Academics and University-Wide Political Education

1. We DEMAND that the University incorporate mandatory programming for all University constituents (students, faculty, staff, administrators, deans, chairs, etc.) that teaches the historical racial violence of this University and town as well as a historical and contemporary look at the ways in which racial capitalism, settler colonialism, and cisheteropatriarchy structure our world. This will come from an ungraded course created and facilitated by a coalition of students as part of a broader task force of workers, students and staff. There is an acceptance of oppression as the norm at this University that must be called out and addressed. The program will be vetted by a University professor of our choosing.

2. We DEMAND equitable funding allocated to the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies and the Department of Women and Gender Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. They perform a critical role at our University, creating spaces to engage in discussions and work against violent structures of privilege and oppression. In the wake of the Wainstein Report, Black Studies was scapegoated and pathologized on this campus — this was not only unacceptable, but something that was not addressed by the University at large.

Admissions and Retention

2. We DEMAND that standardized tests such as the SAT, SAT II, and ACT no longer be considered during admissions process, as high scores on these tests correlate most closely with higher household income, disproportionately benefiting wealthier, white students. Following in the steps of Wake Forest University, UNC-Chapel Hill must become accessible to students who are presently marginalized from attending.

2. We DEMAND the University publish data on the homepage of the UNC website on the graduation rates of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students at UNC that account for students who drop out or transfer, disaggregating data for race, gender, and class. Currently this information is well-hidden by the administration and we believe residents of North Carolina, especially students, deserve to see this data in order to hold this institution accountable to its mandate to educate the residents of North Carolina.

3. We DEMAND that the University publish data on the homepage of the UNC website on the admission rates of Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o students and disaggregates for race, gender, and class.

4. We DEMAND that the University follow-up with all students who have decided to withdraw from the University or transfer and determine why they left and publish this data. For instance, we find that Black and Indigenous men who leave are often academically eligible, meaning the issue is more nuanced and has structural determinants that are not being considered.

Board of Governors

1. We DEMAND the immediate firing of Margaret Spellings. And any future President of the UNC system must be decided collectively by students, staff, faculty, workers, and those living in North Carolina who are marginalized by the University space.

a. Margaret Spelling was chosen behind closed doors. The secretive firing of Tom Ross was done with the purpose of instituting someone invested in the corporatization of the University system.

b. She has shown herself to be homophobic, describing LGBTQIA+ people’s lives as “those lifestyles.”

c. She was one of the architects of the No Child Left Behind Act as Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, and thus was responsible for pushing standardized testing that has cemented institutionally racist practices into schools across the country.

2. We DEMAND that students and workers of our choosing will be included in all committees commissioned for the hiring of top tier administrators (i.e. Chancellor, Dean, President). The current president of ASG, the student body president, and president of GPSF are already involved in some of these processes, and clearly we cannot rely on a few tokenized students.

3. We DEMAND that every Board of Governors meeting have a session for public comment and petition.

4. We DEMAND that students, non-academic workers, academic workers, and other North Carolina Constituents be given a vote on the Board of Governors. As it currently stands, even issuing a single student vote is insufficient to shift the balance of power.

5. We DEMAND that University cafeterias, gym memberships, libraries, and class registration be free to all residents of North Carolina regardless of admittance into the institution.

6. We DEMAND increased funding for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Throughout North Carolina, the majority of HBCUs have experienced decreased enrollment over the past few years as a result of precarious state and federal support. 

Endowment

1. We DEMAND that the UNC Management Company and the Board of Trustees should begin researching and carrying out an immediate divestment from:

a. Private jails, prisons, and detention centers

b. Israeli Apartheid

c. Coal      

2. We DEMAND that the investments made on behalf of the University should be made with more transparency to ensure the endowment of the University can be tracked according to the industry, company, and funds that are being invested in. This information should be made available to the public via an online database.

3. We DEMAND an endowment oversight committee of students and workers of our choosing be immediately instituted in order to create a framework for ethical guidelines that will facilitate University investment decisions.

Financial Ties

1. We DEMAND the University stop contracting with Aramark and all other corporate entities. Aramark is a corporation deeply invested in the expansion of the prison industrial complex (PIC) and hence the massively growing prison economy, which is targeted at criminalizing and caging working class Black people.

a. The University should re-hire all current employees of Aramark.

b. We know the history of the 1970 Lenoir Workers Strike, where 200 Black cafeteria workers went on strike in response to management attempts to crush union organizing. UNC privatized food services in 1971, just one year after the strikes. We know that UNC contracts with Aramark in order to avoid providing decent working conditions, benefits and pay for Black and Brown workers, while undermining their ability to unionize and collectively bargain.

c. All other current contracts should adhere to the same or better standards of labor as the University and UNC Hospitals until these institutions stop contracting with other corporations and begin employing workers directly.

2. We DEMAND that the University NOT privatize UNC Student Stores, whether with Follett Corporation or another group. We stand with the workers who have given years of service to the campus and have demanded UNC reevaluate its push for privatization.

3. We DEMAND that the University evaluate all companies it is currently licensing with, and make decisions to cut contracting with corporations proven to have deeply exploitative and abusive track records toward workers. Given that, we DEMAND UNC cut its current licensing with:

a. VF Corporation

i. Signing the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh is insufficient, because VF Corporation, which makes UNC apparel, has moved their sites of production outside of Bangladesh, effectively nullifying the Accord.  

b. Nike

i. The University signed a near $40 million 10-year contract with the corporation in 2009. Follow the lead of the University of Wisconsin, which cut ties amid labor concerns.

Health and Well-being of Students of Color

1. We DEMAND that the University’s Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) be directed by a taskforce of our choosing which would oversee the hiring of mental health care providers, with a strong mandate to aggressively recruit and hire mental health professionals of marginalized backgrounds, especially people of color. We DEMAND that all hiring of therapists should make the utmost priority to hire people of color with a strong structural analysis of mental health and anti-oppression. Students should be able to attend counseling sessions that do not reinforce and antagonize them based on oppression that is already forcing them into the counseling session in the first place.

2. We DEMAND that the limit of 6-8 individual counseling sessions be lifted and that all students regardless of full-time or part-time enrollment may receive mental healthcare services through CAPS according to their needs. All outside referrals should ensure that the cost of care will be truly affordable or free to the student.

Housing

1. We DEMAND Gender Non-Specific housing and bathrooms across UNC’s campus.

2. We DEMAND that the University take responsibility in stopping and reversing the ongoing displacement of working class Black people out of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and demonstrate this through investment in collectively-owned housing projects.

3. We DEMAND that the University decriminalize sleeping on campus or being on campus after midnight for non-students. We know these policies are primarily meant to police poor, Black, and Brown bodies on supposedly “public” space.

Police and Prison Abolition

1. We DEMAND a task force of students and workers of our choosing be immediately instituted in order to create a timeline and action plan to address the University’s relation to policing and penal institutions. The first initiative of this taskforce is for the University to provide a statement calling for a moratorium on jail and prison construction in North Carolina. We say this in the wake of a new, larger jail being planned for Hillsborough, NC, which will continue the practice of holding Black, brown, undocumented, poor, queer, trans folks and people with mental illness in captivity.

2. We DEMAND that cameras surveilling students, workers, and white supremacist monuments on campus be deactivated and removed.

3. We DEMAND that police are trained on de-escalation techniques, so that they avoid the use of force in seemingly antagonistic encounters. Similarly, we DEMAND that campus police participate in the University-wide political education in order to learn about how our institutions of policing, prisons, and the courts have their roots in racism.

4. We DEMAND an end to the list of people banned from the University campus, who we are certain are disproportionately poor and homeless people of color.

5. We DEMAND that UNC not privatize its police force and/or contract with other security or surveillance firms now or in the future. Still, a public police is no better, if not worse. Policing as an institution must be abolished, and must be replaced with restorative and transformative justice practices, rather than functioning as a mouth into our penal system.

6. We DEMAND that no additional funding be provided to the UNC Department of Public Safety and call for a divestment from policing on our campus.

7. We DEMAND the complete disarming of the UNC Department of Public Safety (UNC Police) and UNC Hospital Police.

8. We DEMAND that the University take it upon itself to take demonstrable actions to decrease police harassment, arrests, and general police contact with working-class, poor, and homeless Black and Brown people. The University as a form of white space necessitates intensified policing and surveillance in all of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, particularly on campus and on Franklin Street.

Racialized Geography

1. We DEMAND public condemnation of the anti-Black Confederate rally that occurred on this campus and their terroristic intimidation of Black students at UNC.

2. We DEMAND the removal of the racist Confederate monument Silent Sam and ALL confederate monuments on campuses in the UNC-system.

3. We DEMAND that Carolina Hall, a whitewashing of Saunders Hall, be renamed Hurston Hall. A plaque on the exterior of the building should make clear that William Saunders was a chief architect of white supremacy in North Carolina as a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.

4. We DEMAND a space on campus to highlight the many Black leaders who were and are Greek on this campus. This space will honor their contributions to this campus, the surrounding community, and this country. The importance of plots transcends Greek life and crosses into the territory of Black history and legacies that have been erased from the University, particularly since the University has felt the need to allow the Silent Sam statue to remain intact.

5. We DEMAND that the Black Student Movement (BSM) reclaim control of the Upendo Lounge in the Student and Academic Services Building. As early as 1972, BSM had its own space in Chase Hall, called the Upendo Lounge; however, Chase Hall was demolished in 2003, and BSM currently does not have a meeting place under their complete jurisdiction.

Tuition and Financial Aid

1. We DEMAND the elimination of tuition and fees for all students. In achieving this, we call for an immediate moratorium on tuition and fee increases, decreases until all students are graduating without student debt, and the establishment of financial aid that is loan-free and labor-free (no work study). These demands cut across study abroad programs outside of UNC and need-based initiatives such as the Covenant Scholars Program. We know that merit scholarships reproduce inequality as they primarily benefit wealthier, white students. Hence, we aim to end the mythology of meritocracy that is pervasive in higher education.

2. We DEMAND in-state tuition and full financial aid for all residents of North Carolina, regardless of immigration status.

3. We DEMAND a tuition task force of students and workers of our choosing be immediately instituted in order to create a timeline and action plan to create this reality.

Workers: Academic and Non-Academic

1. We DEMAND more aggressive recruitment of Black faculty and faculty of color. This includes positions in CAPS and Campus Health practitioners.     

2. For all faculty, administrative, and staff positions, make formal priority to hire formerly incarcerated people, refugees, Black, Indigenous, and Latina/o people.

3. We DEMAND a faculty-hiring and tenure task force of students and workers of our choosing with full decision-making authority be immediately instituted in order to create a timeline and action plan for hiring procedures and practices.

4. We DEMAND all department heads and deans of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, Asian Studies, American Indian Studies, Latin American Studies, and other similar departments and programs MUST be faculty of color.

5. We DEMAND that priority must be given to hiring and tenuring of faculty of color over white faculty in those departments, to the extent that 80% of the faculty of said departments must be made up of faculty of color. White professors must be discouraged from leading and teaching departments about demographics and societies colonized, massacred, or enslaved under white supremacy.

6. We DEMAND a University and hospital-wide minimum wage of at least $25.00/hour that is commensurate with the living costs of downtown Chapel Hill plus full benefits for all workers regardless of temporary, permanent, part-time, full-time, or contracted status. For a household with a single working adult and three children $32.86 is the full-time minimum wage required for a family to live decently in Durham/Chapel Hill. People should not be compensated for their labor so that they can merely get by, but so that they can thrive. We DEMAND that an increase in wages should never result in a cutting of hours. Workers must be paid enough to live, work, and care for family in Chapel Hill, as white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism has made housing prices skyrocket and rendered the town unaffordable to one too many.

