The president of USI has released a letter responding to the police killing of George Floyd.
Ron Rochon is the university’s first African-American president and said he wrote the “difficult letter” with sincere love, confusion, anger, and hurt.
Rochon said seeing Floyd die under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer “paralyzed” him.
Rochon said he’s “really tired of seeing targeted violence against black people within our nation.”
The university president also called himself tired of the divisive lines drawn between race, privilege, identity and education.
But Rochson said he will not surrender to despair.
He said students’ dreams, presence, innocence, and even naivety motivate him to do more and be better.
Rochon challenged and encouraged students to pursue their goals to transform the community, the state, the nation and the globe into a more “compassionate, equitable and understanding place.”
