Trump throws relief in doubt
Bill includes funding for individuals, health, education
The long-awaited federal coronavirus relief bill — paired with an expansive government spending package — contains millions of dollars specifically for initiatives in Maryland, but President Donald Trump threw its fate into question Tuesday night when he blasted the bipartisan package and suggested he maynot sign it.
The legislation would give $600 stimulus payments for most Americans, and establish a temporary $300 weekly supplemental jobless benefit, but Trump said he is asking Congress to amend the bill and “increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple.”
Trump complained in a video that he tweeted out Tuesday night that the bill delivered too much money to foreign countries, but not enough to Americans.
“I am also asking Congress to get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill,” the Republican president said.
The bills contains millions of dollars specifically for initiatives in Maryland, including coronavirus relief, efforts to clean the Chesapeake Bay, and improvements to Baltimore- and Washington-area public transportation.
Earlier Tuesday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said during a Tuesday news conference that the relief was “a long time coming.”
“But it does provide critical relief at this momentfor our country,” Van Hollen said. “It will get us through these very tough winter months as wecontinue to fight the pandemic, and try to make sure that our economy can first tread water but then get up and running to full steam.”
university, which has always stressed diversity, according to Cheryl Moore-Thomas, chief equity and inclusion officer at Loyola, is going through a demographic change and is reaching out to the broader Baltimore community.
“Issues of diversity, equity and inclusion have always been a part of Loyola’s mission. They are very integral parts of the Catholic Jesuit mission,” said Moore-Thomas, who is also on the six-person steering committee for the institute. The committee is comprised of Loyola faculty members and community leaders.
Efforts like the institute will help support students raise their voices whether that be through the formation of groups or to support acts of protest, she said.
Seeking solutions to racism
Whitehead wants to bring in students, teachers, community members and academics to the institute to train, discuss and devise solutions to combat racism.
That means offering a curriculum and diversity equity and inclusion training for K-12 teachers through the institute’s Center for Teaching and Learning, which will be offered starting summer2022. Junior fellowships will be offered to college students around the country so they can participate in discussions and research focused on race through the institute’s Center for Research and Culture as soon as Spring 2021.
The fellowships and other training opportunities through the institute will be free through grants.
Meanwhile, the Center for Public Engagement will hold virtual conversations each month led by Whitehead with experts from across the country such as Leonard Pitts, Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top leading expert on infectious diseases including COVID-19.
The institute will also provide a place for students to share their views on race through submitted videos. Students enrolled in Whitehead’s course “Social Media for Social Justice” will record one-minute “talkbacks” highlighted on the institute’s website.
“It’s not just an intellectual exercise,” Whitehead said. “It’s about brainstorming, discussion and beginning to implement solutions. Wehave to settle the questions around race. We have to settle those things.”
Christian McNeill, 21, who is a junior and a research assistant at the institute, welcomes the “comprehensive solutions” that he believes will result from the institute’s multifaceted approach where dialogue is encouraged.
“Our society has failed to address and truly eliminate racism from all parts of our everyday lives. Therefore, the Karson Institute is an invaluable resource to the university and beyond,” McNeill said.
Moore-Thomas envisions the institute also being instrumental as the university moves forward and makes needed change.
“It will help them [the university] better understand these [diversity and inclusion] issues and hopefully offer solutions that meet this particular moment in time,” she said.
Loyola University Maryland remains overwhelmingly white, according to 2019 statistics from the university. Black students represented 5% of the undergraduate student population compared to white students making up 76% with 3% Asian and 11% Hispanic.
However, the recent incoming class of freshman was comprised of 30% people of color.
“It’s a reflection of changing demographics,” Moore-Thomas said. “We have been more intentional in our recruiting. Not only do we want to be an institution that recruits students, but also meets their needs.”
Other related initiatives at the university, include the formation of a diversity advisory board, a graduate board that looks at issues unique to the graduate student population such as inclusive curriculum; and an alumni board that specifically looks at diversity, equity, and inclusion. These are largely in response to discussions that resulted from the civil unrest that spread across the country this year.
“Our students used their commitment and their understanding of our mission to write open letters and meet with administrators,” Moore-Thomas said. “It challenged us to be more authentic in what we were doing.”
Whitehead said the institute will address long-standing questions that still need answering today.
“At this moment, these questions that we are wrestling with are questions that we have been asking since the first 20 Black people arrived in Jamestown,” Whitehead said, referring to the first enslaved Africans believed to have been brought to America in 1619. “What are the issues that we are struggling with. We will develop solutions and implement them. It is a way of moving this country forward.”
More about Whitehead
She was one of Baltimore Sun 25 Women to Watch 2019, New York Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker, an authority on race, class, gender and how they intersect. Whitehead is host of the award-winning radio show “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA. She was chosen as one of four experts to participate in Barack Obama’s Black History Month Panel. Last year, she was named to Essence magazine’s 2019 list of “Woke 100 women along with first lady Michelle Obama, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.