A public response to letter regarding Humphrey School relationship with Freeman …

A public response to letter regarding Humphrey School

relationship with Freeman family
1 message

From: Laura Bloomberg <bloom004@umn.edu>

Date: Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 8:57 AM
Subject: A public response to letter regarding Humphrey School relationship with Freeman family

Dear Humphrey School Community Members:

Two weeks ago we (Dean Laura Bloomberg, Associate Dean Carissa Slotterback and incoming Associate Dean
Catherine Squires) received a petition letter calling on the Humphrey School to “show uncompromising institutional
support for racial justice by critically reevaluating and transforming our relationship with Hennepin County Attorney Mike
Freeman and the Freeman family”.

Specifically, the letter outlined 4 requests:

1. Remove Mike Freeman from the Humphrey School Dean’s Advisory Council.

2. Rename the Orville and Jane Freeman Commons.

3. Share records of all current and historical financial ties between the Freeman family and the Humphrey School.

4. Establish a fund to be used for

The hiring of tenure track faculty in accordance to the Humphrey School’s commitment to “recruiting and
retaining a diverse faculty”

Curriculum development focused on the intersection of critical race theory and public policy

Anti-racism training for Humphrey faculty, staff, and students

We are writing today to respond directly to these requests and outline steps the School is currently and will soon be taking
to address many of the concerns summarized in the full letter. We want to share our thanks as well for the important work
that the letter writers and signers are doing within the School and the broader community to advance critical equity and
justice priorities.

As we considered the petition letter, we focused our attention on the Humphrey School's mission and our Equity and
Inclusion Strategy Plan. Our mission reminds us of the importance of being attentive to diversity of perspective and how
our changing world should shape and reshape our decision making as a School. Our Equity and Inclusion Strategy Plan
insists that we approach equity, inclusion, diversity, and anti-racism as the work of all of us. These are priorities that must
be advanced across all functions of the School. While we have made progress in implementing our plan, we also see
ways that this work can be further institutionalized. We can be more accountable to stakeholders, and more engaged
across the students, staff, faculty, alumni, and partners connected to the Humphrey School. We approach this expansive
view of this work with the understanding that we must work harder than ever before. The imperative of being actively anti-
racist must entail real change and real action. We must critically review and challenge our organizational structures, our

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funding priorities and our decision making strategies through an equity and inclusion lens if we are to live up to the
principles we have publicly committed to:

Sharing responsibility for building, maintaining, and improving an inclusive school climate to increase
appreciation of and respect for diverse backgrounds, as well as multiple and intersectional identities;

Establishing organizational structures that support inclusive decision-making across the School

Recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty, staff and student body;

Fostering a respectful and equitable learning environment for all Humphrey students, staff, and faculty members.

With this background as context, our message today addresses the specific requests we received related to the Freeman
family.

Petition request #1: Remove Mike Freeman from the Humphrey School Dean’s Advisory Council.

Over the past two years we have reviewed and updated the bylaws guiding the Humphrey School’s Deans Advisory
Council in an effort to ensure ongoing vitality and renewal of the council. By making these changes we’ve built into the
structure of the council itself opportunities to regularly refresh this advisory group and bring in community partners who
are dedicated to the school’s mission, who bring multi-sector expertise from a wide range of philosophical and political
perspectives, who are eager to help us expand support for the school and who help us achieve greater gender, racial and
sectoral diversity on the council. The updated bylaws now ensure that council members have term limits and that those
term limits are followed. The bylaws further charge a nominating committee with making recommendations for new
council membership. This year’s nominating committee will begin meeting in early August to review and make
recommendations to refresh the council following the departure of several current members, including Hennepin County
Attorney Mike Freeman, who will reach the end of his term and will be cycling off the council at the end of this academic
year.

When we started this structured renewal process in late 2018 15% of our members were people of color. Today 18% are
people of color. This is a start, but we agree with the Advisory Council’s nominating committee that we should be seeking
a greater level of racial diversity on the council and a higher percentage of BIPOC council members across public, private
and nonprofit sectors. This remains a priority for the council and for us. We would welcome recommendations from
anyone in the Humphrey School community, especially students, on nominees to consider for council membership. As
per the bylaws, the PASA president is a standing member of the Advisory Council and could bring those
recommendations forward.

Petition request #2: Rename the Orville and Jane Freeman Commons.

The petition letter requested that the School rename the Orville and Jane Freeman Commons because of the role then
Governor Orville Freeman played in destroying the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul with the construction of two Interstate
Highways. Interstate Highways 94 and 35 quite literally tore the community apart. St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood was at
the center of a vibrant Black community in the Twin Cities up until the time the freeway was constructed through the heart
of it. It is a tragic, painful, and woefully under-examined chapter of Minnesota’s history.

The petition letter included this excerpt from a speech delivered by Governor Freeman about the construction of Interstate
94 (note that the Minnesota Historical Society has made this entire speech available. Here’s the link):

"I want you to know that this highway program has been planned giving every possible consideration to the
people whose lives are disrupted. You know, in a democracy, sometimes all of us must give way to the benefit of
the majority and if a highway runs through your property, why you of course have to give way to the majority will.”

While we are aware of the sense of urgency in the petition letter, the question of how and where the School engages with
history is consequential and calls for careful deliberation among a broad range of stakeholders. The Humphrey School

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serves both students and alums; it is both the home of both academic degree programs and a public-serving institution for
community-based research and engagement; it is the decades-long workplace of dozens of staff and faculty. As such,
deliberation about our spaces should engage our internal and external communities, similar to the approach we took when
establishing the Josie R Johnson Community Room for Social Justice or the Joan and Walter Monday Commons.
Deliberation must include to the extent possible individuals most directly impacted by the actors, actions or policy
decisions in question. In this case, BIPOC individuals living in Rondo during the time of the interstate expansion, or their
descendants.