7. We DEMAND that all administrators be compensated at the same rate as workers. UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt currently receives a base salary of $570,000. Her pay is symptomatic of the way universities have a bloated administrative system with numerous over-paid workers in executive positions.

8. We DEMAND that all workers at the UNC system & UNC Hospitals have the right to unionize and collectively bargain. We DEMAND that the UNC-System and UNC-Chapel Hill advocate for the right to unionize and collectively bargain for workers on a state and national level.

9. We DEMAND a minimum compensation of $15,000 per course for all adjunct faculty.

10. We DEMAND that the University and UNC Hospitals stop employment discrimination against formerly incarcerated people. Numerous scholars and activists have pointed out how the U.S. criminal punishment system has racism ingrained in its roots, as it has been tasked with the duty of criminalizing and caging primarily working class Black people.

a. “Ban the box” on University and UNC Hospitals job applications.

b. Stop criminal background checks for all faculty, staff, and administration.

11. We DEMAND that free childcare and afterschool care is provided to all staff, students, and faculty at UNC and UNC-Hospitals. We DEMAND transportation from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to afterschool programs at UNC. We DEMAND that the University and hospital actively advocate for all staff, students, and faculty be eligible to enroll their children in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

12. We DEMAND that student-athletes are recognized as University employees, paid a base salary $25.00/hour with benefits, and, further, compensated in accordance with the level of revenue that they bring to the University.  We recognize that men’s basketball and football, via the  exploitation of Black men, are central to the athletics industrial complex (AIC) that runs the University. Hence, we DEMAND a complete dismantling of the AIC in the long term — education should not be a mode of racist, capitalist accumulation.

13. We DEMAND that sexual violence and all forms of racist, gendered violence should be seriously addressed in employment practices on this campus, particularly against women of color in the Housekeeping Department.

a. Former Housekeeping Director Bill Burston sexually abused refugee women from Burma: they traded sex for jobs and he actively tried to hire these women in place of Black women.

b. UNC failed to protect María Isabel Prudencio-Arias from retaliation for speaking out against the case.

14. We DEMAND that all workers receive free monthly GO Passes and free parking through employment with UNC or UNC-Hospitals. We know that workers in the Triangle and particularly in Chapel Hill are forced to live far away in order to afford housing and pay astronomical costs for transportation.

15. We DEMAND language justice for all workers at UNC. Trainings, materials, and all communication should be made available in all languages that workers prefer. We recognize that the University relies on the labor of a large number of refugee workers and Latin American immigrants, and these workers should be provided with the same access to information and communication as English-speaking workers. Additionally, verbal instructions and communication should be made available in addition to written materials for all workers, as we recognize that workers are often denied proper education, even for English-speakers born in the U.S.

1. WE DEMAND equitable funding of departments and programs that elevate the histories and challenges of traditionally marginalized and poor communities.

a. Fully fund programs that study marginalized communities such as African American Diaspora Studies (AADS) and Women & Gender Studies (WGS).

b. Make Introduction to African American Diaspora Studies and Women & Gender Studies mandatory for all students.

2. WE DEMAND accountability to the larger community.

a. Stop the Gentrification of Glenwood. UNCG must stop any further plans to expand the campus into the neighborhood and work with the community to decide what to do with the property already purchased by the university.

b. No more UNCG police patrolling through Glenwood neighborhood. The campus police department is unaccountable to the residents of the Glenwood neighborhood and should not police that community.

c. UNCG must join the growing movement of divestment from companies and other financial entities profiting from fossil fuels, private prisons, and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine. The university must reinvest these funds into non-extractive community-driven development funds and projects.

3. WE DEMAND UNCG respect the dignity of students, staff, alumni, and broader community.

a. Resolve UNCG’s Student Debt Crisis. Increasingly more students, disproportionately those of color, continue to drop out because of inability to keep up with the the increasing costs of education. Many others graduate with thousands of dollars in debt. UNCG must freeze all fee increases immediately, immediately cut executive administration pay by 25%, and allow all current students to opt-out of athletic-related student fees.

b. End Rape Culture and gender violence on UNCG’s campus. In order to create safe learning, living and working environments for all of UNCG’s community, the university must respond to campus violence against marginalized individuals, including:

c. Mandatory Inclusive Consent Training for all incoming freshman and transfer students, and on-going consent training for Fraternity/Sorority houses and all campus dorm residents.

d. Fully fund and staff an on-campus LGBTQ center that is fully capable of meeting the needs of trans*, gender non-forming and gender-fluid students and staff.

e. Improve access to mental health support resources.

f. Convene experts in the field from the Greensboro community to create and implement a swift, comprehensive, trauma-informed response to sexual assault and gender violence on campus.

g. Fully fund and staff an on-campus Rape Crisis Center that is fully capable to meet the needs of trans*, gender non-forming and gender-fluid students and staff.

h. Immediately institute a living wage of $15/h and support the unionization for all campus workers. UNCG should follow the University of Virginia and the UC system in taking measures towards instituting living wages and right to organize a union.

i. UNCG must call for the removal of Margaret Spellings, the new President of the UNC school system, due to her history of discriminatory statements and actions targeting traditionally marginalized communities, in particular LGBTQ people.

3. WE DEMAND the removal of policies, groups, symbols and icons glorifying white supremacy.

a. Aycock Auditorium must be renamed.

b. No Hate Groups on Campus. Ever. Freedom of speech should not be used as a justification for rampant hateful language or opinions that further marginalizes historically oppressed communities.

c. Require diversity training for all faculty and staff (including campus police) that includes LGBTQ Safe Zone Training and is developed with input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and the broader community..

d. Hold administration, students and staff (including campus police) accountable for racist statements, policies, actions and attacks.

e. Hire more faculty and staff from traditionally marginalized communities! We need a staff as diverse as the student body and the communities UNCG exists in and interacts with!

By OU Black Student Task Force:

1. Change the names of all of the KKK related buildings on campus. DEADY Hall will be the first building to be renamed.

a. We cannot and should not be subjugated to walk in any buildings that have been named after people that have vehemently worked against the Black plight, and plight of everyone working to achieve an equitable society.

b. Allowing buildings to be named after members who support these views is in direct conflict with the university’s goal keep black students safe on campus.

c. We demand this change be implemented by Fall 2016 To University of Oregon Administration From Black Student Task Force

2. Create an African-American Opportunities program that is comparable, in scope and impact, to the Opportunities program for the Latino student population and community.

a. We strongly believe that having an African-American opportunities program which will feature participation and outreach by Black UO students is the best way of connecting with prospective Black students as well as the Black community.

b. We demand that the individuals that lead the African-American Opportunities program identify as Black/African-American. This format is suited to cater to the unique needs of black students in particular. Such a format is demonstrated in the outreach program currently offered for the Latino student body/community and we believe a comparable format will work for African-American student body/community.

c. We demand that all participating students identify as Black/African-American.

d. We demand that this program be autonomous and separate from UO Orientation and Ambassador Program

e. We demand that this program be totally separate from the Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE)

f. We demand to be on the hiring committee of the prospective advisor and lead faculty of this program

g. We demand that all of the Black student outreach participants receive financial compensation for their time and effort.

h. We demand that this program be implemented by Fall 2016

3. Commit to creating a Funding Resource and Scholarship initiative that is designed exclusively to support and meet the unique needs of students that identify as Black/AfricanAmerican.

a. The Diversity Excellence Scholarship is NOT enough.

b. Due to the state/national population imbalance, it is simply unfair for Black students to compete with low income white students and students who identify as Hispanic/Latino for the same scholarships.

c. We demand a commitment to working to secure funding for this initiative by Fall 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017.

4. Commit to having Ethnic Studies 101 as a graduation requirement.

a. The current multicultural requirement is not enough. The ethnic studies specific requirement will require students to learn about the importance of United States history in the context of social inequality and injustice, while emphasizing the often overlooked histories of African-American as well as the histories of other underrepresented sub-groups in the United States.

b. Ethnic Studies 101 is a critical course that teaches students the importance of diversity in the United States. Without taking this course, students are not sufficiently prepared with basic cultural competence skills to navigate the diversifying world.

c. We are committed to working with the Faculty Senate and implementing this demand.

d. We demand that this be mandatory for all incoming students by Fall 2016 5. Commit to creating an Academic Residential Community (ARC) that will feature AfricanAmerican history/Oregon Black Diaspora.

e. This residential community is a great way for Black students to connect with other Black students and foster a relationship with Black student organizations such as Black Women of Achievement, Black Student Union, Black Male Alliance, African Student Association, Black Law Student Association, and Black Greek Life.

f. This residential community will increase the students’ understanding of AfricanAmerican history and foster a positive relationship with Black faculty, as well as the past and present Black residents of Eugene.

g. We demand that this initiative be implemented by Fall 2016

6. Commit to hiring an African-American advisor/retention specialist as well as Black faculty across all academic disciplines, especially major UO departments such as Architecture, Business, Education, Math, and Science departments.

a. Have a minimum of 2-3 Black students on each departments hiring committee, including Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE).

b. Many Black students at the UO have experienced racist sentiments from their respective departments.

c. A rise in African-American advisors/retention specialist as well as faculty will help decrease racist sentiments and lead to an increased retention rate for Black students.

d. We demand a commitment to this initiative by Fall 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017.

7. Create a substantial endowment fund and support system to FUND AND OPEN a Black Cultural Center.

a. Commit to helping find and fund a space directly on campus.

b. A cultural center is a place with sufficient space to function as 1) a classroom to teach courses such as African-American history, and 2) a meeting space for black student organizations. This cultural center should also have room for art and artifacts that pertain to black history.

c. This will be akin to one that exists at Oregon State University. Most importantly, space will be place for ALL students to go and learn about Black history.

d. We demand a commitment to this initiative by Fall 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017.

8. Commit to creating a Black Student Leadership Task Force.

a. This Student Leadership Task Force should be comprised of three branches: 1. Black Students. 2. Black Alumni. 3. Black Faculty and Staff.

b. We have established the Black Student branch. As we look to establish the Black Alumni and Black Faculty and Staff branch, we request and expect your unwavering support.

c. We demand a commitment to this initiative by Fall 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017.

9. Commit to conducting seminars and workshops by bringing in a black faculty from a peer institution who specializes in Black history and contemporary black issues.

a. Commit to 6 seminars/workshops each school year.

b. We demand that this initiative be implemented by Fall 2016

10. Commit to creating a Student Advisory Board for The Office of Equity & Inclusion and Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence (CMAE).

a. We expect the advisory board to consist of students of color.

b. We expect the advisory board to be comprised of Black Students at UO. Moreover, we expect black student representation to be equal to the other under-represented student populations under CMAE

c. This will allow Black students to be involved and hold administration accountable for the hiring of staff and faculty as well as the overall turnover within CMAE.

d. We demand that this initiative be implemented by Fall 2016

11. A commitment to immediate change of Fraternity & Sorority Life Baseline Standards for University recognition.

a. The following is one of the Chapter Requirement for Recognition at the University of Oregon: A University of Oregon recognized Fraternity or Sorority must consist of 5 or more University of Oregon Incidental Fee paying students. Additionally, Oregon Fraternity Sorority Life (OSFL) does not recognize city wide or metropolitan chapters and therefore, all chapters must be based and chartered exclusively at UO.

b. This regulation is directly and structurally targeting Historically Black Fraternity and Sororities. In turn it is affecting the admission and retention of Black students at the UO.

c. We are demanding that the UO OSFL reduce the number of UO Incidental Fee Paying students to 1. Moreover, we are demanding that the UO OSFL recognize city wide or metropolitan Black Fraternity and Sorority chapters.

d. We are demanding that the UO administration, led by President Schill, fully support our effort in changing the aforementioned regulation.

e. We demand a commitment to this initiative by Spring 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017.

