Hello everyone,
It is my prayer that this message finds you in the best of health. I would like to thank the guests and new members for attending the Empire State College Education for All meeting on August 22, 2014. We welcomed our new members and shared our reasons for being involved in the ESCEA. Members and guests shared a variety of personal stories, which included how incarceration has impacted their family members.
The meeting began with the showing of Passport to the Future: Accessing Higher Education in an Era of Mass Incarceration. After the video, discussions began with the topic of Changing the System. The statistics in the video indicated that 1 out of 3 black males will face one year of incarceration during his lifetime. This information created a provoking platform for the discussion. The acts of racism, classism and other forms of discrimination by the system’s officials and officers attested to the need for change. The affluent could afford to successfully navigate the judicial system while the poor are sacked with obstacle after obstacle baring the full punitive weight. A mentor and advisor of Empire State College joined the discussion, mentioning that “the rich could afford to conceal their judicial run-ins”.
We stressed the need for a SUNY wide consolidated effort. As a result, students of Empire State College will organize and establish our group in the Metro Centers and extend to the other locations. To expand our message, We have scheduled a meeting with the faculty senate representative. We are continuing our communications with SUNY Geneseo and SUNY Albany. One of the member reiterated that most crimes committed on campuses were not by formerly incarcerated individuals but instead by students without any records of judicial involvement. She has offered contacts with church leadership and educators to help educate the general public. Another group member, introduced the idea of reaching out to local radio stations to help educate the masses. Some of our members will participate in the panel group discussion at this year’s Student Academic Conference.
The ESCEA website (http://commons.esc.edu/esced4all ) was presented at the meeting. The site hosts the current version of The Fair Access to Education Act, banning the box for college admissions in New York State and the link to the college’s Black Male Initiative (BMI) page. The site will consist of Newspaper Articles and web based information pertaining to eliminating the box from higher education and current social justice issues. The ESCEA asks its members and supporters to please send the links or a clear attached copy of those types of articles to its email, esceducationforall@gmail.com.
For the upcoming fall semester, ESCEA would like to ask the mentors of Empire State College for permission for a 30 minute presentation. The presentation will consist of the video titled Passport to the future and a ten minute question and answer session. Please let us know if you can accommodate our request. Thank you.
Warm regards,
Empire State College Education for All
esced4all 