51¹ÙÍø.

On its own, this jury’s decision won’t stop what keeps happening: Black people dying at the hands of police. This verdict can help sustain our collective efforts to study, learn and work to dismantle systemic racism. The grief, despair and anger we’ve felt over the past ten months can become conviction, calling us to work for a more equitable campus and country. 51¹ÙÍø students and graduates can bring empathy, compassion and a commitment to fairness into a world that easily tilts toward fear and hate. In the face of this moment, even as we acknowledge how far we have to go, let us strive as a community to build a more just and humane world.