12. Commit to immediately keeping and publishing data on efforts to increase Black student acceptance, retention, and SAFETY.

a. We demand a commitment to this initiative by Winter 2016 and demand implementation by Fall 2017. 

1. Equity Training for all staff, support staff, central administration.

2. Therapist of Color to be hired at the human Right Centre.

3. The creation of a Black studies department.

4. Reserved space for a racialized students Centre.

5. Divestment from prisons and investment in communities.

7. Free tuition for all black and indigenous students.

By The Advocates for Institutional Change:

1. We demand that the University of Puget Sound build a Cultural Center in the space that will be available where Warner Gym currently resides. The current space given to students in the SDC is insufficient and limited. It is unable to meet the needs of marginalized students on campus, as over 30 clubs battle for time and space. It often is overcrowded and presents safety hazards, and the building itself is badly in need of repairs and additions. Student leaders from the University’s identity and faith based clubs must be included in the layout and design of this new building. The University must provide sufficient space in the Cultural Center to allow for cultural events and programming, club meetings, a kosher kitchen, and a lounge.

2. We demand that the Office of Admission schedule diversity programming that highlights opportunities for involvement and inclusion for all prospective students who may identify with a traditionally marginalized identity. This programming should be in coordination with representatives from identity and culturally-based clubs for prospective students during Discover Puget Sound and Admitted Students Days.

3. We demand that all campus tours visit the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement and the Student Diversity Center and include information about cultural programming, opportunities, and safe spaces on campus. Further, we demand there be an option for tours to be conducted in the variety of languages that our university offers (i.e. Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and American Sign Language) and include information about where the nearest gender neutral bathrooms are.

4. We demand that the Office of Admissions seek out students from underrepresented populations by visiting their communities and schools. We specifically demand that Admissions visit schools and communities that meet the following criteria:

1) Public High Schools

2) Schools with populations less than 30% Caucasian/White identifying

3) Low income communities with a predominance of households earning less than twice the federal poverty line. This is a necessary demand to ensure students in these communities know of Puget Sound and have access to our institution.

5. We demand that the University of Puget Sound provide institutional support allowing students from cultural and identity-based groups (i.e. Black Student Union, Latinos Unidos, and Q&A) to be present during New Student Orientation. This support must include room and board, as well as designated time and space to develop meaningful relationships with incoming students who identify as a person from a marginalized or minoritized background.

6. We demand that Student Financial Services immediately endow the BSU’s One More Scholarship and Latinos Unidos for Cultural Education (LUCE) Leadership Scholarship to demonstrate the university’s commitment to ensuring students from diverse cultural backgrounds feel financially supported.

7. We demand that the University of Puget Sound require all students involved in our varsity sports teams, Greek Life, university faculty, and university staff members to attend a mandatory Diversity Summit provided by the Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement.

8.We demand that the administration physically and financially support Peer Allies in order to demonstrate an institutional commitment to both supporting survivors of sexual assault as well as fostering a campus community of consent and respect.

9. We demand the university provide the Dean of Diversity and Inclusion and Title IX officer with additional staff to aid in the search processes to hire professors from underrepresented identities in disciplines that reside outside of their racial and sexual/gender identity. We demand these professors specifically be hired in STEM, English, Music, Theater, Politics & Government, Business, and International Political Economy which are disciplines traditionally filled by dominant identity groups.

10. We demand that students of the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) at Purdy Women’s Correctional Facility receive equal course credit to students enrolled at UPS. Female students at Purdy who are enrolled in classes taught through FEPPS must receive credit towards a University of Puget Sound Bachelor’s degree.

11. We demand that before the presidential transition, the current administration of the University of Puget Sound personally guide Gender and Queer Studies and Latino Studies through the same framework toward becoming a major as established by African American Studies.

12. We demand that the future President-Elect of the University of Puget Sound be required to attend a meeting of every identity and faith based group on campus to better understand the realities of the current campus climate, and the needs and concerns of students moving into the future.

By Concerned Students at USD:

Campus Culture and Leadership

I. We demand that President James Harris publicly state that Black Lives Matter. We demand that he do so without the clause “All Lives Matter” – for though all lives do matter, Black lives in particular have been the target of 400 years of unabated brutality. Such a clause invalidates the struggle and full humanity of Black people.

II. We demand that the Center for Inclusion and Diversity, the United Front Multicultural Center, and other centers on campus dedicated to diversity and social justice be radically decolonized and student-run. This includes a reevaluation of the operations of these centers, the nature of the support and funding they receive, and the extent to which they achieve their professed intentions.

III. We demand that the university’s current mascot, Diego Torero, be replaced by a non-human mascot, as Diego Torero is a racist and derogatory caricature of Spanish men.

IV. We demand more people of color, queer-identified people and women represented in positions of administrative and student leadership.

V. We demand the active inclusion of cultural, LGBT and feminist student organizations in the planning of campus events related to the concerns of these organizations.

VI. We demand the increased visibility of existing Black and multicultural Greek life on campus and ease of chartering for emerging chapters. We demand that representatives from Black and multicultural Greek organizations be present at the Alcala Bazaar, USD Greek functions, and other Greek events and operations.

VII. We demand the creation of a comprehensive orientation on racial, gender, and queer inclusion and diversity, mandatory to students, staff, faculty and administration and maintained by a board comprised of students, staff and faculty from diverse, less privileged backgrounds.

VIII. We demand that representatives from the university’s administration acknowledge the colonialist legacy of Junípero Serra, who established the Catholic California mission system that massacred the vast majority of native peoples in California. We demand that Serra Hall be renamed to a designation chosen by a coalition of native students, staff and faculty.

IX. We demand that Yik Yak, an anonymous social media application, be banned from the USD area, as it provides a platform for hate speech inflected with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and, especially recently, islamophobia, amongst several other bigotries.

X. We demand the installation of gender-neutral bathrooms in every building on campus.

Education

I. We demand the increased employment of faculty of color and women faculty in every academic department, in every school at USD. In particular, we demand a 10% increase in the number of tenured Black professors in every academic department by November 18th , 2020, 5 years from today.

II. We demand the expansion of the Ethnic Studies department, which, in its current state, fails to meet the educational needs of the campus. There are currently 4 full-time faculty in the Ethnic Studies department. We demand that this number is tripled to 12 full-time faculty by November 18 th , 2020, 5 years from today. We demand a significant increase in the number of Ethnic Studies courses provided each semester and the Ethnic Studies events made available to the entire university.

III. We demand that an Ethnic Studies course be a core curriculum requirement for all students. We also demand a rigorous reevaluation of the courses that currently fulfill the core curriculum’s diversity requirement, led by a board comprised of faculty of color who would be compensated for this service.

IV. We demand the development of a Gender and Queer Studies department with at least 12 full-time faculty. V. We demand greater diversity in the honors program, in particular a dramatic increase in the number of Black and Latinx honors students, within the next 3 years.

Admissions, Retention and Support

I. We demand that the university strengthen its partnerships with high schools with large populations of students of color, including, but not limited to: Lincoln, Mission Bay, Garfield, Hoover, and Mar Vista, to promote the admission of more a more diverse group of students to USD.

II. We demand that all statistics and promotional material for USD be reevaluated and revised for accuracy, particularly in regard to the population of students, staff, and faculty of color, by a committee of student and faculty representatives of color and third-party statisticians.

III. We demand a rigorous revision of meal plan options, led by a diverse coalition of students, to make them more accommodating to socioeconomically disadvantaged students, commuter students, and students with alternative dietary needs. We also demand that the food prices on campus be more affordable. We demand that nutrition and nourishment be accessible to all students.

IV. We demand a reformation of the university’s distribution of financial aid, such that it is significantly more accommodating for students of working- and middle-class backgrounds. This reformation must include the following adjustments:

a. Students continue to pay the amount of annual tuition that they paid their first year in the succeeding years of their education, unless the change in tuition is advantageous to them, i.e., the cost of tuition lowers in the succeeding years.

b. Students awarded external scholarships will not have their financial aid, provided by the university, diminished in any way. Outside scholarships and financial aid awards will remain completely separate and one will not have bearing on the other.

c. Students who live on campus will not have their financial aid diminished if they choose to move off campus.

V. We demand that the university greatly increase the number of counselors of color in both Career Services and Student Wellness. We also demand an increase in resources and support groups for queer and trans students of color.

VI. We demand that donors and patrons of USD have absolutely no monopoly upon the politics, configuration and affairs of the university. The university’s recent history has demonstrated how such inequitable power breaches the intellectual freedom that educational institutions such as USD are required to defend and utterly corrupts university administration.

By USF Black Student Union:

We demand an action plan by February 1, 2016 for each of the following:

1. Addressing lack of institutional responsibility and transparency about current token racial representation of historically underrepresented and excluded groups, including but not limited to black students.

a. Moving forward we demand that USF publish representation of faculty and students by race and gender (by academic department) and that all reporting of diversity figures differentiate between international and domestic students.

b. We demand that the percentage of images of students/faculty/leadership who are black and from other historically excluded groups in marketing materials and advertisements no longer drastically exceed actual representation on campus (5% above actual representation is reasonable to promote recruitment goals).The Office of Marketing and Communication has repeatedly microaggressed students of color in their marketing efforts as we’ve discussed. We demand a plan in place to enforce the accuracy of representation in marketing demand.

2. Addressing the defunding and dismantling of support systems that facilitated our access and retention at USF.

a. We demand reinstating the Office of Multicultural Recruitment and Retention (MRR). For fifteen years, MRR recruited and retained marginalized groups of students. We believe having an office that is specifically dedicated to creating a racially diverse and inclusive environment is still critical for recruitment and retention of marginalized groups of students; not reinstating signals to us that the institutions true commitment is not there.

b. We demand that the Intercultural Center operate as a separate center from the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC), as both are distinctly important and necessary for marginalized students’ retention at USF; this is where many of us spend most of our time on campus. The separated centers should have additional financial resources to support both centers (double the budget as opposed to splitting it), and with the current co-directors moving into director roles, 2additional program staff will be needed for a separate assistant director for each center.

3. Addressing how USF student programming centers the needs of white students, to the extent that we (as a tokenized and minoritized group) have to prove that we are not excluding others from our programming. On a campus where whiteness is normalized, any programming that centers blackness can easily be framed as exclusionary when we have ironically never been in a position to exclude anyone.

a. Cultural Centers to oversee new funding for culturally focused clubs/ Greek orgs. (Money must be drawn from 50k pot and determined in collaboration with DECO).

b. Given the importance of the Vice Provost for Student Life position for our retention and experiences on campus, currently being served by an Interim VP, we demand that the interimand final appointments of an administrator with a proven record of excelling in culturally competent practices and serving black students. (Furthermore, anytime there is a student services position hire, students should be a part of it and overseen by DECO. DECO should recruit a group of students that will be a part of making these hiring decisions.)

4. Addressing institutional failure to recruit more than token numbers of black students on this campus and the racism we experience on and off campus requires targeted efforts to create inclusive campus spaces and support services for us to have equitable opportunities to thrive academically and socially.

a. Until we reach a target of 10% African Americans on this campus, we demand targeted efforts to recruit black students that include funding packages.--We demand an African American student floor in the Phelan residence hall, available starting in fall of 2016.

b. We demand cultural competent black counselors in CAPS, currently there are no black counselors. We also demand CASA counselors of color who are culturally competent to race/racism and first generation experiences.

c. We demand more black professors (in all departments where there is token representation),especially those teaching any course that is centered on the African American experience.

