Voices of Huxley

In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, Huxley College reckons with student demands to make up for racism in the institution's history.

Story and photos by Emily Amos

December 13, 2020

On June 10 of 2020, Western Washington University’s Huxley College of the Environment released a solidarity statement in response to the nationwide protests against racism, racialized police violence and the suppression of historically excluded groups within the United States. The statement pledged the college’s continued commitment to social justice and civil rights.

“Huxley joins the call for dismantling the structural racism and oppression that endanger and devalue the lives and rights of People of Color across the world,” Huxley College faculty and staff said in the solidarity statement. “Everyone has a place on the Earth we call home. There is not a place for hate.”

As of 2017, less than 20% of students within Huxley College are People of Color, according to a student recruitment plan by Huxley’s diversity recruiter and retention specialist Shalini Singh.

The real question is whether or not those in positions of power are taking actual steps to improve inclusivity, said Alyssa Tsukada, a third-year Huxley student and Japanese-American.

“You can say things outwardly,” said Tsukada, “but whether or not it’s having that great of an impact or . . . because that’s what’s benefiting them at this moment and pacifies the public, I’m not sure.”

Since its beginning, the environmental movement has largely left out the voices of People of Color, according to Carolyn Finney, the author of the book Black Faces, White Spaces. Huxley College is no exception.

Huxley College was founded in the tumultuous late 1960s. Named after the nineteenth-century British scientist Thomas Henry Huxley, it has become a well-known and respected college for environmental learning.

The works of Thomas Henry Huxley, specifically what came to be known as “Huxley’s rule,” have been pointed to as an origin of scientific racism by historians of science like Nicolaas Rupke in his essay “The origins of scientific racism and Huxley’s Rule.” Drawing from Darwin’s theory of evolution, Huxley categorized humans into different “higher and lower” races.

When figures like Huxley, who has a continued presence within environmentalism, are memorialized in the names of institutions and buildings like Huxley College, it doesn’t support Black, Indigenous students of Color, said Francis Neff, a Huxley student senator and white student.

“There are so many [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] students in Huxley College who don’t feel safe or welcome, and those people are my friends,” said Sargun Handa, the AS senate pro tempore and leader of Color.

This summer, Black student organizations at Western issued demands to the university, including a call to change Huxley College’s name, along with other buildings on campus, to honor historical figures in Black historical figures.

While Western’s student body is 28% students of Color, this number drops to 20% for those attending the environmental college, according to Singh. Singh believes students of Color face barriers in pursuing an environmental education. Her time at Western and her advising work at Student Outreach Services and the Ethnic Student Center has shed light on some fundamental issues.

“In my opinion, I think too much focus is on increasing the number of students of Color,” said Singh. “It’s important to investigate why the numbers are so low and address those root causes.”

According to a document on diversity recruitment and retention goals created by Singh, minority students may be deterred from pursuing environmental education due to negative perceptions of the environmental field or lack of experience with the outdoors. This issue extends beyond education. Black Americans have been historically excluded from the mainstream environmental movement as a whole, Finney said in Black Faces, White Spaces.

Singh also said that a lack of diverse role models within faculty and staff is one of the barriers that students of Color face.

Grace Wang, Huxley professor and department chair of environmental studies, reiterated the importance of having qualified, dynamic People of Color working for the college. She said the classes students take are shaped by the professors they have. As department chair, Wang doesn’t spend much time in the classroom anymore.

“As a professor of Color I miss the classroom because I really love teaching,” said Wang. “I also miss the opportunity to inspire, especially women of Color, to say, ‘Hey, my professor is a woman of Color. I can do it, too.’”

For Tsukada, working with professors of Color offers encouragement.

“It’s so nice to be able to see people that you can identify with being successful and in places of power and inspiration,” Tsukada said. “It makes things feel more possible when things are a little bit more difficult.”

Wang believes there are a lot of great faculty in the department who believe that the environment should be inclusive and welcoming, but she isn’t sure what concrete changes could make the college more accessible.

Laura Wagner, a white student elected as a Huxley student senator in October, said she wants to see more transparency about what action Huxley college is actually taking to make the goals of the Solidarity Statement tangible. Wagner said she constantly sees updates from Sabah Randhawa, the president of the university, stating that Western is an accepting institution that stands with People of Color. People can say anything they want, Wagner said, but they have to follow through with actions.

However, both the environmental studies and science departments within Huxley have diversity committees working towards change.

Jenise Bauman, the chair of the Environmental Science Diversity Committee, said the department is working on initiatives in regards to diversity. Their ultimate goal is to create a safe and welcoming environment for students who are underrepresented, but to also encourage and welcome new faculty. To do so, the committee made a virtual course for faculty to aid in the ongoing process of diversity, equity and inclusion training.

The department has shifted towards more diverse hiring practices, with approximately the last 12 hires being Women or People of Color, according to Wang.

“It’s not just about ticking a box off,” said Wang. “It really is about searching deeply for qualified dynamic candidates who are People of Color.”

Handa said that Huxley College could become more welcoming by improving their communication with underrepresented students.

“It’s incredibly unethical and irresponsible to try to get a quota of diversified populations into your college without addressing how your college has historically harmed [them],” said Handa. “If Huxley College wants to recruit more underrepresented students, then they really need to fix the institutional issues that are rampant in their environment.”

Tsukada said she is not sure where Huxley will be in the coming decades, but that new issues will always arise.

“I think one way [of allowing for social change] is just making sure that there is a system in place of accountability and self assessment . . . within the college so that they can’t turn a blind eye to the problem,” Tsukada said.

Emily Amos is a third-year environmental studies student at Huxley College. She hopes to use her love of words to bring awareness to the lack of diversity within environmental education.