only makes sense to echo the voices of others who have already done that eloquently. The U.S.’ first National Youth Poet Laureate – and the youngest poet laureate in U.S. history ­– Amanda Gorman summoned poignant, perfectly crafted verses that reflected on history, both recent and receded, while inspiring the nation and the world to move forward, saying “For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Gorman’s now historic reading of her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden still rings in our ears and emboldens us to listen, learn, encourage, empower, and do better as we seek opportunities to celebrate and uplift our own accomplished Black community at The Fletcher School.

How are we celebrating this month?

Black Legacy Month, as it is known nationally within the United States, is a time when we, at Fletcher, want to celebrate our own – and we plan to do so on a number of fronts. This month, we will be profiling a number of our distinguished Black alumni who are now leaders in their fields with features on our website and social media channels. We’ll be sharing their stories with the hashtags #BHM and #BlackLegacyMonth – a new term coined by the Tufts Africana Center and supported within Fletcher that strives to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Black leaders around the world, past and present – and invite you to share with your friends, colleagues and networks, as well. We also invite you to share your own stories and those of impressive Fletcher alumni who inspire you, using these hashtags, and Fletcher will work to amplify your voices as we celebrate our community together.

In terms of events, Fletcher is proud to kick off Black Legacy Month by co-sponsoring the Tufts University Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium Speaker, Jelani Cobb, on February 3. Cobb will give an address entitled Cashing Our Promissory Note: Race, Justice & Reparation, based on the powerful excerpt from the Rev. Dr. King's speech at the March on Washington in 1963. This event is open to all and we encourage you to attend.

To continue these important conversations, on February 17, at 5:30pm, Fletcher will be hosting Tufts’ Dr. Kerri Greenidge as our Black Legacy keynote presenter. Dr. Greenidge will speak on and answer questions about themes from her book Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, which was a New York Times top pick for 2019. We are honored to host Dr. Greenidge, who is the Director of the American Studies Program in Tufts’ Department of Studies on Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. She is also an expert in African-American history, American political history, and African-American and African diasporic literature in the post-emancipation and early modern eras.

Throughout the month, Fletcher will be co-sponsoring a number of events in partnership with Tisch College with a diverse range of speakers whom I know will be of interest to the Fletcher community. Please keep an eye out for the announcements on myFletcher in the coming days and be sure to sign up for the opportunities to engage with these impressive, influential speakers this month. Also, continue to monitor myFletcher for future diversity, equity, and  inclusion programming that will occur throughout the academic year

 An update on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at Fletcher.

Following on from my message to students, faculty, and staff in April of last year and in a community discussion with alumni in June, we’ve continued to focus on how Fletcher can respond to broader issues of systemic racism that have shaped and continue to shape our world, the field of international relations, and the school itself.

One of the key follow-up actions to those conversations was to bring on a full-time, dedicated associate director for diversity, equity and inclusion at Fletcher. To that end, we are thrilled to have brought Adrian Thomas on board in November. Alongside Adrian, we are working closely with our faculty, admissions team, and Fletcher’s office of development and alumni relations to prioritize diversity and inclusion at Fletcher in, and outside of, the classroom.

Last summer, I established a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Standing Committee at Fletcher, which, since its inception has met regularly to address faculty, staff, and student diversity and inclusion. In multi-faceted effort to enhance the Fletcher community, the DEI Standing Committee evaluated diversity related processes, issues, and concerns, and as a result, has created a number of working groups charged with designing and implementing faculty, staff, and student recruiting guidelines; curricular and co-curricular activities; equity and inclusion programming; and marketing and media relations.

Likewise, The Fletcher School has also taken an active role in Tufts University’s DEI initiatives. We are proud to have faculty, staff, and student representation on the campus’ anti-racist workstreams. Accordingly, we look forward to the release of the reports and recommendations that will come out of those workstreams. As a community, we will work hard to address the recommendations from the campus-wide anti-racist initiative alongside those of Fletcher’s DEI Standing Committee.