5 Addressing racial microaggressions with a two pronged approach that is (1) proactive in educating all white campus constituents about their racial identity and privilege, (2)reactive and reformative in documenting racial and other microaggressions and providing consequences and required professional development.

a. We demand an institutional resource commitment to these plans/efforts and that they must be approved and/or overseen by the Cultural Center (CC) or Office of Diversity Engagement Community Outreach (DECO) who have both demonstrated a commitment to our success in actionable terms. Toward this end we demand to see allocated institutional resources within the action plan deadline.[Note: we know some of this is already in progress but we specifically want to see more on the first prong and we want to see real institutional resources allocated to this effort; Otherwise, this will serve as another way to make it seem like change is happening without actual progress].

6. Addressing low representation of black people in faculty and leadership positions across the university (including transparency and responsibility for approximately 90-99% of leadership in student affairs, academic affairs, and university leadership positions being held by white men and women); the pattern is more striking in the higher-level positions.

a. We demand an explicit commitment to only hiring or promoting (this includes staff position or title changes) people from traditionally underrepresented groups (with a demonstrated record of cultural competence and critical awareness) for student and academic affairs administrator positions at USF until there is 25% representation in leadership posts (of which 10% must be Black).

By USC 2020 Vision:

Demands for Our 2020 Vision

1) We demand that our university acknowledge that this institution was built on the backs of enslaved Africans. Further, we expect that this acknowledgement is included in tours, especially areas like the garden directly behind the president’s house where slaves were once housed. This acknowledgement should be reflected in markers on historic buildings. Additionally, we expect that the university will raise the plaque marking the AAAS tree to increase its visibility.

2) We demand that our university improve and expand minority recruitment efforts in order to increase racial diversity on our campus. We call for the creation of a minority scholars program through the South Carolina Honors College.

3) We demand that our university provide gender neutral housing and restrooms that are accessible and convenient. We call for our university to create a streamlined process for changing gender markers and names within university databases and records. We require that university personnel use personal gender pronouns as indicated by the individual. Additionally, we ask that our university provide informed, comprehensive health and mental health care that meets the specific needs of transgender students and ensure that all health and mental health care providers are competent on transgender issues.

4) We demand that our university acknowledge gender identity and expression as protected classes under Title IX.

5) We demand that a transparent and independent investigation be launched into the following university administrators: the Executive Assistant to the President for Equal Opportunity Programs; the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Academic Support, Student Life and Development; and the Vice President for Student Affairs, Vice Provost and Dean of Students.

6) We demand that our university increase the funding allocated to the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. Additionally, we require that OMSA be housed in a new cultural center that celebrates all identities. As campus continues to grow, it is imperative that support for all students continues to grow.

7) We demand that our university increase funding for the Counseling Center, so that there are more available appointments and more appointments provided free of charge to each student.

8) We demand that all faculty and staff, especially those who engage students on a regular basis, participate in a mandatory diversity training provided by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. This training should be intersectional and representative of a wide variety of identity groups.

9) We demand that our university institute a policy of transparency through data collection and dissemination on the topics of admissions and enrollment, campus sexual assault, sexual harassment, and hazing by providing existing statistics in a communicable way and conducting new research to better identify its problems on campus.

10) We demand that our university provide a social justice minor and cognate to expand its current offerings to undergraduate students.

11) We demand that the Office of Student Disability Services be renamed the Office of Accessibility and Accommodation Services. Additionally, we call for the advancement of student knowledge of this office through new student orientation, residence life, the counseling center, psychiatric services, and student health services.

12) We demand that USC Homecoming be restructured to accurately reflect and celebrate the various communities and cultures that exist and continue to grow within our campus, our alumni, and our community. As it stands, Homecoming is just for some, but we all want something to come home to.

By USC Undergraduate Student Government:

BE IT RESOLVED, the University of Southern California adopt the following policies to effectively measure and improve the diversity, equity, and inclusion climate on USC’s campus relevant to ethnicity, race, religion, national origin, gender, sexuality, and ability,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California hire a Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with experience and expertise in diversity and equity as well as inclusion who will be responsible for developing a strategic plan to improve the campus climate and have oversight of student, faculty and administration in regards to diversity, equity and inclusion,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will have oversight of multicultural and minority affairs, international affairs, student support services, cultural centers, retention and pipeline offices, community outreach initiatives, training and development operations, equity and compliance offices, and research units,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Academic Deans hire a Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for each academic division or school at the university who would have involvement and influence in the hiring and promotion of faculty and staff, and the recruitment, yield and retention of both undergraduate and graduate students within their academic division or school,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty, staff and alumni representing the various multicultural groups affiliated with USC are involved in the selection process for the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as the Vice Deans of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California Academic Division or School Vice Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion employ graduate and undergraduate students in the form of graduate assistants and student workers, respectively, to advocate for diversity support and coordinate for inclusion programming,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Vice Deans of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion require and ensure that each syllabus within an academic division or school at the university include information on the resources available to students for reporting bias, discrimination and Title IX violations and that they work with departments to incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion components in course curricula, (e.g. introduce multiple perspectives when discussing subjective material; multiple perspectives include, but are not limited to, various scholarly theories and authors of different backgrounds),

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California increase transparency, accountability and accessibility of demographic metrics (race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, etc.) of students (undergraduate and graduate), faculty (tenured, non-tenured, clinical and adjunct) and staff (university officers, academic administrator and support staff),

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California increase transparency (e.g. provide easily understood flowcharts or infographics of the process for reporting incidences of bias), accountability (e.g. provide students who have filed a timeline for follow up), and accessibility (e.g., place the information or links to the information on the main pages of all USC websites for or referencing bias and discrimination), of metrics from the Bias Assessment Response and Support Bias Reporting forms and general information (total number of reports each year, type of complaint [race, gender, etc.], incident location [school, department, off- campus houses/ venues, etc.]) from Title IX/Discrimination Complaints reported to the Office of Diversity and Equity,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California hire an additional Title IX investigator to ensure timely handling of student code of conduct violations under the purview of the Title IX office,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California develop a Diversity Strategic Plan endorsed by the Trustee Board Chair, championed by the University President and led by the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to measure and analyze diversity, inclusion and equity within a year as well as publically report and significantly increase recruitment, enrollment/hiring/appointment, and retention of students, as well as the recruitment, yield, and retention of faculty, staff and trustees of underrepresented populations so as to be competitive with our colleagues at peer institutions in these areas by 2025,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California specifically outline its definition of “diversity” and recommit itself to that definition of diversity,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California create opportunities where students, faculty and administration can intermingle and intermittently have directed dialogues regarding issues on campus, in the community and within the nation and world at large,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California have administrators hold public office hours for the purposes of accessibility and transparency towards students,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California create an international student resource center to foster community, promote education and provide resources beyond paperwork assistance for international students, within the same framework as other cultural resource centers (e.g. Asian Pacific American Student Services, Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, El Centro Chicano, the LGBT Resource Center),

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California implement mandatory, recurring online diversity and cultural competency trainings for faculty on campus with an additional mandatory in-person workshop led by cultural resource centers for questions and dialogue,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California implement mandatory, yearly, in-person diversity and cultural competency trainings led by cultural resource centers for student leaders on campus, including but not limited to all student government (Undergraduate Student Government, Graduate Student Government, Residential Student Government, etc.), Greek Councils, and all university-recognized student groups,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California implement mandatory first semester online training for distance learning students and in-person training for on campus students on diversity, equity, and inclusion during orientation related to issues of race, gender sexuality, etc.,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California re-implement the Diversity Requirement for all incoming students, and students must complete the Diversity Requirement within their first four semesters at USC. All classes must include a discussion of contemporary race, class and gender or a framework which can be applied to contemporary race, class and gender in order to fulfill this Diversity Requirement. These classes should introduce multiple perspectives when discussing subjective material; multiple perspectives include, but are not limited to, various scholarly theories and authors of different backgrounds. The new Diversity Requirement will be integrated into the GE system through a grandfather clause so students can fulfill the Diversity Requirement while completing their General Education requirements,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California invest in the growth, expansion, and visibility of cultural resource centers, which are currently understaffed and underfunded,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California create a multicultural center at the new University Village to be opened for use in 2017 in order to encourage students to learn about the various identities and cultures at our university. This center will also retain the cultural specific models of Center for Black Cultural and Student Affairs, LGBT Resource Center, El Centro Chicano, and Asian Pacific American Student Services, with discrete offices and full staff allotted for each,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California hire an outside vendor by 2016 to conduct a Campus Climate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion survey annually, and upon the completion of the survey provide recommendations based on annual trends that will be disseminated with the data publicly and accessibly,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California establish an endowed fund and allow for donations to be specifically directed towards this fund of $100 million for scholarships, fellowships, programming and mentorship for both graduate and undergraduate students as well as tenured and tenure track faculty positions from underrepresented backgrounds by 2025,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California will earmark donations from its $6 billion endowment goal to provide for the measures listed above and no moneys will be diverted away from current student resources and initiatives for underrepresented populations (i.e. cultural centers),

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the University of Southern California will implement the measures listed above, contingent on the necessary funds being supplied without raising student tuition or through the application of additional student fees,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this resolution be delivered to Trustee Board Chair John Mork, President C.L. Max Nikias, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael Quick, Vice President of Student Affairs Ainsley Carry, Vice President of Admissions Katharine Harrington, Vice Provost for Graduate Programs Sally Pratt, Assistant Provost for Student Engagement Monique Allard, GSG President Nikita Hamilton and USG President Rini Sampath by Secretary Amy Perez within 2 weeks of being passed by the Undergraduate Student Government Senate,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a meeting with the recipients of this resolution and other pertinent administrators and students take place within 2 weeks of its delivery.

1.     Stop the funding freeze to the Transitional Year Program. Increase its funding and provide it with standalone, autonomous space and the recognition it deserves as a pioneering program gifted to the University of Toronto from the Black community. The Transitional Year Program has helped hundreds of students over the years, and the systemic erasure of the program by the administration is shameful.

2.     Address the underrepresentation of Black administrators, faculty and teaching staff with the goal to increase the percentage of black faculty and staff members to at least 8.5 per cent (proportional to the population of Black people in Toronto) by 2017-18. One of the primary experiences students referenced was a frustration at never seeing themselves represented amongst even our teaching assistants, let alone their faculty and administration. This lack of representation, even in programs where we would be represented. This is a major issue that the University of Toronto should investigate and seek to address, in the same manner as would be done if this was an issue of gender.

3.     Intentionally address the underrepresentation of Black students, especially in professional programs and graduate programs. While the university often uses our images to promote itself as diverse campus, our presence on campus is disproportionately small, especially in very expensive programs. You should begin by collecting census data, so that we can accurately assess and effectively address the issue. You should also create a strategic plan to increase retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and training, and promote a more safe and inclusive campus by 2016-17.

4.     Develop a two year plan to establish, adequately fund and support a standalone African & Caribbean Studies Department. Despite Canada’s history with respect to enslavement, the benefits Canada received as a result of enslavement, establishment of Black refugee communities, Canada’s continued direct involvement in the economics and politics of the Caribbean and Canada’s role as one of the most favored destinations for diasporic migrants of African descent, there is very little support given to the existing undergraduate African Studies and Caribbean Studies programs. Even more egregiously, there are no such programs in existence at the graduate level; an omission we doubt could occur with other regions of the world and be ignored in assessments of UofT’s rankings.

5.     Establish mandatory equity training for all faculty, students, governors, and all other administrative bodies. This entails mandatory anti-oppression training for all persons employed by the University, and an equity breadth requirement for all students.

6.     Solicit and increase the number of scholarships and funding resources available to Black students and Black students only, especially in professional, graduate, and Phd Programs. Financial insecurity is one of the most limiting factors t the academic success and attainment of Black students. The Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) has systematically worked against providing Black students with adequate monetary resources to finance undergraduate and graduate education. Additionally, there are very few U of T scholarships and bursaries designated specifically for Black students to ensure their scholastic achievement and success. The University of Toronto should also work to ensure they are reaching out to those who have specified funding resources available to them.

