{"id":26158,"date":"2015-12-04T09:38:57","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T14:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=26158"},"modified":"2016-01-08T23:20:39","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T04:20:39","slug":"emu-administrator-and-black-lives-matter-advocate-knows-south-carolina-deputy-voices-his-own-struggle-to-understand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/emu-administrator-and-black-lives-matter-advocate-knows-south-carolina-deputy-voices-his-own-struggle-to-understand\/","title":{"rendered":"EMU administrator and Black Lives Matter advocate knows South Carolina deputy, voices his own struggle to understand"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a person you know well makes a regrettable choice, how do you reconcile what you know about that person with his or her actions? And how do you share what you know about this person without seeming to excuse the action?<\/p>\n

These questions immediately confronted Luke Hartman<\/a>, vice president of enrollment at Eastern Mennonite University, when he saw on national news the footage<\/a> of resource officer Ben Fields flipping over a black student\u2019s desk and tossing her across the classroom in a South Carolina high school. [Fields was subsequently dimissed<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

In an essay published on the Sojourners website<\/a> and co-written with Sheri Bailey<\/a>, Hartman grapples with what he calls an \u201cexistential crisis,\u201d caught between his knowledge of Fields as a person and his anger at yet another violent mistreatment of a black person. (Hartman is, he says, a “passionate advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement;” read more about his involvement on campus<\/a> here.)<\/p>\n

Hartman was once Ben Fields\u2019 basketball coach at Hesston College in Kansas. Coach and athlete stayed in touch after Fields graduated, moved to South Carolina, and joined the law enforcement profession. On vacation, Hartman and his family stopped to visit him.<\/p>\n

The footage of the incident immediately made Fields, in the judgement of the nation, Hartman writes, \u201ca bigoted, violent, white police officer, his name added to the long and growing list of racist public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the essay, Hartman recounts how he reached out to Fields and how former members of the basketball team also connected with their coach to share the news \u201cand ask if he was OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of them, Arnold McCrary, responded with similar puzzlement in an email to Hartman, calling Ben Fields \u201cmy brother\u201d and a man \u201cwith the BIGGEST heart\u201d who was sensitive to racial inequality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to understand how to know him as we do and make sense of the video,\u201d McCrary writes.<\/p>\n

A public school teacher and administrator before coming to EMU, Hartman brings to this essay years of experience working with exceptional learners and students with behavioral needs in middle and high schools.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the instigation, physical assault was never an acceptable response in this situation, he says, nor is it the one that God expects of us. He concludes with the hope that Fields will make efforts towards \u201creconciliation and personal responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe each are on a perpetual search for that path to becoming who God created us to be,\u201d Hartman says. \u201cAnd sometimes when we fall down or are knocked off the path we must continue to ask \u2014 what is the path back?\u201d<\/p>\n

About Luke Hartman<\/h3>\n

Luke Hartman joined EMU as vice president for enrollment in 2011. He has a variety of experience in K-12 and higher education, with specialties in multiculturalism, behavioral management and social justice through education.<\/p>\n

Hartman earned his PhD in educational leadership and social policy from Virginia Tech, with a doctoral dissertation that focused on prejudice reduction through diversity coursework.<\/p>\n

Under his leadership, EMU has substantially increased the undergraduate matriculation of ethnic minority and international students, as well as first generation college students: this year\u2019s freshmen class includes a record-high 37 percent, as well as nearly 50 percent first-generation college students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a person you know well makes a regrettable choice, how do you reconcile what you know about that person with his or her actions? And how do you share ... read more about EMU administrator and Black Lives Matter advocate knows South Carolina deputy, voices his own struggle to understand<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5725,266,12503,6394],"tags":[7226],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-26158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admissions","category-alumni","category-cjp","category-ma-in-education","tag-luke-hartman"],"yoast_head":"\nEMU administrator and Black Lives Matter advocate knows South Carolina deputy, voices his own struggle to understand - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/emu-administrator-and-black-lives-matter-advocate-knows-south-carolina-deputy-voices-his-own-struggle-to-understand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EMU administrator and Black Lives Matter advocate knows South Carolina deputy, voices his own struggle to understand - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When a person you know well makes a regrettable choice, how do you reconcile what you know about that person with his or her actions? 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