Exodus and the Day of Reckoning

Abstract

This chapter continues the narrative work that began in Chapter One. The Provost begins her morning by learning about the resignations of seven Towering University Black faculty and staff employees in the local newspaper shortly before the story goes viral across the country. An emergency meeting of the Towering University leadership is called, with the University’s first female Board Chair advocating for TU to move beyond the traditional approach of silence. The recently hired Provost, the first Black person and first woman to hold such a position at TU, is trying to balance expectations of adhering to the status quo with the forces of change that are attempting to breathe new life and flourishing into dying institutional practices.