7.     Establish counseling and mental health services on the U of T campus that are culturally appropriate and representative for addressing the mental emotional, and psychological needs of Black students. Current health services at U of T lack the African epistemology to understand the mental health needs of Black students. Mental health services at U of T fail to acknowledge how the intersection of racism, classism, and sexism has negatively impacted the well being of Black students.

8.     Divest from the American for-profit prison industry. The University of Toronto has several relationships with some of the largest investors in for-profit, private prisons and corporations who benefit off of prison (slave) labor. Black people are disproportionately targeted and incarcerated throughout North America in a racist policing and incarceration system. Our tuition dollars should not support such a system, and U of T should be taking a proactive approach in making ethical investments and spending responsibly.

9.     Implement free education for Black and Indigenous students. As a result of years of colonization of Black and Indigenous people, the University of Toronto is a beneficiary of the twin project of:

a.     Dispossessing Indigenous people of their land; and

b.     The slave labor of the Americas, responsible for enriching Britain and its colonies.

c.      In recognition of this history and in its resultant responsibility, the University of Toronto should ensure free admission to Black and Indigenous students.

By the Black Student Alliance:

A. Establish a Culture of Truth:

1. President and Dean of Students should deliver statements promoting acceptance and acknowledging the University's deeply troubled history. These statements must acknowledge past and present racial and gender discrimination, as well as the need for full participation to repair a broken community. Such remarks should not referenceThomas Jefferson, because of his decidedly mixed racial legacy - one with which thisUniversity has not yet come to terms. Our administrators, instead, should endorse a progressive mentality in line with the current times; the statements should address inequality, cross-cultural biases, and the very real feeling of isolation by some in theUniversity community. According to President Teresa Sullivan, “scholarship done right isa search for truth. It requires that we examine assumptions and question what we know. It includes the expectation that we can and will change our minds as we learn”. ThePresident’s Commission on Slavery is a first step, but few must confront that committee’s careful work in their day-to-day experience. Our administrators must encourage the student body to search for truth and to examine our assumptions; that begins when we grapple with a shared history that affects Grounds today, instead of ignoring it. These administrators must also publicly acknowledge that the University’s tense racial history did not end with emancipation, or with integration of the University’s student body, but continues into today.

2. To restore meaningful dialogue, administrators and student media outlets must use existing communication channels to start, continue, and deepen our discussion of racism and ethnocentrism. Posters in First-Year dorms and on Stall Seat Journals, and other educational, promotional tools should focus on prejudice and oppression, and should offer examples of implicit biases in student-to-student, faculty-to-student interactions. and student-to-Charlottesville resident interactions. Student-run University agencies such as The Honor Committee and The Student Council should prioritize the creation of initiatives aimed towards engaging the student body in conversations surrounding race and inclusivity as elements of our University ideals.2 The HonorCommittee, after all, has attempted to take responsibility for the ideal of honor - social behavior, including accepting and embracing cultural pluralism, is very much a part of this ideal.

3. President Sullivan should order the creation of a mandatory online summer cultural competency training module and a fall orientation presentation. These trainings should include a University-wide online training module on discrimination and micro-aggressions, akin to the alcohol awareness online course, which is mandatory for incoming first years to complete. A similar training module should be created for all incoming faculty. Subsequently, the Vice President for Student Affairs should provide funding for minority groups to develop a mandatory session on race relations on grounds to be held during fall orientation, similar to the discussion on sexual assault held in JohnPaul Jones Arena. The intent of the module and fall orientation presentation will be to be come conscious of behaviors and language that might alienate or isolate other students.Faculty and students should take active roles in developing this module. ResidentAdvisors should be part of creating these modules. Then, VPSA should require all HRL staff, including professional staff, to both take safe space training and undergo training on facilitating conversations about race, gender, and sexuality. Third, RAs should host discussions on the racial history of U.Va. and Charlottesville. Should a situation arise,students should feel comfortable going to their RA.

4. A required public comment period at Board of Visitors meetings. The Board ofVisitors, including the Board’s Financial and Education Policy Committees, have made decisions about tuition hikes and AccessUVA cuts without publically engaging with the students, whom all of their decisions directly affect. A public comment period during such major administrative meetings would provide exactly that opportunity. This public comment period would allow the administration to directly respond to the concerns of affected students and can occur before or after meetings. The City of Charlottesville currently has a defined public comment period, during which City Council members must listen to community concerns and can offer responses. The Board of Visitors should adopt this model. 

5. President Sullivan should order an immediate and recurring in-depth study of the condition of Black people at the University of Virginia at all levels, akin to an the1987  “An Audacious Faith” commissioned by President Robert O’Neil. A representative committee should oversee the study, which should examine the condition of Black students, faculty, and staff, as well as the relationship between the University and the local Black community, thoroughly using both quantitative and qualitative measures. 

The Black Student Alliance and Office of African American Affairs (OAAA) should each be able to appoint members to the oversight committee, while all three groups should be able to add items to the official agenda for the report. Topics examined regularly should include student race relations on Grounds, reporting on current and historical conditions, and quantifiable changes to Black student, staff, and faculty conditions on Grounds. The report must offer actionable and quantifiable recommendations to keep the University accountable. Furthermore, these recommendations should be adapted into policy and concrete changes.

6. Students of the University of Virginia must be knowledgeable and conscious about the history of racial oppression and discrimination in the current and historic U.Va. and Charlottesville communities. We offer two potential ways to provide this education:

a. Work with Faculty Senate and respective school Deans to create a required one-credit course (UVA101) for all First-Year students. This course would be similar to the Elon 101 course at Elon University. The course would discuss the founding of theUniversity and the development of the University’s culture from various perspectives,including but not limited to race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Not only will this course challenge students to think critically about the institution they attend, but it would also give them an additional shared First-Year experience unique to U.Va.

b. Housing and Residence Life develop a semester long project assigned according FirstYear Residence during which students are tasked with identifying and addressing an issue related to existing forms of oppression - racism, sexism, classism - in theUniversity and Charlottesville community. 

c.  Incoming First-Years should have a three-credit seminar requirement that analyzes systems of power in regards to race, sex, sexual orientation, and other areas. The purpose of these courses is to nurture and develop the critical skills necessary to be informed and socially responsible citizens. These courses would have a more comprehensive look into specific topics aiming at eliminating discrimination.  Although the seminar is required, students would have the option to choose a variety of topics, similar to the current ENWR requirement. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences along with the Provost can determine which of the two options are most effective.

7. Deans of the all Academic Divisions should work with the various DepartmentChairs and Program Directors to ensure the incorporation of minority perspectives and viewpoints in their coursework. We ask all faculty to refer to the open letter from students regarding what they need from faculty4. Every course should strive to recognize minority perspectives and every department should make it a goal to offer multiple courses that include or focus on minority perspectives within their field each semester.For example, Biology could study genetics across minority communities, or the ethical history of “progress” in relation to eugenics; Systems Engineering could discuss culturally sensitive industrial organization; and Classics could review the writings and lives of ancient minority writers. Students should experience minority perspectives as part of their day-to-day coursework, to ensure the delivery of a holistic and comprehensive education for the students at The University of Virginia. 

8. The University should immediately begin a Capital Campaign to benefit the construction of a permanent and proper slave memorial on Grounds. Currently,there is limited recognition of the efforts enslaved laborers undertook to construct thisUniversity. Black students would see the construction of an area within the AcademicalVillage with an explanation of both the past abuses of the University and their current effects on Charlottesville as a step toward proper acknowledgement of and a move toward actively looking to make up for past and current wrongdoing.  

9.  Departmental Status for the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. The Carter G. Woodson Institute must be given departmental status, an expansive budget to jumpstart the department, and the autonomy to hire faculty independent of other departments, if it so chooses. The requirement of joint appointments is paternalistic and patronizing. If the University truly values diversity of thought and scholarship, then it must begin to support African American and African Studies.10. Quality Assurance and Accountability for Administration. Considering the robust infrastructure that the University of Virginia has built in regards to racial equity, we must turn a critical eye towards the institutions that, in theory, should already be tackling the issues presented in this document. Although institutions like the Office of AfricanAmerican Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Equity exist, many of the same problems that were present before their establishment still remain. This is certainly in part due to an underfunding and understaffing of these offices, and to a flippant disregard to which issues of race are often subject. Still, this document would be remiss if we did not also critique and make recommendations for the institutions that are most directly a result of the plights of the students and are meant to serve students of color. a. Clarity of Purpose. The Office of African American Affairs and Office of Diversity and Equity must have clear, objective mission statements and tangible, measurable goals. 

b. Increase Student Access. The Office of African American Affairs must increase student access. At present, the OAAA has only 9 to 5 hours, hardly conducive to college study habits. They must increase services to students, including more tutoring and advice for various subjects beyond medicine, commerce, and law;and a career services component.

c. Tenured Faculty. The Office of African American Affairs should include tenured faculty as members of its staff. This will give students direct access to professors and their colleagues for guidance in navigating academia.   

d. Centralization of Efforts. The Office of Diversity and Equity must oversee the centralization of minority faculty recruitment efforts and funding to increase minority faculty representation at the University.  

e. OAAA & ODE Student Advisory Boards. There must be an establishment of aStudent Advisory Board to offer advice and the student perspective in the operation of student programs. Black Students must be able to exercise student self-governance when dealing with their own affairs. This Advisory Board will also be instrumental in closing the ever-widening gap between administration and the majority of students of color. Furthermore, in order for this board to be effective and transparent in it’s purpose and existence, these students should not be appointed by the Deans, but by the students themselves.

f. Both the Head Dean of OAAA & the Director of LPJ must establish and maintain a bi-weekly newsletter that will present Black students, alumni, and parents with updates as to the happenings and progress, or lack thereof, of the office and LPJ Cultural Center.

g. Inclusion of Students. Administrators should include black students when selecting administrative and staff appointments at the Office of African AmericanAffairs. Among other things, students should sit on the selection committees,participate in group interviews, and discuss potential candidates with hiring administrators. This ensures that the potential hire understands that OAAA’s top priority is students. 

h. Quantifiability. There must be a stated goal and quantifiable course of action across all administrative offices, not just the Office of African American Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Equity, to increase Black administrators.

B. Elimination of Abuses

1. Governor McAuliffe and the VA State Legislature abolish the law enforcement mandate of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). On March 25th, 2015, Governor Terry McAuliffe issued an executive order that attempts to improve the operations of ABC Law Enforcement by addressing several concerns surrounding ABC. The order mandates that ABC officers are retrained in diversity and use of force by September 1, 2015; that a review panel investigates the agency and completes recommendations to be delivered to the Governor by November 1, 2015;and that Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) between ABC and police departments operating in college towns are created immediately. After reviewing the recommendations inNovember, Gov. McAuliffe and the State Legislature must reconsider the need for and dimensions of ABC officers’ authority to police individuals, and whether or not there remains a need for ABC as a criminal law enforcement agency at all. 

Several states have already gone through the process of transferring alcohol control enforcement to other departments and agencies. In Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Liquor ControlEnforcement was made part of the state police force in 1987. Idaho similarly makes alcohol law enforcement a specialized state police function11 while sale of alcohol, licensing, and other issues are part of a separate division. Delaware has separate enforcement of alcohol rules and promulgations of rules and regulations, both of which are not a part of the state police department. States, as has been famously noted, can serve as laboratories of democracy; TheCommonwealth of Virginia should take seriously these models from peer states and The U.Va.Student Council, the Black Student Alliance, University administrators, concerned students,and local officials should call for meaningful changes. 

