Student Health Services pledges support to the African-American and Black community and denounces racism and acts of racial violence. We respond with grief and sorrow to the race-based tragedies documented across our country and acknowledge the damaging effects of structural and institutional racism on those targeted. We acknowledge the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has disproportionately affected Black, Native American, and Latinx communities and brought heightened attention to the tragic, and largely avoidable, consequences of disparities in health care. We also acknowledge that people of Asian descent have been unfairly blamed for the spread of the disease. These incidents have served to illustrate the more entrenched and widespread pandemic of racism. We join with all who seek social justice, reform and equality.

As Clemson University’s student health provider for medical, mental health, and public health services, we affirm our commitment to provide a validating, healing environment to our students who have been affected directly, vicariously or moved to compassion by the traumatic events. We strive, as a multiculturally sensitive health center, to accept each individual student with openness and respect that fosters inclusive excellence.