In the wake of George Floyd’s death and protests throughout America demanding racial justice and structural change, Wisconsin’s athletes past and present came together to ask UW to work at becoming a more inclusive and supportive environment for students of color.
Almost two months ago, Wisconsin student athletes sent a letter to Chancellor Rebecca Blank, Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, and Chief Diversity Officer Patrick Sims that asked the school to allow players to wear a black ‘W’ on their uniforms. That request was accepted by the school and will take place whenever Big Ten sports resumes.
The second letter from student athletes past and present, in partnership with Black Lives Matter UW-Madison, was for the school, in partnership with the athletic department, to create a $2 million dollar annual fund for students of color who qualify through admissions but are unable to financially attend UW Madison.
Here is the full statement surrounding the fund that was sent three weeks ago to Chancellor Rebecca Blank and Athletic Director Barry Alvarez by the group of student-athletes:
Today, the student-athletes past and present released the contents of an additional email sent to Chancellor Rebecca Blank, Coach Alvarez, and Chief Diversity Officer Cheryl Gittens. The latest statement says that the University of Wisconsin’s leaders have not responded to their email sent on August 2nd detailing the request for the creation of the fund.
“We, the current and former student-athletes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are following up from our previous email sent on August 2nd. It’s been over three weeks and we have not heard from anyone addressed in this email. The shooting tragedy in Minnesota that sparked so many protests and ultimately led to us voicing our concerns/issues has happened again this weekend in Kenosha, Wisconsin. One of our biggest issues we have on this campus is the lack of diversity due to limited access. This is an important issue for us. We keep hearing education is the key to success however we believe access to that education is even more critical. Was our request unreasonable? We have a voice. We will not be silent. We will not give up. We want change on our campus. We expect change on our campus. The question is do you?”
There has yet to have been any confirmation as to whether or not the latest email has received a response.