When I arrived at Silberman as a first-year MSW student, I brought with me a strong commitment to social justice and a background in community-driven work. I am new to activism within institutional spaces, but I came ready to engage. I also brought experience from my legal career and from having served multiple terms on the alumni board of my undergraduate college, Warren Wilson. Because of that, I know how powerful alumni networks can be for mentoring, job opportunities, and keeping people connected to their school in meaningful ways.
I was surprised to find there was no active alumni board at Silberman. I learned early on that there are political barriers to creating one. I was told that because Silberman is part of Hunter College, all official alumni engagement is expected to happen through Hunter. The understanding is that administration worries that having school-specific efforts might shift alumni donations away from the broader institution. I was also told multiple times that someone was about to be hired to focus on alumni relations. Months passed, and that never happened. I began to feel my efforts were being stalled - either intentionally or not - and it was time for me to redirect my focus.
I came to realize that institutions may resist the creation of independent alumni boards because these boards challenge the centralized control over finances and decision-making. When alumni groups are empowered, they can demand greater transparency, hold administrators accountable, and publicly oppose harmful decisions. This is especially important in public education, where universities should be accountable to the communities they serve, not just to wealthy donors or private interests.
Who benefits when alumni voices are excluded from these conversations? Endowments, which are often controlled by a small group of people, represent a major issue here. Those with financial power can afford to resist alumni efforts and keep control, while the broader public - especially those who rely on accessible, equitable education - gets pushed aside. In this sense, alumni who challenge the status quo and push for institutional accountability represent an important force for change, especially when they advocate for policy and financial decisions that benefit the entire community.
I didn’t want to waste time pushing in a direction that was going nowhere. I started to look for other ways to be part of Silberman in a meaningful way. I first reached out to the Silberman Student Action Committee (SSAC). I respect the work they do, especially their successful effort to reduce field placement hours. That was a major victory for student wellbeing. But I found that what I needed was a space focused not only on naming injustices but on building solutions in real time.
That led me to the Social Justice Committee (SJC), a group of students, faculty, staff, and administration from both Silberman and Hunter. In the SJC I found people who are committed to action and who believe in community care and collective movement. I also formed relationships with administrators who are not only committed to student well-being within the school, but who have been organizing outside of institutions for decades. These are people with deep histories of resistance and community building. Being in conversation with them has been incredibly inspiring, and I would not have made these connections if I had stayed only in student-led spaces.
With the support of the Social Justice Committee, I developed and organized an event called “How to Organize/Know Your Clients’ Rights”. The idea came from conversations with fellow students, many of whom felt confident showing up to protest but unsure how to take the next step toward long-term organizing. I wanted to create something practical and energizing. Working with the rest of the SJC, we secured funding, collaborated with faculty, involved the facilities team, and promoted the event to both day and evening students. The event was full of energy and people left feeling hopeful, motivated, and ready to act. Nearly ten percent of attendees signed up to get involved with ongoing local efforts.
This event reminded me of what is possible when we work together across roles and experiences. Yes, institutional spaces can be slow to change and often prioritize their own survival over the needs of students and communities. But there are people within them who are committed to justice and who have been doing the work for years. Building relationships with those people has been one of the most meaningful parts of my time at Silberman so far.
Since then, I’ve started working with a fellow student from SSAC who shares my commitment to alumni organizing. Together, we’re hoping to plant seeds of alumni engagement that others can grow after we graduate. I also proposed and am helping to plan what we hope will become Silberman’s first annual Community Block Party. As Silberman students, we often come to school in East Harlem but don’t engage with the neighborhood and community around us. Silberman, as a school rooted in social justice, should be fostering our connection to East Harlem, yet we don’t always engage with the very community that surrounds us. This event is meant to be a step toward correcting that in a meaningful way - by welcoming new students, building connections between graduate and undergraduate students, and strengthening our ties to our East Harlem neighbors. It’s also an opportunity to recognize the neighborhood’s long history of activism, from the Young Lords (YLO) and their work for Puerto Rican rights, to the East Harlem protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, which fought for better housing and against police brutality. This activism has often been overlooked or disconnected from institutions that are more aligned with gentrification and policing. This is the kind of community-centered, joyful work I believe Silberman needs - work that honors the legacy of resistance and actively engages with the people who continue to shape the future of East Harlem.
To quote Fred Hampton, "solidarity is the unity that we need to build our own power and dignity." Social justice movements thrive not on individual efforts but on solidarity, mutual aid, and collective action. While standing on the sidelines might seem safer, the real power comes when we gather together to resist and organize as a community. When we gather in solidarity, we not only strengthen our resolve, but we also reconnect with the healing and transformative power that community brings.
My hope is to build something lasting in my time at Silberman - something rooted in care and action. I will do this by finding others who believe in change and doing the work together. Together we can hold the contradictions of working inside a system that is flawed while still pushing it to be better. I am proud to be doing that work alongside people who show up, take risks, and stay committed to the vision of a more just world. I’m excited to share this journey with the Emancipatory Sciences Lab because this kind of building can and should be vibrant, visible, and cross-institutional. There’s still so much work to be done in the Underground, but we build collective strength by finding our people, creating spaces where our ideas and actions come together, and ensuring that our work is seen, felt, and carried forward beyond the walls we work within.
Three Merians is a rising second-year MSW student, Silberman School of Social Work
JD, Brooklyn Law School