The University of St. Thomas will close campus and cancel classes on June 4 and 5 to recognize the life and death of George Floyd, university President Julie Sullivan wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon.

Sullivan wrote that she wants to allow community members to view a livestream of the private memorial service for George Floyd that will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Thursday, June 4 at North Central University.

“It will allow our community additional time to process, pray about and reflect upon all that has occurred and to better recognize the inequities and social injustices that have become part of our community fabric at St. Thomas and within our state and nation,” Sullivan wrote.

Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for minutes, even after he stopped moving. His death sparked protests in Minneapolis, an unrest that has spread nationally as protesters decry years of deaths at police hands.

“There is hard work ahead,” Sullivan wrote. “Please use this period of prayer and reflection to help us better define a path forward, a path that includes personal and university commitment and accountability.”

This was the second email from Sullivan on Tuesday. In her earlier email, she declared “Enough is enough!”

“In addressing racism within ourselves, St. Thomas, Minnesota and America, we must listen to, learn from and collaborate with one another,” Sullivan wrote. “Everyone has a responsibility to participate. Those who have felt the injustice for so long cannot carry a disproportionate burden in alleviating it, yet also must be a part of imagining and creating a world without it.”

In her first email, Sullivan referenced the university’s Action Plan to Combat Racism, which was announced in October 2018 after a first-year student found a racial slur written on his door in Brady Hall.

Four racial incidents have occurred on the St. Thomas campus since fall 2016, including the one in October 2018.

In September 2019, students found a racist word in a bathroom of the all-male Ireland Hall.

In November 2017, an Ireland Hall resident adviser found a racial slur etched into a paper on a bulletin board.

In November 2016, a student found a racial slur written on a campus sidewalk.

The Action Plan to Combat Racism included short-term and long-term strategies, such as campus-wide anti-bias training and a commitment to recruiting and retaining students of color.

“We have had our own shortcomings as an institution; we must never stop learning from those shortcomings if we are to create the environment we want for our community members and become the university we want to be,” Sullivan wrote in Tuesday’s first email.

Emily Haugen can be reached at haug7231@stthomas.edu.