Chatham Hall Reviews

Where do I begin.. Chatham Hall it’s not for people of color. Especially black women. My time there was filled with confusion and micro aggressions. There were multiple times when people question my decision making and intelligence but obviously what they were doing did not work. I later found out they only use me because their 10 year accreditation was coming up and they needed a person of color in a diversity chair to look good. I was told it was required of me to be in each and every meeting even though it wasn’t required for other people who had higher and more important roles in the school. I was expected to do all school programming with no support from other coworkers at all. And when I managed to pull it off without any help they were shocked. When I realized I was not going to get help from the administrators I went to the students and began small programming at their level. Though I did not get the acknowledgment from the school I knew that my programming at the student level made a big difference. I sent out multiple emails for others to attend but only student showed up. Then I also did a all campus diversity audit by myself. I try to have conversations before the audit came in the beginning of the year but was met with extreme resistance. The micro aggressions I receive from people asking about my hair to people asking about where in Africa I am from was too much on a daily basis. My only comfort was the other black woman employed there who is now currently the diversity Director because they could not get any other black woman to do the role (She is of the older generation and has been a part of that school for a decade. So I guess she’s used to the racism). I literally cried to her once a week. She was the only place I felt safe. She was the only place I did not have to code switch. Even in my own campus apartment I felt trapped. Any black woman that steps on that campus for that specific role once I left immediately realized what type of school this is. I even tried to have the women of color eat lunch together but many of them were scared to do so. At that time there was an Instagram account made by students to complain about the diversity and lack of inclusion and pure ignorance by the administration. I would expect that the administration would tell the diversity and community inclusion director but instead they try to hide it from me. I had to find out from my students and then I went directly to one of my supervisors and told her what was the point of me being there if they were hiding things that directly align with my job title from me. Because of the Instagram account they attempted to bring a bunch of black women that went to Chatham Hall when the school first started on campus to basically say how the school has changed and what Chatham Hall meant to them. All I saw were victims of that school being propped up for the school to save face about their treatment of people of color. After the event many of those same women came to me to personally talk and told me how excited they were that I was there in that rule. The administration at that time already knew I was leaving so when they saw a crowd of people surrounding me they were extremely uneasy. When I told them I was leaving they were not surprised and a sense of relief washed over them. That says a lot. I only stayed there for a year. My emotional safety and mental health as a black woman in that horrible environment could only take so much. If you are not a person of color And are OK with little spews of racism the school is right up your alley. If you are a person of color especially a black woman- DO NOT COME HERE. No matter what type of money throw at you. You are more valuable than just being a token. Please go to somewhere where you are appreciated and not just tolerated.