Kenyon's Program in Computing faculty have approved the following statement.
Anti-Racism Statement
Within the field and profession of computing, the prevalence of anti-Black racism and other forms of oppression are painfully evident: from numbers on representation, from myriad accounts of discrimination and harassment, and from the injustices produced or amplified by ideas and products. The field has largely tolerated ways that its intellectual products have perpetuated racial bias in health care, criminal justice, housing, employment, surveillance and policing, education, and other aspects of life. As a program we have not rigorously addressed our role in perpetuating these problems, nor sufficiently prioritized our role in understanding, confronting, and correcting these problems. We have neglected to ensure that our students comprehend and examine the mechanisms that perpetuate racial and gender inequalities, and equip them to advocate for changes that disrupt these mechanisms.
Additionally, we acknowledge that a Eurocentric narrative of the history of science that excludes or belittles contributions from non-western civilizations has been commonly taught. Rooted in a colonial mindset, this narrative falsely attributes many scientific inventions to European scholars. Teaching of a distorted history of mathematics and science has contributed to racism in society and academia.
Motivated by the existence of these biases and inequalities, we aim to build and maintain a program in computing whose curriculum, scholarship and culture continuously challenge historical and ongoing systems of oppression and unfairness, and which critically evaluates historical and cultural norms of the field. We will expand our notions of what constitutes a computational education, such that equity and antiracism are infused into our work and the outcomes of that work. In the process, we will use our academic and personal privileges to challenge the systems that helped to secure those privileges. These aspirations will require ongoing engagement, and constant evaluation of our commitments, both abstract and concrete.