In this spirit of inclusive deliberation we have asked the Humphrey School’s Equity and Inclusion Council (EIC) to lead a
review and discovery process to guide us on key questions related to the petitioners’ request to rename Freeman
Commons. Specifically, the EIC is charged with engaging and consulting a broad group of stakeholders to consider the
following questions, and others that may arise from their deliberations:

1. What was the gubernatorial role and authority in the I94/I35 policy process (vis a vis, for example, the Federal Highway
Administration, City of St. Paul, etc)? What was the extent of the governor’s authority in the policies enabling the routing
and placement of these Interstate Highways? The group might also wish to explore the work of Freeman as Secretary of
Agriculture or other actions he took as Governor, although it is our understanding that the petitioners argue Freeman’s
specific role in the I94 and I35 development through Rondo supersedes other considerations of his legacy.

2. The Humphrey School space in question is named the Orville and Jane Freeman Commons. What was the role of
Jane Freeman in the policy concerns identified in the petition letter? Are there other factors of relevance when
considering the Humphrey School’s relationship to the life and legacy of Jane Freeman?

3. Beyond any specific decisions about naming or renaming of spaces at the Humphrey School, how might we best use
spaces within the building to tell the story of Rondo specifically, and shine a brighter light on past policy decisions that
have caused harm to BIPOC communities? We use visuals, art and media throughout the building to convey historic
public affairs moments, events and people. How might we refresh this collection in key areas such that it supports our
social justice and race equity principles and goals? How might our spaces convey a more actively anti-racist message?

In exploring these questions, the EIC may wish to engage community partners who have significant knowledge of---and a
significant stake in—both the story of Rondo as well as the Humphrey School. Many Humphrey alums as well as advisory
council members would be eager to participate in this dialogue. Additionally, incoming Associate Dean Catherine Squires
has deep knowledge of the Rondo neighborhood history and extensive experience working with organizations located in
and serving the community, including the Hallie Q Brown Center and Gordon Parks High School.

Petition request #3: Share records of all current and historical financial ties between the Freeman family and the
Humphrey School.

1. The Humphrey School has an endowed fund to support the Freeman Faculty Chair in International Trade and
Investment Policy. The endowment was established to honor Orville Freeman’s contributions to trade and global
economic development during his tenure as Secretary of Agriculture in the Kennedy Administration. This endowment is
used to fund the salary and benefits of the faculty member who holds that chair. This position was most recently held by
Professor Robert Kudrle, who retired in spring 2020. Given the current UMN hiring freeze, there is no active search for
the next Freeman Chair. We anticipate launching a national/global search for the Freeman Chair within the next 1-3
years.

2. Following the death of Jane Freeman in 2018 the Freeman family and supporters contributed funds to establish the
Humphrey School’s Jane C. Freeman Rural Policy Fellowship. The fellowship supports paid internships for students
who seek to learn more about and work in rural development policy and practice settings, experiencing first-hand the
unique challenges and opportunities of community and economic development in rural areas. The fellowship will also
explore the social and economic interdependence between metro and rural communities. During 2020, funds from this
fellowship have supported Humphrey School students in summer assistantships coordinated through the Regional
Sustainable Development Partnerships, which promotes collaboration between Greater Minnesota communities with the
UMN on local sustainability projects.

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3. Between 2000-2016 Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman taught the Humphrey School course PA5122: Law and
Public Policy every other year. When he did teach this course, Freeman was paid at the same rate as all other adjunct
instructors. Since 2016 Freeman is no longer on the School’s roster to teach this class.

Petition Request #4. Establish a fund to be used for

· The hiring of tenure track faculty in accordance to the Humphrey School’s commitment to “recruiting and
retaining a diverse faculty”

· Curriculum development focused on the intersection of critical race theory and public policy

· Anti-racism training for Humphrey faculty, staff, and students

This is essential—and an area where we have been heavily focused in recent weeks. Clearly, we must align the School’s
financial resources with the equity and inclusion priorities we espouse. Although we will go into more detail in a
forthcoming update on the status of the School’s current and planned equity and inclusion initiatives, here are a few
details:

1. In addition to the vacant Freeman Faculty Chair (discussed above), with the departure of Professor James Ron we also
have vacant the endowed Stassen Chair for International Affairs. I am eager to engage with global policy scholars and
the broader School community to lay the groundwork now for launching broad, intentionally inclusive and effective
endowed chair faculty searches that yield a racially diverse pool of talented candidates for these vitally important
positions. The actions we take and the signals we send today will impact the quality of the actual search we’ll be able to
launch once the hiring ban is lifted and we have the resources to officially market these positions.

2. We are offering new courses this year including Tribal-State Relations and City of White Supremacy. More courses are
under development, including a course focused on reparations. One core focus of our equity and inclusion planning this
year will be on applying an equity lens to curriculum design, development and course planning priorities.

3. We are allocating funds specifically to support equity and inclusion priorities in the near term, including funding for
visiting scholar/practitioner positions, professional development opportunities, guest speakers and curricular innovations
in partnership with community organizations founded and led by people of color.

In closing, we're grateful for the opportunity to respond to this petition letter. As Carissa Slotterback prepares to depart the
Humphrey School and Catherine Squires prepares to transition into her role as our next associate dean, we’re eager to
engage with the full school community on next steps to advance the mission and vision of the Humphrey School.

Kind Regards,

Laura and Carissa

__________________
Laura Bloomberg, PhD
Professor and Dean
Humphrey School of Public Affairs
University of Minnesota
301 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
email: bloom004@umn.edu
phone: 612.625.0608
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurabloomberg-phd/

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