Does UIowa Love Me

More information about the Healing Spaces (for folx within the African Diaspora). Next Healing Space is June 19th, 2020. Click on link for more information.

Healing Spaces Ruth Kahssai, Director of Justice and Equity, USG, and Dr. Maria Bruno, Executive Director of Belonging and Inclusion, DSL, have created space for students, faculty, and staff who identify within the African Diaspora. Our aim is to create space for open and brave conversation, to listen and share in...

is in full support of the movement and the efforts of Black students, staff, faculty, and community members. Swipe through to learn about Black-led initiatives.

Below you will find our full statement:

Students created the movement in response to systemic, emotional, physical, social, and intellectual forms of violence that have been repeatedly dismissed by administrators, faculty, and fellow peers at the University of Iowa. As an organization, we work to shed light on these injustices, public and private, through our platform in order to allow underrepresented students to speak their truth and share their experiences.

As such, we are here to publicly state: ​ is in full support of the movement and the efforts of Black students, staff, faculty, and community members.

As a mostly non-Black group of organizers, who worked to create a movement that uplifts voices, we want to use our platform to take a step back to highlight and inform about the work of our Black peers.

1. is a hashtag, created by Kristen Young, “​to give Black and Brown people the ability to have an outlet, amplify our voices, create and strengthen our communities and also (sadly) reaffirm our humanity! Please post in whatever ways you feel comfortable: videos, or written posts will work.”

2. Follow the newly created local organization Freedom Riders on Instagram (). Freedom Riders is leading change in Iowa. Following their page provides you with confirmed plans of protests in Iowa City. For more questions email: [email protected].

3. Black Student Roundtable - Monday June 8th, 2020 4-6pm
a. “A virtual round table for Black students to discuss USG advocacy in response to
police brutality and discrimination towards Black students. USG wants to provide space for Black students to engage in conversation of how we can advocate not only on our campus, but also within our Iowa City community. Topics include: police violence, University of Iowa relationship with police, and campus culture. Tabitha Wiggins, Associate Director for Multicultural and International Student Support and Engagement, will be moderating the event.”
For further information: ​https://www.facebook.com/events/2589680621249865/

4. Healing Spaces (for folx within the African Diaspora) - Friday, June 19th-Friday,
September 25th
a. “Ruth Kahssai, Director of Justice and Equity, UISG, and Dr. Maria Bruno,
Executive Director of Belonging and Inclusion, DSL, have created space for students, faculty and staff who identify within the African Diaspora. Our aim is to create space for open and brave conversation, to listen and share in community as we process national events, and provide a platform to hold each other up.” This space opens up on Friday, June 19th, 2020 and will continue to be held every other Friday until Friday, September 25th, 2020.

We anticipate that, in the coming days, weeks, months, etc., more organizing by Black leaders will be done and it is imperative that this organizing continues to be uplifted. We want to encourage you to spread the resources listed above widely and continue to seek information from Black-led organizations so as to not co-opt their efforts.

To all non-Black community members, anti-Blackness takes form in many ways and we ask you to take time to reflect on the ways that it manifests in your daily life. Learn to interrupt those thoughts and hold not only yourself but others accountable as well.

From George Floyd to Breonna Taylor to Nina Pop to Tony McDade to Rodney King to Sandra Bland. To all of those whose names and lives who never get named.

We want to share, as loudly as we are able, ​all Black Lives Matter.

Pictures from this week’s event!

Earlier this week we joined to recognize our work a year ago. Check out this interview from some of our members, as well as Dr. Nadine Petty.

We are thankful to the faculty, staff, and administration, as well as community, who created this event. These are the same people who’ve been here, and who we know are present at all times. We see you, we value you, we are grateful for you (you know who you are).

One year after #DoesUIowaLoveMe, some progress made, but more needed, on inclusion University of Iowa students, faculty and staff came together Tuesday at the campus’ Center for Diversity and Enrichment to break bread and recognize the progress their school has made in the last year.

We can’t express enough how important it is that 🗣 STUDENT VOICE MATTERS! Notice the subtleties and work to combat them by making your voice heard by submitting feedback for the VPSL position with the link in our bio, no later than 5 pm on Friday!

Photo Description: Tweet from student asking the Daily Iowan why of the 4 VPSL candidates, the only WOC’s name isn’t in the title of their article. Second picture is a picture of all article titles highlighting the names of the candidates who are in the title, and the candidate who’s name is in the subtitle.

Student organizers remembering their favorite parts of 2019.

Thank you, again, to everyone who chose to share their stories and experiences in this movement. There is no us without the courageous storytellers. Thank you.

The year ends, but the movement and the pressure to hold leadership and institutions accountable doesn’t.

Photo Description:
Tweet reading, “let’s share our fav accomplishments of 2019 as hawkeyes!

mine was the creation of !!!” in response to a video tweeted by the University of Iowa.

Second tweet reading:
“Same here !
gave me a lot of insight and an understanding of many things.”

Letter to The Daily Iowan: supports you, University of Iowa Native American Student Association!

Your stories are the lifeblood of . If you would like a caption added, please PM us with a link to your photo and the caption you want and we'll update it for you!

"This is a movement that is making the invisible, visible."