LSMSA Foundation Creates New I.D.E.A. Fund to Support Change

We cannot make progress until Black lives matter. The horrific murders of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis, Breonna Taylor asleep in her bed in Louisville, and so very many more, all under color of law, laid bare the ugly truth that all lives don’t matter equally. When lives are held in the hands of people who would abuse their power to callously murder others because of the color of their skin, we must take action to change the system. 

We cannot know the impact that witnessing these acts time and time again has had on the hearts and spirits of our Black students, alums, faculty, staff, and the entire LSMSA family. But we know we want to help. Our mission as voluntary members of the LSMSA Foundation’s Board of Trustees has always been to support the school and to ensure that every student has the best educational opportunity available in the state of Louisiana. Based on what we have seen and what we have heard from our Black students and alums, we have failed in that regard. To every LSMSA student who has in any way felt the pain of racial animosity, who has not felt completely at home, who has felt isolated, who has felt verbally or emotionally assaulted, or who has felt in any way disenfranchised, we are sorry. You deserved better then, and you deserve better now. 

As a start, we understand that LSMSA has created a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council. On Saturday, June 6, the Foundation’s Board of Trustees decided to establish a new fund dedicated to supporting and aiding the work of that Council, and we have allocated $50,000 to get the fund started. In addition, every single Trustee has made a personal financial commitment to be added to the I.D.E.A. (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Fund, cumulatively totalling over $25,000 in the upcoming year.