The President’s Pledge to Combat Bias, Privilege, and Systemic Racism
Castleton University has a responsibility to provide greater access to the transformative potential of higher education; to create a campus climate of safety and inclusion; and to educate the community about bias, privilege, and systemic racism.
Accordingly, as your president, I pledge to enact the following measures in the coming year:
- Strengthen our efforts to diversify the student body.
- Foster a climate of safety for students, employees, and visitors of color and other historically marginalized groups.
- Provide co-curricular programming about racism and white privilege.
- Support students of color and other historically marginalized groups who seek to create programs and organizations that ensure they feel supported and heard on our campus.
- Support anti-racism training for staff and faculty.
- Review our curriculum in order to combat systemic racism and implicit bias.
- Revise our hiring practices to increase diversity among faculty and staff.
- Encourage students to vote and engage in other political action.
Students, faculty, staff, and alumni will join together when campus reopens in August to put each of these eight components into action. To be clear, many people of good will have been working on several of these issues long before I arrived on the scene. My pledge is not meant to diminish or supersede their efforts; rather, the eight components are a roadmap to guide my efforts and hold me accountable.