Student of Color and Alumni Coalition

The Student of Color and Alumni Coalition arose from grassroots organizing by students and alumni to address a question raised at a FUBU group meeting in May 2017, “Why would we return to Whitman, a homogeneously white campus?” Students of color thirty years ago and students today face many of the same issues, and many of us experience being a person of color at Whitman as draining and isolating.

But there is a reason we return to Whitman: community. Ultimately, what allowed many of us to survive at Whitman is the community we built among ourselves. This is not to erase the differences in our experiences or to ignore the support we have received from allies during our time at Whitman. However, we believe the best way to advocate for ourselves is to build solidarity between students and alumni of color, as a group, explicitly by students and alumni of color, for students and alumni of color.

We are dedicated to extending and strengthening that community between current students and alumni of color. We are driven to make Whitman a place in which current students of color cannot only survive, but thrive.

The Coalition works towards this goal by facilitating communication, connection, and community among and between alumni of color and current students of color to provide the representation and support that students of color deserve.   Coalition Facebook Group

Want to get involved? Contact us:

On-campus liaison: diversity@whitman.edu

Student Interns
Joy Nampaso ('23)  nampasjn@whitman.edu
Buyaki Nyatichi ('20)  nyaticmb@whitman.edu

Steering Committee members
Fred Capestany ('86)  fredcapestany@gmail.com
Margarita Banderas ('05) margarita.banderas@wwcc.edu Devon Yee ('18)