The Prison Abolition Club (PALC) is happy to announce a new project to promote transformative justice (TJ) at Lewis & Clark. PALC is a club dedicated to dismantling carceral logics both on and off campus. This year, we have promoted administrative accountability, collaborated with the Black Student Union, Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement, and Arabic Club to bring speakers and events, and we are distributing a zine about police abolition in the coming weeks.
Over the past year, students at PALC have worked with Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities Jessica Carron, Associate Dean of Equity and Inclusion and Title IX Coordinator Casey Bieberich, Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Robin Holmes-Sullivan, and other faculty members to start creating an official TJ program on campus. This multifaceted program seeks to address campus harm and promote accountability in a collaborative, community-oriented and survivor-centered way. TJ is a framework that operates under the understanding that intervention in a nonviolent and dialogic manner can break cycles of violence and make communities more connected, trusting and resilient. Our dream is to see TJ implemented in all areas of campus, including student life, administrative staff and faculty relations. We hope to provide a mutual and co-constructive foundation by reaching out to students and faculty to inform ourselves and others about community concerns, and to use this engagement to develop a program from the ground up. We will use this information to create workshops on a variety of topics such as community accountability, interpersonal violence, consequences and setting community guidelines.
Some of our concrete goals include creating a TJ program for New Student Orientation and resident advisor training, establishing relationships with TJ activists and educators in Portland, designing a symposium for Fall 2021 and applying for grants to ensure future funding for the project. One day, we hope to have a TJ center and department with full-time staff. In regards to faculty relationships, we seek to promote professorship accountability, improve trust between students and professors, and create a space where a student can safely express needs to faculty without barriers to accommodations or acceptance. In residential life, we envision more decentralized, autonomous communities which actively involve the voices of all residents, make dorms feel safe and welcoming, and foster a culture of consensual engagement. We also hope to create nodes of access for staff members to express administrative harm and seek student support and advocacy.
TJ is not something that can be established overnight — it is a dynamic and continual process that focuses on long-term stability over “quick-fixes.” But, we believe that we have to start somewhere, and we are excited to help engage in student-led harm reduction and conflict resolution. As a decentralized program, we look forward to direct collaboration with the LC community rather than leadership by any one member or group. Moreover, we seek accountability from the community in turn to ensure that our efforts coincide with the needs of our campus. If you are interested in participating in the program or voicing concerns and suggestions, please contact prisonabolitionlc@lclark.edu.
The Prison Abolition Club is led by a coalition of students who created the transformative justice project in their dedication to social justice.
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