-
The University of Colorado at Boulder
has experienced a number of incidents
of racial intolerance, which are deeply
troubling to us and our faculty, staff
and students.
-
We welcome the
support of the NAACP,
state legislators and other leaders
in helping us create a safe and diverse
learning environment for all students.
-
Through recent public statements and
campus ememos, we immediately condemned
recent incidents and emphasized that
the campus will
not tolerate racist behavior.
-
Indeed, the University will
not tolerate bias-motivated incidents of any kind,
whether related to race, gender, sexual
preference or any other type of bias.
-
To that end, we developed a process
for reporting all
such incidents, resulting
in the report of 58 total incidents
in residence halls this year, including
10 racial/ethnic, 27 sexual, 12 homophobic
and 9 other incidents. The great
majority are verbal or written incidents,
including graffiti, that target individuals
or groups.
-
In recent campus communications, we
have shared information about the various
campus support
services available to
victims of racial intolerance.
-
We continue to urge anyone who has
information about such acts to contact
the campus or city police department. CU-Boulder
is committed to
investigating all reported
incidents and taking
appropriate action.
-
We also are taking a proactive
approach by working with the campus community
to develop strategies for preventing
and responding to these types of incidents. To
that end, we have met with many faculty,
staff and students, including those
of color, and gained their input on
response and prevention strategies.
-
These issues and strategies have been
discussed at the
highest levels of campus administration, including Chancellor's
Executive Committee and the Deans' Council.
-
For example, the campus is in the
process of finalizing a proposed policy
on harassment that will define response
procedures as well as offer programmatic
activities for training, investigations,
fact finding, record-keeping and disciplinary
actions.
-
Another strategy now under development
is bystander training to empower witnesses
of incidents to intercede appropriately.
-
We also are seeking ways to strengthen
and expand diversity
training opportunities
for faculty and staff.
-
We are examining our current orientation
programs to find new and more effective
ways of addressing with new students
these issues related to intolerance.
-
We also plan to enlist the support
and assistance
of student leaders, such
as those who have initiated the Colorado
Creed statement, in addressing these
serious issues.
-
We are committed to developing these
and other strategies to help build a
welcoming campus for all.