April 22, 2024

To: President Liebowitz  

The faculty of the African and African  American Studies Department write to  express our deep concern regarding the  Brandeis women’s basketball team and  the reinstatement of Carol Simon as head coach. Recent news stories inThe Justice and the Boston Globe, in addition to  the July 31, 2023 Deadspin article, have  painted an alarming picture of hostility,  fear, and mistrust. Although she has been  cleared of officially violating Brandeis  policy after a year-long investigation  (which itself raises serious questions  and concerns about the nature of the  investigation and Brandeis’s policies),  Coach Simon’s pattern of racial insensitivity and explicit anti-Blackness have  been documented. The reinstatement of  Coach Simon sends a potentially dangerous signal to the Brandeis community  that the racialized harassment of athletes  (and of students of color on this campus  more broadly) is acceptable and it is they,  with their hypersensitivity, who are really the problem. The student-athletes  of the women’s basketball team are unified in their commitment to not play for  a coach that, through her words and actions, has created a toxic environment. A  situation such as this would be alarming  at any university. But for a school such  as Brandeis, founded in response to discrimination and that proudly touts its  historical support for women’s rights, the  reinstatement of Coach Simon is deeply  embarrassing, if not outright hypocritical. At a time when women’s basketball is  in the national spotlight for all the right  reasons, Brandeis has sadly offered a reminder of the double standards in terms  of resources, player support and expectations that continue to exist in women’s  college athletics. We stand in solidarity  with the courageous student-athletes of  the women’s basketball team in their demand for Coach Simon’s resignation and  call on you as president to take immediate  action to ensure that this happens. — Faculty, African and African American  Studies Department