April 11, 2018 Students meet with Rev. Pat Davenport (SEPA Synod Director of Evangelical Mission) to discuss racial micro-aggressions made by faculty and Bishop Dunlop. Later that day Rev. Pat Davenport meets with Bishop Dunlop to discuss the concerns of racial micro-aggressions made by him and faculty as reflected in the ULS Student Statement Concerning Racism.  She also addresses his “watermelon” statement and what steps are currently underway to resolve these critical issues.

This timeline went through an extensive vetting from April of 2018 through the present to ensure that it is true, and it was shared with ULS leadership routinely from April through September. As of July 2018 many complaints against Jim Dunlop were now substantiated and reported to the board. Yet Jim Dunlop still retained his seat on the board without acknowledging why many in the ULS community found his presence problematic to reconciliation and moving forward. It is only after this timeline was made public (Oct. 10, 2018) that Bishop Dunlop resigned from the ULS Board of Trustees. Rightly contextualized, Bishop Dunlop’s actions may be seen as both an individual’s acts which are also part of the ongoing systemic issue of racism specific to ULS. Many of the proposed policies in the ULS Policy Survey seek to address these ongoing systemic issues in the ULS community. This announcement is part of the timeline of racism at United Lutheran Seminary