Community Update

To Members of the Brunswick School Community,

We wanted to publicly acknowledge that we are recently in receipt of two well-crafted and thoughtful letters — one from black alumni/alumnae from both Brunswick School and Greenwich Academy and another from alumni/alumnae of color and white students from both schools.

 

Both letters include a list of suggestions for improving the Brunswick experience for black students in particular and all students in general, and reflect a deep and abiding interest in issues of equity and justice, as well as support for and dedication to making our two schools and, specifically, the coordinate experience as good as possible for all our students.

 

In immediate response to these issues and those letters, Brunswick has unequivocally reaffirmed its conviction that Black Lives Matter and we have, in turn, elicited input from all our constituencies. We have also, over the past two weeks, had many meetings and calls with alumni, trustees, current and past parents, faculty, and students.

 

We want to emphasize, however, that while we have spoken to a broad section of our community, we felt (and feel) that, at this time, it is essential that we pay special attention to and elicit and listen to feedback from the black members of our extended Brunswick community above all others. We are excited and energized by those communications and the momentum behind them and are focused upon assessing and addressing issues of inequity and systemic racism to the greatest extent possible as a school community.

 

To that end, we have specifically invited several signatories of the letter from our black alumni to join the administration and trustees in our ongoing conversations as their input is, of course, invaluable.

 

In this highly charged environment, not every effort or communication on our part will please everyone. We ask, nevertheless, that everyone exhibit a willingness to accept the fact that we are working hard and with purpose to make the Brunswick experience all it can be for all our students and to, most especially, support those in our community who are underrepresented and/or marginalized so that they, too, can grow and thrive as young men of promise.

 

We believe, absolutely, that the issues at hand are weighty and deserve the most thorough review. We believe, also, that our clear obligation is to move aggressively to improve.

 

As mentioned earlier, we have already had multiple meetings with members of the faculty, students, trustees, and alumni and have plans for more. We are committed to substantive change and will — we assure you — respond in depth and with conviction in due course.

 

In that vein, it should be noted that as distinct institutions, both Brunswick School and Greenwich Academy will reflect and take action separately and as best suits each school community. However, in the spirit of coordination, the administrations of both schools, as well as the diversity and inclusion committees of both boards will, of course (and we have already), continue to work together in the best interests of our students.

 

We will end by sincerely thanking our alumni for their interest and support of our school and look forward, with them, to still more fruitful reflection on behalf of our school community.