Letter to the editor: Hold UCM accountable for its treatment of Lacey Rogers

Former board members of the United Campus Ministry sent this Letter to the Editor in response to the termination of former Director Lacey Rogers in 2021. It has been lightly edited for grammar and style.

Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.

Ever wonder what you would do if racism surfaced in your favorite community organization? If people of color were denied and shut out by local white people in power? News flash, it is happening now to Lacey Rogers by the United Campus Ministry (UCM), and you are doing very little. 

This is a callout to Athens progressives who shout from the hills (and from their phones and yard signs, all very easy and comfortable) that they would stand against racism in their community when it rears its ugly head. This is your opportunity to take meaningful action and challenge systemic racism at the local level. 

United Campus Ministry’s board of directors terminated Lacey Rogers, the first Black woman in staff leadership, without transparency in March 2021. In October 2021, UCM announced a white man as director at a significantly increased salary. Lacey accepted an interim director contract and the organization stated it could not afford to pay more than offered or guarantee a contract beyond six months due to financial exigency.

Six months later, it advertised the new director position at approximately $7,000-$17,000 more per year than she was offered. In response to Lacey and others calling out bias and discrimination, UCM sent an email to supporters promising to hire a consultant to work on the racial equity issues within the organization. There has been radio silence from this pillar of the community on this consultant, which would be the bare minimum it could do to attempt to save face. 

There also is no evidence of UCM doing mission work or programming. Outside of a few social media posts about free meals, it has stopped providing any kind of social justice support for our community. Where is the accountability? Where is the revisioning of the organization promised since 2020? Where is anything other than two meals a week and sporadic Facebook platitudes? 

Many other organizations have stepped up during Covid to better serve our communities in our time of need, both in terms of COVID-19 and racial inequality. For example, Lacey ran online weekly PRISM, and after-school LGBTQ Youth Art Program, meetings throughout the entire pandemic. UCM has used COVID-19 as an excuse to do little to nothing on all fronts. Who is it actually serving? 

So what are you going to do beyond the performative? Withdrawing funding is a start; publicly telling UCM and the community why you are withdrawing your funding is better. Contacting UCM demanding accountability to both Lacey and the community is even better. 

Call on current board members who made these racially biased decisions to resign along with the new director they hired (who has been complicit in attempting to erase Lacey’s experiences and history with the organization). The list of board members is on the UCM website, which is all the public has to refer to for accurate information. 

Demand that UCM follows through on their promises to hire a consultant, works on revising the organization and serves the community with more than a couple of free weekly meals. Call on organizations you are part of to break ties with UCM since it continues to fail us. Share this letter on social media and call on your peers to get involved. Make UCM deal with this; our community should stop allowing them to erase and paper over their unsavory and racist actions. 

Lacey has an impressive 16-year history serving both UCM and Athens in a variety of capacities. As a UCM intern, board of directors member, assistant director, and interim director, she managed the two weekly meals, organized racial justice and LGBTQA+ events and actions, prepared successful fundraising dinners and supervised student interns among other things.

She was met with microaggressions and was pushed out of her position of power in response to her attempts to gain equity and improve the organization via mediation. UCM has lawyered up and refused to communicate with Lacey or their supporters about any of this. 

UCM’s treatment of Lacey has had a lasting impact and caused emotional trauma, but she is still dedicated to our community and working hard to make it a more inclusive and equitable place for all the people within. Since her termination, Lacey continues to do the work of social and racial justice as an individual in our community through her leadership in anti-racism book clubs, implicit bias training, an anti-racism class at Athens High School and the PRISM LGBTQ+ Youth Art Program. She is serving UCM’s mission far better than it has in the past year. It is clear that much of its programming, during her time on staff there, was a result of her efforts. 

Wondering what you can do for Lacey as an individual who has encountered racism in our community? When you hold UCM and its board accountable, call on them to acknowledge their racist actions towards Lacey publicly and to her directly. Reparations are in order. Tell them to pay for counseling for her to help heal the trauma she has experienced at their hands (especially since she no longer has health insurance after the organization terminated her). 

UCM’s treatment of Lacey is not in line with their mission to engage Ohio U and Athens communities in spiritual growth, social justice and community service guided by socially progressive and interfaith values, nor is their lack of transparency and failure to do what it has promised. 

Maybe you don’t believe Lacey or the past employees, board members and other respected community members who have publicly corroborated her story of inequality and racism. The fact remains that UCM has failed to support their first Black woman director, made promises it hasn’t kept, has done little in the time since Lacey was terminated and has bet on the fact that people don’t check back and hold organizations accountable. You are proving them right. 

When UCM and its board had the opportunity to support their first Black woman director, they failed her. When they made promises of accountability and never followed through, they failed Athens. UCM failed their mission and this community. Are you going to continue to look the other way? Or are you going to do the uncomfortable thing and stand against racism and the failure of a beloved institution? Put your “Black Lives Matter” sign into action; it’s useless if they are just words without action. 

If you want to find additional ways to help or get involved in holding UCM accountable or supporting Lacey, please contact Kerri Shaw at kerrishaw09@gmail.com. 

Loran Marsan, former UCM Board Member 

Melissa Wales, former UCM Executive Director 

Chett Pritchett, former UCM Board Member 

Kerri Shaw, former UCM Board Member