As mass protests erupted after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, college presidents throughout the country promised to confront systemic racism and make their campuses more inclusive.
Such promises fell on the ears of many students who are now calling for change on their campuses. Such reforms, among a host of other demands, include new training and courses that confront racism, a more diverse staff, training for campus police forces, and an end to any relationship with the local city’s police department.
However, when asked whether they intended to take specific action following their strongly worded statements, several institutions instead pointed to their existing efforts to deal with racism on campus.
The Chronicle reached out to a sampling of 30 colleges — including public four-year universities, large private non-profits, community colleges, and historically Black colleges and universities — whose leaders released statements in response to the national protests. The colleges were asked if they will enact new recruitment policies to increase Black and African American student and employee representation on campus, change department-level funding allocations for critical race- and ethnic-studies courses, and change the way the university contracts with its local police department.
The responses to The Chronicle’s questions suggest that leaders may be reluctant to commit to concrete steps being demanded by some student activists.
Preprotest Strategies
Several institutions outlined steps they were taking before the protests.
Chapman University, a private college in California, for instance, described steps it would take, outlined in its diversity-and-inclusion strategic plan, to change “its student profile” and infuse more diversity into its curriculum. The steps include boosting its recruitment of underrepresented students by committing financial and professional resources and partnering with local school districts, community members, and nonprofits. The university also said it would go test-optional in the spring of 2021 to entice more diverse students to apply.
The University of Houston said in its statement that over the past five years it has increased the number of minority tenured and tenure-track faculty members by 46 percent, and that students of color outnumber whites in its student body. The university also said that, among other things, it has created policies and practices that aim to increase Black representation on campus and has imposed inclusivity training to prevent racial bias among its faculty.
The University of St. Thomas, a private university in Saint Paul, Minn., will create a new campus task force to “update” an existing plan to combat racism, incorporating “additional ideas” such as expanding recruitment and improving retention of Black students on campus.
But several colleges said they would not enact specific demands.
Logan University, a private chiropractic college in Missouri whose president urged “action, not with violence and hate, but with peaceful discourse and collaboration” in response to the protests, said that it would not change its contract with its local police department “at this time.”
“Logan University has a strong relationship with Chesterfield Police Department that includes routine communication, collaboration, and engagement on important matters,” the statement read.
Morgan State University, a historically Black college in Baltimore, said in a statement to The Chronicle that “no decision has been made to alter the arrangement” between the university and the Baltimore Police Department. The university said it maintains a memorandum of understanding with the city’s police to “provide assistance with major investigative incidents,” while operating its own campus police force that manages the “vast majority” of its enforcement needs.
SUNY Polytechnic Institute, in Utica, N.Y., also said it would not change its contracts with local police departments after its interim president, Grace Wang, issued a statement reiterating the university’s commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
“We must continue to build connections, trust, and acceptance as we value and learn from each other, while working to uplift each other,” Wang said in the statement responding to the protests.
Brigham Young University’s president, Kevin J. Worthen, said in a statement that the institution is firmly against racism and violence and “is committed to promoting a culture of safety, kindness, respect and love.”
“We know there is work to do, on campus and throughout the nation, for us to better come together, to address injustice and to truly love one another. It will take sustained effort from all of us to make things better. We remain committed to doing that,” Worthen said.
However, a spokeswoman for the university said in a statement that the questions posed by The Chronicle are “the kind of matters” now under discussion on campus, and that the university is engaged in a campus-climate survey and a study on divergent student experiences. The statement added that the institution will try to help all people on campus “increase their understanding of important issues surrounding race, ethnicity, and culture at BYU.”
Similarly, during the protests, President Thomas J. LeBlanc of George Washinigton University issued a statement saying he would work with the campus community “to address racism and injustice on our campus and in our society.” In a statement, a representative said that in the coming weeks, the university will review “recruitment, retention, the academic experience, and campus policing,” but did not give any details on steps it would take.
Georgia Tech’s president, Ángel Cabrera, said in a statement during the protests that the university over the past few months had worked on “a new vision of inclusion, public service, and impact” that creates opportunities for more people from underrepresented backgrounds and reduces access barriers that still persist. The statement said the institute needs to reject the status quo, work and listen to its students to create a more inclusive environment, and think critically about the environment the community lives in. However, in response to The Chronicle’s question, a university spokesman said it was too early to detail its plans.
Dan Bauman, Francie Diep, Lindsay Ellis, Nell Gluckman, and Andy Thomason contributed reporting.
