By: Molly Wampler
In the past year, the University of Puget Sound has made a conscious effort to unify the Tacoma community with our campus, and have set specific goals with this objective in mind.
Kaitlyn Vallance, lecture programmer for the Associate Students of the University of Puget Sound (ASUPS), has put much thought into this year’s lecture series, and, in efforts to tie in this goal of community partnerships, wanted to start her series with Tacoma local Shalisa Hayes.
“I’ve decided to do a lecture series centered around narrative and action, and how our personal narrative impacts the way we navigate the world and influence our own communities,” Vallance said. “When we think about lectures, we always think of bringing someone from the outside in, but there is already so much in our community that we’re not tapping into. I thought it was very important to preference Tacoma first,” Vallance elaborated.
Shalisa Hayes, a Tacoma activist and community organizer, lost her teenage son, Billy Ray Shirley III, to gun violence five years ago. In response, she began work to build an East Side Tacoma community center, something Shirley believed would have had a positive influence on their community. In her son’s memory, Hayes has raised over $19 million, with $10 million still needed to break ground in 2018. “She really started founding and bringing people together and being that one person that people can rally around, even though it was unexpected and something she didn’t see herself doing,” Vallance said about Hayes.
“She doesn’t talk a lot at public places about this,” Vallance said. “It’s so nice that people at the University not only want Tacoma people to come in, but Tacoma people still feel comfortable coming to our campus.”
Hayes’s story aligns with the narrative and action theme of this year’s ASUPS Lecture series, and bringing her to campus begins to bridge the gap between the Tacoma community and our university. “I felt it was very important to bring her in and show that despite tragedy on a local and global scale, we can really come together and affect positive change as one person who is motivating an area,” Vallance said.
“Talking to Shalisa, she feels that she is going to draw a lot of people from the community to this talk, not because it’s something they haven’t heard before but because it’s something that they find very important,” Vallance noted. “I know people from the community will be there and I think it’ll be important for them to see students there.”
Vallance expressed disappointment in our weakened relationship with the Tacoma community, but agreed that hosting community heroes like Hayes on campus is one way of closing this divide.
“This is not only a lecture; she will also be dialoguing a lot with people,” Vallance explained. “I found it very important for us to make this completely free for anyone who wants to come and really invite the community onto the campus,” Vallance said. “Shalisa is becoming recognized on a much broader scale and we’re really lucky to have her.”
Shalisa Hayes will be speaking on October 6 at 7 p.m. in the Rasmussen Rotunda. This event is free, but there are only 160 seats available