With all of this said, we know that change won’t come fast enough and that there is a tremendous amount of work ahead of us. Know that we are committed to making Fletcher a school that values a diversity of perspectives and experiences and can harness our differences to further our vision for a more just, inclusive, and sustainable world. After all, as Amanda Gorman reminded us, “we are far from polished. Far from pristine […]” but “If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.”

Sincerely,

Dean Kyte

Dear all,

American democracy has bowed and bent, but it hasn't broken, yet. As the Fletcher community, we advance peace and justice. Our scholarship examines international rules-based systems and from our founding, the United States has been a necessary nation in every aspect of international affairs. Today, millions in this country have been joined by millions worldwide, glued to screens, stupefied at the Capitol's storming for the first time since the British in 1814. Allies and the NATO Secretary-General have taken to social media and diplomatic channels to underline that the U.S. electoral process must be respected. They look forward to working with President-elect Joe Biden. In recent days they have been perturbed that all living Secretaries of Defense deem it necessary to remind today's officeholders to respect their oath to uphold the Constitution. They nervously fear that the incitement to chaos domestically could be augmented by an act to provoke chaos overseas.  

As I write, Congress has reconvened. But citizens of Washington, DC don't feel safe. A mélange of law enforcement from neighboring states and the District of Columbia, and the National Guard, are on the streets. And middle schoolers ask why when they sat down quietly in protest of a lack of climate action or for Black Lives Matter, they were detained, but those who stormed the Capitol today walk free? Our commitment to civic engagement is needed more than ever.

We can look to the citizens of Georgia for inspiration. Yesterday, in unprecedented numbers, across the political spectrum, Georgians turned out to vote for their candidates to the Senate and, in so doing, made history. Highly organized, ordinary citizens ignored and overcame many distractions, interferences, and obstacles and voted. They will send their first Black Senator to Washington, where he will be presided over by the first Black woman Vice President. From this we can draw hope. 

Throughout the day, commentators and elected officials have stated that "this is not America" as flags of the confederacy, militias, and other groups who would challenge the Constitution rippled in the winds whipping around the Capitol. I beg to differ. The chaos at the Capitol is, sadly, part of what America has become today. But it is also the determination of millions of Georgians. 

As a community, we will reflect, in classes and conversations, and our scholarship, on the ramifications of today including the U.S.'s stained reputation and its ability to promote and maintain a rules-based international order. But tonight, we need to be clear, whatever our political views, that as engaged citizens we expect elected leaders, everywhere, to uphold their Constitution and respect the institutions upon which democracy, always fragile, depends. It is just unusual that tonight we do this facing Washington and not abroad.

Rachel Kyte

Dean

We take an interdisciplinary approach to study. At Fletcher, every degree, including our newest fast-tracked Master in Global Affairs, sets you up for success in a world confronted by complex challenges. At Fletcher, we give you the tools and the training for you to apply your talent to creating the solutions that will be required to shape a positive path for the future.  

Upon graduation, you can expect to have the unique understanding that can only be gained from a Fletcher education: a holistic perspective that ties together the nuances of policy, diplomacy, business, law, science, finance, economics and makes you an effective leader and a powerful force for change – whether in your society, your business or organization, on the world stage. 

And it’s precisely those skills that put Fletcher grads at the top of the pile for employers seeking experts in global affairs. In fact, 95% of Fletcher graduates are employed in their area of expertise within six months of graduation. Our famously strong alumni network is the proof in the pudding: Fletcher’s unparalleled reputation for preparing the world’s leaders across the gamut of fields of study in global affairs means you’re likely to find a Fletcher alum in any part of government or any organization operating internationally and shaping the future.  

In addition to our fast-tracked MGA, we offer degrees for every ambition, spanning our esteemed Master of Law and Diplomacy (MALD), Master of International Business (MIB), Master of Laws in International Law (LL.M.), Masters of Arts in Transatlantic Affairs (MATA), M.S. in Cybersecurity and Public Policy (CSPP), and Ph.D. programs in International Relations and Economics & Public Policy.

