St. Thomas student-athletes, coaches and staff have worked together since last May to create an initiative called “Shed a Little Light” that was launched in October 2020 to bring change to campus regarding racial inequities in response to the killing of George Floyd.

The “Shed a Little Light” initiative was implemented by two St. Thomas groups, the Athletics Alliance 4 Change and the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The groups, with the help of St. Thomas’ athletics department, have sought to make changes to advance diversity, inclusion and education to establish a conversation among students and athletes on campus.

“It was important to us that we didn’t do something just in the moment but we did something that could be ongoing,” Senior Associate Athletic Director Jemal Griffin said. “One thing that was important to us was addressing our pregame routine.”

The revision to the routine included a new statement before the playing of the national anthem at sporting events.

“The MIAC and the University of St. Thomas would like to recognize that the American experience has not been the same for everyone under the flag,” the statement reads. “As we continue the fight for equality and justice for all, we now invite you to respectfully express yourself for the playing of our national anthem.”

SAAC Junior Vice President Liz Thull was part of the work group that started the “Shed a Little Light” initiative as a response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

“Obviously there’s been a lot of things happening in the country and in Minnesota,” Thull said. “Our school and the athletic department decided we wanted to do something to show our support for that movement, so that’s how the ‘Shed a Little Light’ initiative came up.”

Just months after its implementation, Thull has already noticed the communication difference and the positive impact it has created on campus.

“It used to not be talked about and now it’s a conversation that teams are starting to have, and I think that’s great,” Thull said. “St. Thomas as a whole really wants to show that they are a diverse and inclusive environment.”

The women’s basketball team has taken the initiative to heart and has started a conversation about racial inequity.

During the 2021 season, women’s basketball coach Ruth Sinn and her team expressed different demonstrations while lined up to face the American flag.

“Normally in team environments, we’re all unified, we’re all on the same page, but this is an area where unity isn’t right in that everybody has their own views and their own feelings on how to support the flag,” Sinn said.

Players held hands, took a knee with Sinn or stood to honor the national anthem this season. Sinn said it’s all about supporting, listening and understanding.

“We’ve really had conversations of: ‘You’ve got to be comfortable with who you are and what your beliefs are, and we all support that,’” Sinn said.

Not only has SAAC developed the “Shed a Little Light” initiative to spark a conversation, but it has inspired teams, student-athletes and staff to take action on campus as well.

“Part of our program that we did was voter registration in the days leading up to the election,” Griffin said. “We set up six booths around campus to get students registered, and if they were registered, asking if they had a plan on how they were going to vote.”

Student-athletes have also begun having discussions about systemic racism with staff and coaches by creating an open dialogue between the groups to bring about change in the community.

Next year, the initiative looks to expand its outreach at St. Thomas even further.

“I know they’re hoping to come out with T-shirts next year or some kind of bracelets,” Thull said.

SAAC will continue to host monthly brown bag luncheons for student-athletes and coaches, which are informal non-mandatory meetings, develop a web resource page for the initiative, distribute a quarterly newsletter and bring in speakers from different backgrounds to discuss their experiences with student-athletes.

Sinn hopes that these events make a positive change in the St. Thomas community and beyond.

“From this initiative, we took the idea that we’re all trying to still work towards a better understanding to really gain a different perspective on what all these issues are,” Sinn said. “Hopefully from this understanding, we can be in a better place to move the needle for some change that is definitely necessary.”

Olivia Paradise can be reached at para4336@stthomas.edu.
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.