2. University Police Department, Charlottesville Police Department, and Albemarle PoliceDepartment should implement additional, thorough implicit biases and discriminationtraining. Community Members; professors; students with relevant knowledge and backgrounds;and outside consultants should be integral to the creation, continuous improvement, and delivery of this training, which must be available to the public. While recent law enforcement trainingprograms have not been empirically evaluated using rigorous statistical methods, the socialpsychological findings informing some of these innovative training programs have been. TheCharlottesville Police Department and the University Police Department have the opportunity tobe at the forefront of the transformational change to introduce evidence-based bias anddiscrimination training interventions into their training practices. A training program developed by Fair and Impartial Policing, a consultant group, has been implemented in cities includingChapel Hill, Baltimore, and Los Angeles. Further still, the Camden Police Department provides a useful example of how local police departments can use community engagement to bring their forces closer to local community members. UPD and especially CPD and APD should make themselves moreavailable to students and Charlottesville community members. Open and intentional dialogue and subsequent action involves not just telling citizens about policing policies, but also police departments listening to student and community concerns and reforming their policies in response. The White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing endorsed this type of transparency and the recognition of racial and class undertones to police-community relations. 

3. CPD, UPD, and APD should introduce stricter and more uniform regulations informingduring what situations a police officer can make any physical contact with a citizen. Theseregulations should be easily accessible to the public, by way of each department’s websiteand promotional, educational tools for community members and students. CPD, UPD, andAPD should develop and maintain Use of Force policies according to nationally accepted bestpractices. Key elements of effective use of force policies include: clearly defining terms (deadly force, less-lethal force, force), developing an appropriate use of force continuum, and using use of force reporting forms. Police officers who will implement the policies, as well as concerned students and community members, and police department officials should cooperatively develop these policies. The development process should be transparent, and the policies should be both unambiguous - to the greatest extent possible - and well written. 

The interim report of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing has called for similar policies, with data collection, police and community engagement, supervision, and accountability at its core. The report notes that de-escalation strategies and non-punitive peer review can both improve police use of force. Austin, TX, provides one example of these policies in action. Use of force policies should also be available on each department’s website.
Currently, such policies are not available or otherwise easily accessible. The implementation of these policies is a necessary investment into the safety and protection of everyone who lives in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area. 

4. The University should conduct an internal AND external review as well as an intentionalstudy on the cost and effect of institutionalizing a living minimum wage for its directemployees. The University’s current minimum wage for its direct employees is $11.7623, which is below the City of Charlottesville’s current Living Wage of $13 per hour, as of 2012. TheUniversity should, at the very least, bring its own direct employees up to the minimum level theCity of Charlottesville has required. As of April 2011, Aramark paid its employees the same minimum level as the University’s employees, lessening the final cost of this proposal.Executive Vice-President Pat Hogan should calculate and publish the additional cost ofinstitutionalizing a living wage for all direct University employees, and the University’s strategicplan to fairly compensate its own employees. To have the most accurate information, theUniversity should audit its contractors in order to determine their pay and treatment of contracted employees working at the University. 

5. Executive Vice-President Pat Hogan, on behalf of the University of Virginia, shouldrequest that Attorney General Mark Herring reconsider former Attorney General KenCuccinelli’s ruling in regards to mandating certain wages for contracted employees. TheUniversity of Virginia currently says it is not permitted to force its employers to pay a living wage based on a 2006 non-binding opinion from then- Deputy Attorney General David E.Johnson. The opinion says government entities cannot force their contractors to pay a wage above the federal minimum. However, the City of Charlottesville has forced contractors to pay at least a certain wage level since 2001. Current Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has not yet delivered his opinion on this issue, and Executive Vice President Pat Hogan should request an updated opinion from Attorney General Herring.

6. Supplemental skills training during the summer months when employees of theUniversity are often laid off or temporarily unemployed.  While the University does not publish the number of part-time workers it employs, 68 of nearly 2,700 employees who answered a direct-hire staff survey were part time in 2011, the most recent available through HumanResources. This did not include employees from contracted firms. Part-time employees were less likely to say that their workspace was adequate to do their job and to say that they were encouraged to take initiative in their job. This survey only included information from part-timeworkers directly employed by the University. Among contracted employees, there are reducedsummer work opportunities available. There is little to indicate that employees who work for U.Va. Dining and other University entities during the academic year have adequate employmentopportunities. The University should publish the number of employees - contracted and direct -whom the University does not offer hours to each summer, only to rehire in the Fall. Following this, the University also should survey both direct and contracted part-time employees, and implement policies to supplement the opportunities available to employees during the summer months. The University has an incredible opportunity to train employees who are laid off during the summer to improve their work performance and have them fill technical roles. For example, the University of Virginia Health System currently works with Piedmont Valley CommunityCollege (PVCC) to train pharmacy technicians30; offers numerous career-training programs to current Health System employees; and has other recruiting and incentive programs in place for similar jobs. Improving the workforce helps U.Va. while empowering local residents, especiallythose living at or near the poverty line - a major problem in Charlottesville. The University, as a partner in this community, must understand its responsibility for and opportunity to grow with its employees.

7. President Teresa Sullivan, a noted scholar in labor force demography, should investtime, effort, and resources into the revamping of the Staff Union and take steps towardsimproving the Staff Senate. From 2002 to 2008, The University of Virginia had a staff union;the group, a subset of the Communication Workers of America, formed with administrative support, but it collapsed due to a lack of enrollment. Virginia has no collective bargaininglaw, which dramatically decreases the potential effectiveness of any union. To this end, PresidentSullivan should publicly express her support for the reformation of such a union and offerUniversity support in helping to revamp and reform it. The University of Virginia’s Academic Division staff combined three different councils to create a Staff Senate in August 2014. The Staff Senate represents a wide cross-section of staff, including those with high and low education levels, wage rates, and department sizes. At its most recent meeting, there were 46 attendees, out of 70-80 total elected delegates. Delegatesheard from a compensation manager and a career development specialist, both of whom work forU.Va. Human Resources. The Staff Senate at U.Va., in other words, has not gotten the chance to engage with administrators at the highest levels at every meeting. As such, at least one memberof the University’s senior leadership team - specifically those ranked as vice-president and above- should attend every Staff Senate meeting. In the 2011 staff survey, both full- and part-time employees within the University’s Academic Division only “somewhat supported” the statement that “The University seeks out multiple voices and perspectives when decisions are made about how we work”, indicating that the University can still learn a great deal from those representing its employees. This - of course - is no substitution for constantly hearing from employees in the field. 

C. The Proper Allocation of Resources:

1. Renovated and Improved Cultural Center. We seek an expansion and renovation of theLuther P. Jackson Center (LPJ) and the Office of African American Affairs (OAAA). LPJ was a once robust, thriving Cultural Center and a source of multiple cultural initiatives and events.Currently, cultural programming has severely decreased through the Center due to insufficientfunds and staffing. Student’s access to the Center has also been restricted, and its infrastructure has been poorly maintained; historical significance is often cited as a reason to avoid renovations. If we can renovate the Lawn, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, then thereis certainly a way to either renovate or relocate OAAA and LPJ.

There are many steps that this University must take to truly fulfill its commitment to diversity, and one of these must be a demonstrated interest and investment into its’ cultural vibrancy. In order to create a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive U.Va., we must have acultural space that celebrates and exposes people to a myriad of vibrant cultures. This University must build and maintain a model, state of the art, thriving cultural center that sufficiently exhibits all cultures within the student body and Charlottesville area. To create this better University, the following should be done:

a. The University’s Architect and any interested parties in the School of Architectureassess the OAAA main building, LPJ, and W.E.B. DuBois Building and reportback suggestions on how to greatly expand, connect, and renovate thesebuildings. These findings must be reported back to the Building and GroundsCommittees of the Board of Visitors and Student Council. The Office of AfricanAmerican Affairs should be renovated and expanded to ensure that it can adequately serve the Black students currently at the University and those we hope to attract, and to be a physically safe and comfortable space for a multitude of students. The Luther P. Jackson Center should be expanded to include studentconference rooms and offices, open, collaborative spaces, and an exhibition spaceto hold events.b. Proper Access to LPJ. The Center needs to be a safe and collaborative spacewhose use can be regulated by umbrella organizations; students should not berestricted from using it when a Dean isn’t there, or after 5pm when student lifebegins. Organizations such as the Cavalier Daily, University Judiciary Council,University Programs Council, Student Council, Honor, and the Declaration have24-hour swipe access to spaces that are integral to their work and missions.Currently, minority students are not afforded the same privilege or consideration. A proper allocation of resources requires minority students have adequate accessto the spaces meant to serve them. As it stands, LPJ is generally closed off to students and student organizations, with less than half a dozen groups accessing the building for no more than hours at a time. c. Storage Space in LPJ. LPJ should serve as a location for storing the materialsnecessary for the day-to-day operations of minority organizations. While theStudent Activities Center provides CIOs locker spaces for storage, priority isgiven to organizations that can pass down this storage space. This effectively blocks many minority organizations and communities from using these spaces. In order to access funding, organizations must indicate that they have a space to store the materials they purchase, thus adding another obstacle to minority organization’s achievement of their stated goals. 

d. Expansion of the Carter G. Woodson Institute’s Physical Space. Increase thespace allotted to the Carter G. Woodson Institute so that it is more conducive to collaborative scholarship at the convergence of culture and research. 

2. Increased Financial Support. The University must invest financially in organizations and programs that benefit minority students. Student-run minority organizations offer much more than recreational activities - they also provide vital academic, social, and psychological support to minority students and cultural enhancement and education to the larger University, and should therefore be funded with this in mind.

a. Adequate Resources for umbrella organizations. The Office of the Vice President ofStudent Affairs should directly allocate resources to umbrella minority organizations, who carry out the responsibility of catering to the needs of minority students and minority student organizations.

b. Increased funding for “Diversity” Recruitment weekends. The University and Officeof Admissions must demonstrate its commitment to welcoming minority students intothe community by providing adequate administrative and financial support forminority recruitment weekends, such as Spring Fling and Spring Blast. As the SpringFling and Spring Blast weekends approach, Black and Latino CIOs mobilize to planand host events and programs to help attract students to U.Va., and we play our partin making this space diverse. The bulk of these organizations spend hundreds, andsome thousands, that these groups are already lacking, on these events - all the while,the University claims to “sponsor” these special weekends. In order to combat thisexploitation, there must be funds allocated to financing the student-planned andorganized events, which quite literally could make or break the University’s minorityrecruitment weekends

c. Budget Expansion for OAAA. The office of African American Affairs budget needs tobe expanded to, among other things: provide additional academic services, hireFederal Work Study graduate interns to provide career preparatory services andassistance for students, perform a complete overhaul of outdated office materials suchas computers and printers; to  host and sponsor conferences, events, and initiativesthrough the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center.

d. Budget Expansion for the Carter G. Woodson Institute. Increase the budget of the Woodson Institute that it might hire more faculty and increase the variety of undergraduate course offerings, thus adding to the research and publishing of theUniversity while simultaneously creating the next generation of scholars and playing a pivotal role in African American and African Studies scholarship. 