Come get to know us better. The tight-knit Fletcher community is built by people like you. Ambitious, thoughtful, creative, and unrelenting in your desire to be global changemakers. The world needs you now more than ever.

We can’t wait for you to join us.

Dear Students,

I am writing to announce a change to Fletcher’s foreign language proficiency requirement. This change in policy reflects the fluid and diverse nature of career paths that Fletcher students and alumni pursue and which the job market demands. The new policy empowers students to evaluate whether demonstrating proficiency in a language other than English will be beneficial to their course of study and in their chosen careers. It is my hope that Fletcher students see this as a further means to tailor their educational journeys to best suit their individual career paths. For many, that will still mean that demonstrating proficiency in a second language adds a necessary tool to their toolkit. Others may choose to include a foreign language into their studies for the added value that having linguistic and cultural competency shows to future employers. These are choices of which we are fully supportive and the School will continue to offer the opportunity to demonstrate these competencies.

New Policy

Effective immediately, Fletcher students will no longer be required to demonstrate proficiency in a language other than English and, instead, will have the option to demonstrate foreign language proficiency. Students who choose and successfully complete this option will have their passing results noted on their Fletcher transcript.

This policy change will apply as follows:

Current students: Regardless of anticipated graduation date, no current student will be required to demonstrate foreign language proficiency in order to graduate. Students who opt to take the language proficiency exams will have their positive results noted on their Fletcher transcript.

Incoming students: No incoming student who begins a degree in September 2020, or going forward, will be required to demonstrate foreign language proficiency in order to graduate. Those whose admission was conditioned upon language study will have that condition lifted. Students who opt to take the language proficiency exams will have their positive results noted on their Fletcher transcript.

Students with only the language requirement left to fulfill: Those students who completed all degree requirements except for the language portion, in or after December 2019, will no longer be required to complete the language exams and will be eligible to receive their degrees.

Former students: Those who completed all requirements except for the foreign language requirement before December 2019 will be eligible to receive their degrees. They will be informed of the process for receiving their diplomas in a forthcoming communication.

We understand that this change in policy may raise additional questions specific to your situation and we encourage you to refer to our list of Frequently Asked Questions and reach out to Jillian DeStone at jillian.destone@tufts.edu if you need any support in understanding how this new policy will affect you.

 

June 3, 2020

Fletcher is angry and grieving. Our Black and minority students, staff, and faculty are angry and grieving, and so we as a community are angry and grieving. We are a community that is deeply invested in furthering human rights, diversity, and justice. The systemic racism and racist violence in the US that has been laid bare, once again, by the murder of George Floyd is inimical to these values. We are a school of law and diplomacy, and as such, we call for an end to the illegal measures taken to prevent people from gathering and protesting peacefully and to the police aggression that targets Black citizens rather than protect them.  

Fletcher is a school founded at a time when racism, xenophobia, and hatred were unleashed in the aftermath of economic uncertainty. We must recognize the danger of this moment, when the rule of law is used to protect some and not all, when economic inequality is the highest since the founding of the country, and when the structures of society prevent many from accessing adequate education, affordable healthcare, and livable incomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has added to this injury, with people of color disproportionately falling ill and dying, and bearing the brunt of mounting unemployment and the economic downturn.  

We must turn our anger and grief into a determination to listen, learn, and act.

We will intensify the work already begun on a thorough review of all courses and syllabi to ensure diversity of scholarship and experience in international relations. We will deepen our support to the student-led Decolonization of International Relations Conferences, we will step-up the diversification of our faculty, staff and student body and we will systematically examine the impact of Fletcher's policies and procedures on minorities within our community. We will use this summer to deepen our planning across these priorities. 

We will not be silent, and we cannot stand by. We encourage those within our community, near and far, to support organizations, especially people of color-led groups working to address racism, bigotry, and inequality. There are many worthy organizations, including: The Bail Project (and locally here), Color of Change, Showing Up for Racial Justice, and Equal Justice Initiative. 

Rachel Kyte