June 18, 2020
Dear CU Boulder faculty, staff and students:
As the leader of one of our nation’s leading public research universities, I first want to acknowledge that we have failed to foster a fully anti-racist, diverse, inclusive and welcoming culture for everyone in our campus community. Secondly, I also must acknowledge and commit to better understanding the effects of ongoing violence against Black people in our community and across the United States.
Today, I recommit myself to act in collaboration with you—while continuing to listen, learn and develop along the way—to deliver the rapid and sustained progress toward true equity and inclusion that so many of you are demanding from me, our administration and each other.
In response to incidents of racist and discriminatory speech in our campus community, I want to be clear—racist and discriminatory speech runs counter to our values and is not welcome at CU Boulder. While as a public institution we must acknowledge each person’s First Amendment right to free speech, we strongly encourage anyone who doesn’t want to or believes they cannot live our values of respecting the rights of others and accepting our differences to reconsider their ability to be a productive member of our community.
I am announcing the immediate actions for change we are taking to begin the sustained transformation of the CU Boulder experience of our Black students, faculty and staff; our students, faculty and staff of color and marginalized individuals and groups across our campus.
These actions for change include the immediate implementation of the campus Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence in Academics (IDEA) Plan that was approved by our campus earlier this year. Additional changes will be forthcoming.
Beginning this week, we will:
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Update and enhance our faculty and staff hiring practices to achieve greater representation of persons of color in our community and to better express the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion to all who would consider becoming part of our university.
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Provide mandatory implicit bias training for all members of search committees and everyone who votes on faculty hires to ensure that our faculty recruiting process is not affected by unconscious biases that limit opportunities for diverse scholars.
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The provost's office will begin to reallocate open faculty lines to fund hires that broadly support diversity and inclusion.
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Evaluate the mandatory qualifications for staff searches to ensure that qualifications reflect true competencies for positions.
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Update and enhance our student recruitment and retention policies and practices.
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Analyze in-state and out-of-state recruiting strategies to ensure that CU Boulder recruits from schools that support communities of color.
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Develop applications and admission documents that highlight the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equity and communicate CU Boulder’s expectations that incoming students will support campus values.
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Implement mandatory bystander training for faculty, staff, and students.
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Engage with the CU System and CU Student Government in examining our procurement practices with Colorado Correctional Industries.
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Complete a review of our campus police policies and procedures to align with best community and campus practices, including the protections contained within SB20-217.
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Charge CU Boulder faculty with developing a CU 101 anti-racism module for first-year students that explores the toxicity of racism in U.S. history, U.S. life and at CU Boulder and delves into ways to act against it in our daily lives on and off campus.
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Continue engagement between CU Police Department, CUSG, United Government of Graduate Students, and student organizations of color to improve mutual understanding and law enforcement transparency and accountability to the campus.
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Form the Council for Community and Inclusion recommended in the IDEA Plan and begin implementation of the IDEA Plan.
These actions for change and additional information are available on the Campus Actions page of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement website, and will be updated continuously based on our progress, the perspective and priorities shared by the campus community, the continued understanding we develop together, and our need for transparency and accountability moving forward.
Many of you have told me you want immediate and sustained action to change the history of systemic racism and equality in our country, our community and at our institution. The above actions are our start. I acknowledge we have a long, difficult road ahead. We must all work together.
We have much hard and uncomfortable work to do if we expect the change we desire at CU Boulder to take hold, much of which begins within our own minds and hearts. I will provide updates on our progress each month—including our successes, obstacles, failures and new opportunities—so we can deepen our understanding, continue to act, sustain our work together and bring anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion into everything we do.
We are Buffs Together,
Phil