D. Increasing Black Presence:

1. Increase and Support Black Students
a. The percentage of Black students at the university must aim to match the percent of Blackpeople in the Commonwealth. The University of Virginia is a publicly funded and stateflagship University. As such, this public entity must commit to making itself accessible tothe public and must commit to educating all those within the state. U.Va. as it currentlystands is grossly misrepresentative of the racial demographic of the Commonwealth ofVirginia, and thus is not fulfilling that obligation. If the University prides itself on being a diverse institution of higher learning, increasing the percentage of Black students from its current percentage of 6% to reflect the state demographics of nearly 20% represents one step that the University should take to make this statement true. 

b. The University and the Office of Admissions should focus on increasing enrollment from areas of the Commonwealth that have consistently attracted low numbers of applications and matriculations. There should be working and functional relationships to the high school guidance counselors in these areas to ensure that exposure to the University begins sooner in their high school careers so that is remains on their radar for years before even beginning the application process.

c. The University must re-evaluate its recruitment tactics and strategies when attempting toattract top Black talent. It must work to study and understand the underlying reasons for the perception and reputation of this institution amongst students of color across the state. The yield of accepted Black students has decreased every year since 200745. TheUniversity must commit itself to identifying and addressing the reasons for these numbers.  

d. Financial Aid. The University must remember that financial burden is often a deterrent to attendance and that the rising sticker price may dissuade some students of color,particularly low-income students, from applying. With this in mind, the University must commit to finding ways to reduce the overall cost of attendance. The University must offer grant-based financial aid and increased scholarships to students who cannot afford the University. U.Va. must avoid loans for low-income students, and must offer significantly increased support for these students, who often do not have the disposable income to partake in the traditional social and extracurricular activities college students are able to take advantage of. Furthermore, critical professional development opportunities, such as unpaid internships and fellowships, are often beyond the financial means of students of low socioeconomic status. As a result, we must have greater comprehensive support for students that extends beyond financial aid to include financial resources that allows them to take advantage of extracurricular and professional development opportunities. Although AccessUVA has exponentially increased socioeconomic diversity over time, the number of Black students enrolled has decreased steadily since the 1990s. In fact, majority of AccessUVA beneficiaries today are predominantly White students. In order to ensure that students of color are able to take advantage of the University’s financial aid package, we must restore the full grant aid guarantee, and couple this restoration with more active recruitment of students of color living low-income communities in inner cities and rural communities.  As tuition continues to rise, middle and upper middle class Black students - a significant portion of the Black students on grounds - have been hit extremely hard, especially considering African Americans were most impacted by the 2009 Recession and have yet to recover.The University must commit to easing the burden on these students as well through the use of scholarships and other means. e. More Support for Current Students. The University depends largely on the efforts byBlack students to retain incoming Black students. By increasing the effectiveness ofOAAA, funding the Carter G. Woodson Institute, funding Black organizations in an equitable manner, revamping the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center, increasing Black faculty, and engendering a more welcoming culture on grounds, current Black students will be more inclined to encourage students from their high schools to attend, and to speak very highly of their experience at the University. The University must also commit to providing enhanced support services for students from low-income backgrounds including social, academic, advising, and professional supports. Many low-income Black students who come from under-resourced schools need tailored academic support services designed to acclimate them to the academic rigor of this Institution. The Transition Program must be reevaluated, adjusted and expanded to meet the needs of incoming University of Virginia Students. Intensive academic support services must be made more readily available throughout the academic year for all subjects. Currently,there are few services designed to assist low-income students in their transition from college to the working world. The University must commit to changing this by offering a diverse array of targeted supports to these students including interview coaching, job placement, wardrobe assistance, housing recommendations, and more.  Finally, theFinancial Aid office must make itself more available to students by offering more on-grounds programming and on-grounds appointments outside of their regular office hours. 

2. Increasing Black Faculty and Staff  

The University of Virginia prides itself in being a leader in academia and providing a world-class education. Still, according to data compiled from the National Center for EducationStatistics, the University ranks 56th out of 60 on minority faculty when compared to its peer institutions. In addition, between 2009 and 2014, the number of Black faculty at the University fell from 142 to 113. For the 2014-2015 school year, Black tenure-track faculty sits at 3.6%. In addition, the University has significantly increased its number of administrators in since 2009,yet in all but two administrative offices the number of Black administrators has either decreased or stayed the same. Increased diversity of underrepresented minorities at the University ofVirginia historically has, and continues to accompany phenomenal and expanded scholarship,research, teaching, mentorship, and innovation. Hiring more Black professors with relevant academic backgrounds and interests in various departments will ensure that, regardless of major,students are receiving a well-rounded education that includes various perspectives. The presence of Black administrators with a keen eye and expertise in diversifying higher education is also essential for producing better, more inclusive, and more culturally competent policy, and thus aids in the recruitment of Black faculty and students who will be subject to these policies. If theUniversity of Virginia is true to its word, and seeks diversity “not out of a reluctant sense of obligation but because only by enriching ourselves and embracing diversity can we become the leading institution we aspire to be,” then the University will implement the following recommendations for increasing Black tenure track faculty.

a. Hiring of an outside consulting firm that specializes in minority recruitment and hiring. For decades the University has verbally committed to seeking more Black faculty and staff, yet we have never achieved at this goal. For this reason, the University should retain an independent minority recruitment and hiring consultant in order to truly achieve a more diverse professorial and administrative staff body. 

b. Creation of a standing committee to advise the Provost on issues of faculty and staff diversity. This standing committee should be made up of 8 to 10 people, including students; should meet at least 3 times a year; and should advise the Provost on issues of faculty and administrative diversity and to review departments’ efforts to recruit and retain women and minorities. 

c. Annual review of retention, hiring, and pay equity. Data on retention, hiring, tenure, and pay equity across the faculty, administration, and non-administrative employees must be collected and analyzed annually, with tangible recommendations for improvement. 

d. Faculty and administrative search committees must be representative. Departments should not move onto the next step in the faculty search process until its initial applicant pool is at least as representative of each racial demographic as the national pool. e. The University should revamp its implicit bias and diversity trainings. Currently the diversity-training module that search committee members must complete is inadequate  It often refers to the federal mandates regulating hiring underrepresented minorities,implying that hiring minority applicants is at least in some part due to legal obligation and not out of the necessity for academia and scholarship to include diverse perspectives if it is to truly be excellent. 

f. Increased research funding for scholarship that focuses on historically excluded racial groups. Often, minority faculty in some way study oppressed groups. This research has often been disrespected in academia, and so even when hired, minority faculty may feel isolated within their departments. Increasing funding for research in these fields will be a tangible way in which the University can show it values such scholarship. 

g. Partner with other universities, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities. If the University is serious about increasing its diversity, it must actively seek minority graduate students from other universities. Because HBCUs still educate the majority ofBlacks who pursue graduate degrees, it is essential that the University of Virginia begin to build relationships with these schools by recruiting potential graduate students who will one day become the professors and administrators we seek to hire. The University should also develop a Visiting Professors Program, in which Black professors from various universities would come teach at the University, preferably in departments that most greatly lack diversity. This would not only increase diversity on grounds, but it would also encourage scholarly collaboration across colleges and universities. 

h.  Refurbish the Luther P. Jackson Cultural Center. As the University seeks to increase its black faculty, it must recognize that there is more to a faculty member’s experience than just the classroom. By investing in a cultural center that will truly be a place of convergence for different groups, the University will see a vibrancy in its students that will not only help in retaining professors who may sense an unwelcoming environment at the University, but will also attract faculty members we are trying to recruit.

i. Recruitment and Retention of Black Administrators. Like when recruiting Black faculty, the University must ensure that the applicant pool is demographically representative of the national pool. In addition, administrators must have experience in diversity and inclusion - it is not acceptable to have a minority representative without a background in the job they are hired to do. 

j. Measure recruitment and retention quantitatively and qualitatively. The University of Virginia must get to the heart of its faculty diversity problem. To begin doing so, theUniversity must conduct exit surveys to be revamped with the input of students and faculty to determine why they are leaving the University. The University must also collect data on minority applicants who are offered a position but do not accept, and collect data for why minority faculty we do have at the University choose to stay. 

By #BreakthrUWYO:

Short Term:
1. We demand, individual town hall meetings be held which target specific marginalized identities and communities so all are given equal time and space to express the unique concerns they have on campus. Here these marginalized communities can present specific demands and recommendations unique to their lived experiences in a space that is safe for these marginalized identities.

2. We demand, by the end of the 2015-2016 academic year, an external and independent agency evaluate campus climate throughout the University, as well as the current retention and recruitment efforts by the University targeted towards marginalized identities. The results of this evaluation should be released to the public as soon as possible. If this effort is already underway, then the agency should be identified immediately and the results released to the public upon completion.

3. We demand, by the end of the 2015-2016 academic year the University release detailed policy initiatives to implement in the coming years to combat the campus climate issues identified through the individual town hall meetings, as well as the external and independent agency evaluation.

4. We demand, marginalized students be given more direct input in the current Presidential search and ultimate Presidential decision to insure the next President has previous experience dealing with campus climate, diversity, and inclusion issues.

Long Term:
1. We demand, a Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion position be created that will oversee all of the efforts of the University to create a safe and welcoming environment for marginalized students, as well as all retention and recruitment efforts targeted towards marginalized identities.

2. We demand, all freshmen and first year students be required to take and pass a course with a curriculum focused on social justice concepts, cultural relevancy, and cultural awareness.

3. We demand, the student code of conduct be revised to hold students accountable to hate crimes, hate speech, and sexual assault and a detailed reporting structure be developed for students to report such incidents. This reporting structure should be easily accessible to anyone who wishes to report such incidents without retaliation.

4. We demand, that more faculty and staff be hired that either represent marginalized backgrounds themselves or have specific experience working with marginalized communities. If faculty and staff do not meet these requirements, an intensive University wide training structure should be created and required in order to educate such faculty and staff on how to appropriately interact with those from marginalized backgrounds.

By Hidden Dores:

1.     Mental Health

A.     Hire additional staff at the Psychological Counseling Center, particularly those of color, to address the lengthy wait times for students as well as the disproportionate impact of mental health as students of color.

B.     Hire mental health professionals within the BCC, K.C. Potter Center, ISSS, and Residential Education with discretionary funds. In times of crisis, these responsibilities often fall on untrained Residential Education staff as well as faculty.

C.      Eliminate the inscription of “Confederate” on Memorial Hall as well as the plaque paying homage to the Daughters of the Confederacy.

2.     Curriculum

A.     Integrate issues of diversity, power, equity, and inclusion into curricula and classroom experiences across departments and disciplines.

B.     Establish core curriculum requirement for every school focused on the experience of racial and ethnic minorities, and cultural competency (Peabody, Arts and Science, Engineering, Blair School, the Graduate School, the School of Nursing Divinity School, Owen School of Business, Law School) on campus taught by full faculty.

C.      Ensure that the undergraduate first-year experience incorporates a curriculum that integrates issues of diversity, power, equity, and inclusion by ensuring training for VUCeptors, RAs, and other entities who have significant contact with first year students.

3.     Staff

A.     Increase the percentage of faculty and staff of color in Peabody, Arts and Science, Engineering, Divinity School, Owen School of Business, and Law School.

B.     Develop racial competency training to be incorporated into the current new hires orientation.

C.      Develop ongoing racial competency training for all faculty and staff. Maintain these training modules for all faculty and staff in order to address issues as they arise and to insure absorption and incorporation of competency tenets.

D.     Include a question concerning the racial climate of the classroom in professor evaluations.

E.     Hire a Chief Diversity Officer. This position should be considered a Vice Chancellor. Students across schools should participate in the interviewing and hiring decision. The officer’s responsibilities should include:

i.     Developing a publicly accessible Diversity Strategic Plan.

ii.     Developing robust diversity initiatives for each school.

iii.     Serving as chief method of oversight and accountability for all administrative and faculty efforts toward diversity.

iv.     Publishing an annual progress report that includes original goals, points of success and failure, an future plans to address these points.

v.     Developing research initiatives focused on measuring disparities in educational outcomes and physical and mental health.

4.     Accountability

A. Develop a bias response team. Its responsibilities should include:

i.     Creating a bias reporting cohort made up of trained administrators who are tasked with receiving, investigating, and correcting students’ reports of discrimination.

ii.     Investigating the occurrence of racial profiling and disparities in disciplinary action.

iii.     Filing a comprehensive report of discrimination-related findings that will be released to the Vanderbilt community each year.

