Dear Faculty, Students, and Staff,
Welcome back. I hope you had a productive and restful holiday break.
As we mark the first day of the spring semester, I’d like to continue our conversation, work, and planning around the issue of diversity and inclusion at the School of the Arts. As I said in my email last fall, open dialogue and communication are critical aspects of the work we do. I hope that this ethos will continue to influence and guide us as we navigate this crucial topic.
As promised, we have begun diversity training sessions, with members of the dean’s leadership team participating in the first bias workshops offered at the university level.
I am working closely with the dean’s leadership team and with Idella Glenn, director of diversity education and retention initiatives, to create a thoughtful program that addresses cultural competency. Stay tuned as we develop this program and make it available to all students, faculty, and staff.
I met last semester with the Black Art Student Empowerment group, known as B.A.S.E. They had a lot of frank, honest feedback to share with me, and I will say that, personally, it profoundly affected me. I will be meeting again with B.A.S.E. in February to continue our discussion.
I am initiating the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, a student advisory group that will help guide me and the school’s leadership team on diversity and inclusion issues, broadly defined. My goal is to find ways for the students and administration to work together to help make the VCUarts community healthy and inclusive; a place where all voices are valued and can be expressed.
The School of the Arts continues to provide professional development funds to faculty and staff who wish to further explore topics of diversity and inclusion.
We are working with department chairs to develop accountability measures for diversity and inclusion at the department level.
VCUarts is currently conducting a number of searches for open positions. I will be personally reviewing the makeup of all candidate pools for new hires, to ensure that we have done everything possible to recruit underrepresented candidates.
VCUarts currently has two proposals being considered for Transdisciplinary Cores to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in Urban Focused Research, Creative Activity and Scholarship through iCubed. iCubed is the university’s initiative to broaden access to education for students of diverse background and to create an inclusive environment for diverse faculty.
The School of the Arts continues to champion excellence and we are ready to do the work necessary to ensure that our community is one where everyone—no matter your perspective, background, or life experience—can have a voice and a place.
Warm regards,
Joe
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