All Exonians Can Do More

By CLAUDIA CRUZ ’96

Guest Contributor

All Exonians can contribute more to the Academy’s diversity efforts.

Nearly 25 years ago, I wrote an article, more like an opinion piece, unambiguously called, “Diversity at Exeter,” that ran in The Legacy, a student of color newspaper published by the Afro-Latino Exonian Society. In it, I posited that most Exonians, at that time, probably felt that the campus felt pretty diverse and multicultural, especially when compared to their sending towns and schools. 

Had you been keeping track, like this New York City girl was, you would have realized that Exeter was far from diverse or multicultural. I conducted an unscientific census (I might have just counted faces in "the Face Book") and produced the following snapshot: in my senior class of approximately 350 students, there were only two Black males, one Latino international male student and three Latina females. On the entire campus, there were only two full-time faculty of color (an Asian and Black male, I believe). I did not include staff in my count, but there were several (the Browns and Thompsons). 

As part of my suggestions for solutions, I called for a more diverse curriculum and particularly stated that more minority authors should be read in English classes. I stressed that Spanish-language courses should include more Latin American authors—as a way to highlight New World voices versus those of the colonizers. I also encouraged more intersectional speakers for Martin Luther King Day and greater efforts by the Academy to bring alumni to campus. I argued that these efforts would help to attract a more diverse student body. 

Furthermore, I stated that those efforts still wouldn’t be enough. I stressed that Exeter’s “intention must be to expose its current student body”—and I will now argue alumni—to more diverse cultures “if we are to be productive citizens in the future.” 

Needless to say, a lot of what I highlighted in my senior year has fortunately come to past—even if only in recent years. When I had the opportunity to address the school at the ALES’ 50th Anniversary in 2018, I raised my surprise to learn that acclaimed Latinx author Willie Perdomo had joined the faculty (and the fact that we got his wife, Sandra Guzmán, too! What a feat relocating these two acclaimed writers from NYC to Exeter!). I would also be remiss not to highlight the contributions of my classmate, English Instructor Alex Myers ’96 to the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Academy. Their presence and work on campus help to augment the important and critical work undertaken by the Office of Multicultural Affairs and others. 

But all Exonians can do more to help Exeter’s diversity efforts.

In 2003, another alumna and I proposed to then-Principal Tyler Tingley the creation of a writing fellowship—specifically for Black, Latinx, Asian and Native American people—modeled after the existing George Bennett Fellowship. As with the Bennett Fellowship, the goal was to award a promising author a stipend and an opportunity to work on their book during an Exeter school year. 

In an email summary of a meeting with Tingly and then-Director of Alumni and Parent Relations Harold Brown, I told the alumna:“Both were very enthused with the idea, but left me with the responsibility to figure out how to fundraise.”

Call me crazy, but I think the time is nigh for Exeter and Exonians to work toward the creation of a fellowship for writers of color. I would go so far as to say that the awardee be an alum, so that more can have a chance to come back to campus—a clamor of students, then and now. 

A fellowship of this kind would afford Phillips Exeter Academy the opportunity to assist new authors of color—alums of color—at the start of their book-publishing careers. It’s the perfect moment as the publishing industry has just awoken to the lack of diverse authors within its rosters—yet Exeter produces so many! Why not be more intentional in diversifying curricula and publishing and become the instrument of change?  

This is just an idea. Another one of many that Exeter has received over the years. Hopefully, it’s one that Exonians can get behind and help bring to fruition (one day soon).