B. Establish a Diversity Committee. Its responsibilities must include:

i.     Creating a specified, strategic, timely plan of action for each semester that must be ratified by students and faculty and must address the vocalized concerns of students and faculty.

ii.     Having a transparent, substantial budget.

iii.     Being overseen by the Chief Diversity Officer (once appointed).

5.     Policy

A. Eliminate the first bullet point in the University Policy that states: Obstruction or disruption of teaching, administration, and University procedures and activities, or other authorized activities on University premises, including programs, events, meetings, or speakers hosted by student organizations, departments, offices, or other entities.

1. Double the number of black faculty members to 10 percent of the total number of professors by 2017

2. Have at least one of every three candidates interviewing for a faculty position be black, and create a position to make sure the policies are being implemented.

3. The creation of a cultural competency course for all students and the hiring of an ombudsman so students have someone who will relate to their experiences and concerns.

4. An increase in funding for cultural organizations and events on campus.

Summary of Demands (Link to Full List of Demands)

In order to improve the experience of staff, faculty, and students of color on our campuses, the university:

A. Publicly support the Quality Policing Initiative (QPI) and establish QPI compliant policies including mental health support and bias training for all WUPD officers. 

B. Begin using a phone application approved by WU SSIS to allow university students, and affiliates to report incidents of police bias. In addition, WUPD put a link to a similar web application on police.wustl.edu. 

C. Share information about all incidents of bias reported to the university through the BRSS, Residential Life, or other means, with a committee of students, faculty and staff appointed by the DAC and the CDI. 

D. Increase enrollment of minority students by raising the population of Black students to 10%, and the population of Latina and Latino students to 10%, creating a way to measure the population of students of Middle Eastern descent.

E. Increase the diversity of faculty and administration by hiring more underrepresented faculty and administration across all disciplines.

In order to facilitate the development of a more socially conscious student body, faculty, and staff, the university:

F. Engage students in the creation of the diversity course, mentioned by Provost Thorp at the MLK commemoration ceremony.

G. Revise curricula to require courses that address the social, political, economic, and history and landscape of St. Louis.

H. Encourage alumni to invest in social justice oriented programs, projects, and research. Create an option for alumni to donate to this group of recipients in addition to specific programs within it. 

I. Facilitate the expansion of service learning opportunities available to students by providing greater support to faculty to create these courses.

J. Join the Ban the Box movement in respect to admissions and the hiring of staff and faculty. 

In order to improve the relationship between the greater St. Louis community and Washington University, the university:

K. Incentivize community-based participatory research on the St. Louis region for faculty and students by the establishment of awards or other forms of recognition for those whose research directly benefits our local community.

L. Widen the pipeline to higher education for local K-12 students, many of whom attend schools with under-resourced college prep programs.

M. Revise protocol for future development on properties owned by the university in the greater St. Louis area.

N. Expand the existing Civic Engagement Fund through the Gephardt Institute to create more opportunities for student groups to implement service projects and engagement events.

O. Establish two committees to ensure the ethical investment of the university endowment per the example of Yale, Stanford and others institutions.

P. Publicly support bill BB 208 for the creation of a St. Louis Civilian Oversight Board, which is currently being considered by the St. Louis Board of Alderman. Also support additional amendments granting the board subpoena power and autonomy to investigate allegations of police misconduct.

By The Association for African American Collegians:

I. We demand the formation of an Afro-American Studies program.This can be within the Critical Race & Ethnic Studies program which will later include a separate Afro-American Studies major AND minor by Fall 2018.

II.    We demand the increase of minority admission and recruitment with specific recruitment effects dedicated to departments such as the Conservatory of Theatre Arts, the Department of Dance and the Community Music School.

III.  We also demand the increase of the black faculty members and professors in all departments of the Webster Groves campus-a minimum of 4-5 black faculty members by Spring 2017.

IV.  We demand the incorporation of an Afro-American Studies course into the Global Citizenship ProgrambyFall 2016.

V.    We demand an increase in the efforts for retention and graduation rates of black students, along with the creation of a Minority Student Retention officer separate from the pre-existing Retention Officer immediately.

VI.  We demand to have an open discussion and possible revision of the dutiesfor the Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion by the end of Spring 2016.

VII. We also demand the upgrading and eventual relocation of the Multicultural Center and International Student Affairs department to a more student-central location. (The updating of these facilities was agreed upon in the 1988 ten point proposal by AAAC to be every 2 years.) The facilities upgrading should be done by Spring 2017 and the departmental move by Fall 2018.

Vlll. We demand for the formation of a Minority Scholarship Fund. Ifsomething like this already exists, we demand the money for this fund to be increased by Fall 2016.

IX. We also demand that Webster University makes minority scholarships more accessible.

X. We demand the creation of safe spaces for black students on campus by Spring 2017. A short term solution for this could the repurposing of an adequate temporary space until a permanent space is created.

XI.  We demand an increase of full-time faculty by Spring 2017.

XII. We also demand Critical Racial Sensitivity training to be REQUIRED for ALL-which includes but is not limited to faculty, staff, student leaders and administrative members immediately.

XIII. We demand that tuition is decreased by 16 percent across the board by Fall 2018.

XIV. We demand that tuition DOES NOT increase again (unless it is due to inflation), effective immediately.

XV. We also demand that members of the administration DO NOT receive any bonu ses in the future.

XVI. We demand the University releases all information pertaining to university spending as wellas the allocation of funds in the past5 years by the end of Fall 2015.

XVII. We demand that the university increases events every year in the month of February for Black History Month starting immediately.

XVIII. We demand meetings with the faculty & administration increase to at least once a month.

XIX. Lastly, we demand student involvement in ALL processes bringing these demands to fruition-as  well as full, total transparency during all of the above (or related) processes.

1. WE DEMAND EQUITY & INCLUSION. 

We, members of  the student of color community (SOC), demand to be holistically included as part of Wesleyan University’s student body, to have our demands heard on campus, and to be recognized and respected as individuals, not simply as numbers to fill the institution’s diversity quota. 

2. STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTABILITY. 

We demand a written statement addressed to the Wesleyan Community, within 48 hours, from the President of Wesleyan University, Michael Roth, and Vice President for Equity and Inclusion/Title IX Officer, Antonio Farias, to commit to these demands by the specified deadlines via an action plan that works towards a more equitable and inclusive campus environment. This statement should highlight the administration’s inaction and lack of dedication to adequately support students of color and acknowledge the ways that the senior administrators have failed the SOC community, including but not limited to: 

A. Perpetuating the vilification of students of color and their voices

B. Failing to reach out to the student of color community (Black and Brown students) when campus controversies that directly affect us occur:

i. Failing to reach out to the student of color community regarding the Argus’ article controversy

C. Perpetuating the devaluation of Black and Brown lives by failing to address the Wesleyan community and express sympathy and compassion when international tragedies occur outside of Europe.

i. January 2015, Michael Roth, sent personal emails to French students, expressing condolences, in regards to the Charlie Hebdo shooting

ii. April 2015, No campus update or email of condolence was sent in response to Kenyan tragedy at Garissa University

iii. November 2015, No message of condolence was sent in response to attacks in Beirut, Lebanon

iv. November 2015, Michael Roth, sent a campus update expressing solace and confirming all students in Paris study abroad program are safe in regards to the attacks in Paris

D. For transparency, we also demand the creation of a website similar to the one implemented at the University of Missouri (https://transparency.missouri.edu/) for the administration to provide updates on the progress of these initiatives and demands.

2. HIRING OF AN EQUITY ADVOCATE. 

The Equity advocate will work under the Office of Student Affairs to engage with students regarding equity within the confines of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, religion, culture, gender-identity, and physical or mental impairment. This individual’s job description includes, but is not limited to:

i. Organizing co-curricular, intentional dialogue between students, faculty, staff, and administration regarding systemic injustices that students with marginalized identities face

ii. Organizing workshops and programs to educate the larger community about privilege and identity

iii. Providing daily office hours open to all students

iv. Hiring student intern(s) working with them for accountability

v. Hosting mandatory social justice workshops for administration, staff, faculty, and Public Safety officers in order to enrich their understanding of how to appropriately interact with students from marginalized backgrounds

vi. Working as a resource for students to discuss and/or report their experiences of discrimination, harassment, or exclusion from administration, staff, faculty, or Public Safety officers on the grounds of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, religion, culture, gender-identity, and physical or mental impairment

vii. The hiring of this equity advocate should involve a board primarily composed of underrepresented students, with full transparency and disclosure throughout the hiring process.

B. Within 48 hours: President’s Office commits to hiring the equity advocate to start in Fall, 2016.

3. ESTABLISHMENT OF A MULTICULTURAL CENTER & A DIRECTOR OF MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS. 

A. The Multicultural Center will exist as a non-residential space to garner community and support amongst students of color. This space would support all students who possess an interest in social programming, advocacy, education, and community engagement to expand the social awareness of current issues that affect historically marginalized students at Wesleyan. In addition, the center will provide administrative funding for multicultural programs, activities, and events proposed by students and approved by the Director.

B. The offices of the Director of Multicultural Affairs and the Equity Advocate will be located in this center. The Center for African-American Studies (CAAS) and the University Organizing Center (UOC), though essential, are not substitutes for a Multicultural Center. The UOC exists as a student run space and CAAS is specific to African American Studies and members of the African Diaspora. The multicultural center must be provided with institutional support and additional financial resources. Furthermore, it would be the location of an archive specifically for student activism around SOC - related issues and empowerment.

i. By January 20th, 2016: President’s office presents plan for the center including location, funding, and timeline for establishment of the multicultural center.

ii. By May 14th, 2016: University updates on the progress of the center, what work will be done during the summer, and plans for the next full academic year

iii. Fall 2018: Establishment of the Multicultural Center

4. TRACKING OF FACULTY & STAFF BIAS & MICROAGGRESSIONS.

By November 30th, 2015: Report on how student input will be integrated into the formation of an anonymous student reporting system for cases of bias, including microaggressions, perpetrated by faculty and staff.By Spring, 2016: Revision of end of semester professor evaluations to include a section dedicated for reporting classroom biases, including microaggressions, perpetrated by instructors.

1)  An ethnic studies distributional requirement for all Yale undergraduates and the immediate promotion of the Ethnicity, Race & Migration program to departmental status

a. The promotion of Native American Studies, Chicanx & Latinx Studies, Asian American Studies, and African Studies to program status under the ER&M department.

b. Curricula for classes that satisfy the ethnic studies distributional requirement must be designed by Yale faculty in the aforementioned areas of study

2)   Mental health professionals that are permanently established in each of the four cultural centers with discretionary funds

a. More mental health professionals of color in Yale Mental Health.

3)   An increase of two million dollars to the current annual operational budget for each cultural center.

a. Five full-time staff members in each of the cultural centers

b. Additional emergency and miscellaneous funds from the provost’s office to support the needs of first-generation, low-income, undocumented, and international students

4)   Rename Calhoun College. Name it and the two new residential colleges after people of color.

a. Abolish the title “master”

b. Build a monument designed by a Native artist on Cross Campus acknowledging that Yale University was founded on stolen indigenous land.

5)   Immediate removal of Nicholas and Erika Christakis from the positions of Master and Associate Master of Silliman College

a. The development of racial competence and respect training and accountability systems for all Yale affiliates

b. The inclusion of a question about the racial climate of the classrooms of both teaching fellows and professors in semester evaluations.

c. Bias reporting system on racial discrimination and an annual report that will be released to the Yale community.

6)   The allocation of resources to support the physical well-being of international, first-generation, low-income, and undocumented students, in these ways, at these times:

a. Stipends for food and access to residential college kitchens during breaks

b. Dental and optometry services implemented as part of the Basic Yale Health plan

c. Eight financial aid consultants who are trained to deal specifically with financial aid application processes of international and undocumented students