The annual fellowship awards stipends of $9,000 for up to three law school students with 60 or more credit hours who secure a legal volunteer position over the summer with a social justice nonprofit organization or agency.

The 2023 inaugural fellows, Margaret (Maggie) Fagala and Jasmyne Moore, graduated with their law degrees on May 12. UofL News followed up to learn more about their fellowship experiences and how it has inspired their future goals.

UofL News: What was your reaction when you learned you had been selected for the Breonna Taylor fellowship?

Fagala: I felt incredibly excited and very, very thankful. It’s hard to explain how grateful I was for the financial help. There is a lot of work in legal spaces that are entry level positions or internships and not with big law firms or personal injury work; if you want to do public service, they’re usually unpaid. The fellowship is designed for this, and it’s great there’s an opportunity for people who are accepting those jobs that don’t offer money or very little money to help offset the financial costs. This fellowship made it easier for me to take that unpaid job and still pay rent.

Moore: ��I loved it. Often public service work, especially for minority communities, does go severely underpaid – if paid at all. I think this was the right step for UofL which is dealing with a lot of the DEI issues.

UofL News: Where did you complete your fellowship and what kind of legal work was involved? What was one of your biggest takeaways?

Fagala: I spent my summer with work focused mostly on capital cases in my home state of North Carolina. The biggest thing that I took away from my experience was just a better knowledge of the way that the death penalty is being used as a weapon across the country. There are multiple variances in how different states use the death penalty, but in any place where human beings are still capable of being sentenced to die, I can’t think of a more powerful weapon than the ability to leverage a person’s life.��

Moore: I worked at a local nonprofit called , which helps clothe, feed, and provide other services for the unhoused and some of the population with mental health challenges. I was able to help them prepare contracts and do house general counseling.

My biggest takeaway was seeing many similar Black women doing similar work as me –�� women that could have been Breonna Taylor. Being in rooms with them helped to empower me. In Kentucky, there are fears with new initiatives surrounding diversity coming down the pipeline. There is a phenomenon of “brain drain” and it felt good being in a room of similar minded, similarly educated people all struggling to figure out how to keep us. There’s just not a lot of incentive for young people to stay in Kentucky. Just being able to help with my little bit of experience in property law – to help Hope Village secure a new building with no liens attached – that was a big victory and a milestone.

UofL News: What influence did your fellowship experience have on your future career plans?

Moore: I think it just solidified my intent. Even before law school, I was politically active. I believe that I have done everything I could with my bachelor’s degree in political science, law, and public policy. Now, my JD (juris doctorate) degree is going to give me and my community a chance to fight even bigger battles that we just don’t know are on the horizon.

UofL News: How does the legacy of Breonna Taylor continue to inspire you?

Fagala: It’s something that has really impacted my life in a unique way because I’m not from Louisville. I wasn’t here when it happened, but I was very aware of it and now, since coming to school here and being given this fellowship, her life and her legacy have affected me in a way that I never expected. I hope that I will be able to carry that opportunity the fellowship gave me into my career and give back, because that’s what the fellowship is designed for – people who are in any way doing the work that needs to be done.

Moore: When I am applying to more conservative fellowships or with conservative judges, I remove all my Kentucky Young Dems work, in fact I remove a lot of stuff. One thing I will never remove is being an inaugural Breonna Taylor Fellow, because a Black woman had to die for me to become that. I think this experience gave me hope that those with the means to do so will support people whose work they admire. Being on the list of Forty under 40, or 25 Attorneys to Watch in the Future; all those titles are beautiful, but they don’t pay my bills. I think people are realizing that if you want the work to continue, whether you are doing it or not, you do have to find a way to support those doing the work.

Crump is one of the country’s most renowned civil rights attorneys who founded his law practice, Ben Crump Law, in Tallahassee, Florida. Crump has represented the families in several well-known cases involving Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Keenan Anderson, Henrietta Lacks, Tyre Nichols and Breonna Taylor. His firm has also represented individuals affected by the Flint, Michigan water crisis. Crump is President of the National Civil Rights Trial Lawyers Association and previously served as President of the National Bar Association. In 2021, Crump was recognized by Time100 among its most influential people of the year and has received numerous awards for his social justice advocacy.

The Breonna Taylor Lecture on Structural Inequality was established by the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law in 2022 as an annual lecture series and tribute to the life of the Louisville woman who was killed in a police shooting in 2020.

At the lecture, the Brandeis School of Law will also recognize the 2023 recipient of the Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award, Louisville attorney Lonita K. Baker, and the law student recipients of the Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship.

The Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award, named in honor of the groundbreaking Kentucky state representative, is presented to individuals who make a lasting impact and contribution to the Louisville community. Recipient Lonita K. Baker is a Louisville native and Brandeis School of Law alumna. Baker serves as the current president of the National Bar Association and associate corporate counsel for Waystar Medical Technologies Inc. Baker previously��served as an assistant Jefferson County attorney in the legislative services branch of the civil division and as a supervising prosecutor in the criminal division. Baker began her legal career at the Louisville Metro Public Defender Corp. In 2020, Baker gained national attention for her representation of the family of Breonna Taylor.

The Breonna Taylor Legacy Fellowship was also established in 2022 through a gift endowment from artist Amy Sherald, the 2022 Darryl T. Owens Community Service Award Recipient, who painted Taylor’s portrait featured on the cover of the September 2020 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Proceeds from the sale of the portrait fund the fellowship which is presented annually to three law students who participate in social justice work over the summer. This will be the first year the fellowships are awarded.

“The Brandeis School of Law is proud to host Attorney Crump for this year’s Breonna Taylor lecture,” Melanie B. Jacobs, dean of the law school, said. “The tragedy of Breonna Taylor’s death requires us to address injustice in all its forms and work harder to build a more equitable and just society.”

For information on the lecture, visit the Brandeis Law School .

Thrive Causemetics also has donated an additional $3,000 toward an immediate-use scholarship in honor of Breonna Taylor.

“Like so many around the world, the employees and customers of Thrive Causemetics were heartbroken and horrified by the tragic death of Breonna Taylor, and the injustice that was served in her killing,” said Thrive Causemetics Founder and CEO Karissa Bodnar. “As a way to turn pain into purpose, our team went to work to find ways that we could help keep her legacy alive. While our hearts ache for the beautiful life that was lost, we are comforted to know that Breonna’s legacy will live on in the hearts of the beneficiaries who receive this scholarship, as well as the lives those individuals change.”

Breonna Taylor was an emergency room technician at UofL Health, the University of Louisville health system, at the time of her death. She was killed by police officers serving a “no-knock” warrant at her home in March 2020. Her career aspiration was to become a nurse.

“Our family is amazed by this contribution. The women in our family are all in health care, and Thrive Causemetics is bringing smiles to our faces and tears to our eyes, because this will pave the way for so many others to live Breonna’s dream of working in the medical field. In a time where health care workers are needed more than ever, we are so thankful. Thrive Causemetics’ generosity is going to help so many. Breonna’s legacy and the outpouring of support like this continues to bring us so much light,” said Sam Aguiar, attorney, on behalf of Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother.

UofL freshman Kaelyn Goatley is the recipient of the immediate-use $3,000 award and plans to work as a labor and delivery nurse or in the area of pediatric care when she graduates.

“Becoming a nurse means so much to me because as a Black woman, I know there are injustices everywhere in the world and the health care field is no different. I will fight for every single one of my patients and make sure they receive the best care – this scholarship is what’s helping me work towards that goal, and I am extremely grateful,” she said.

Thrive Causemetics and UofL share a common commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. The Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund supports students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities, low-income and first-generation college students. In choosing the recipient for the scholarship, preference is granted to a Black female who is a Kentucky resident as was Taylor.

Donor investment in students reduces financial obstacles and allows them to unleash their full potential in future careers. The scholarship helps ensure workforce diversity, with a vision toward the elimination of racial inequality in health care.

“There could not be a better company to partner with on this endowment and scholarship, as its�� philosophy of helping women thrive through donations from product sales allows organizations to inspire women to be more,” said Sonya Hardin, dean,. “This scholarship helps a woman obtain her dream of becoming a nurse and supporting the community in that role.”

The Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund was established by the UofL Health board members in summer 2020, and so far, several hundred donors from throughout the United States have given to that fund. In addition to Goatley, one other student has received the scholarship, which is a four-year renewable award.��

More information on the new endowment is .����

No doubt some of the legal details of this case, particularly as they apply to race and equity, are complicated. As such, the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law has introduced a new, 14-week class called “”

The class is the brainchild of Dean Colin Crawford and is open to law students who have passed their first year. According to the Courier Journal, 12 students are currently enrolled and eight others are auditing.

The class features different speakers who discuss topics such as housing, reparations and policing. Crawford told the CJ that while Breonna Taylor’s death is the impetus behind the class and, the greater movement, students are tasked with introducing amendments to laws that may mask systemic inequality.

In a letter to the law school community on June 1, , writing in part:

“…As I watch these (protests) unfold, I think of the importance of the importance of the law at times like these. Law is everywhere at this moment. Lawyers likely approved the no-knock warrant policy that has now been rescinded. Lawyers originally charged Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, for the shots he fired from his own, permitted firearm. A lawyer – the Commonwealth Attorney – subsequently rescinded those charges. Lawyers will represent Taylor’s family and Walker going ahead, as they will do for the police involved.

“The law also permits us as Americans to protest peacefully. And the law will be used to punish those who turned peaceable protests violent, unnecessarily and with needless destruction of property, causing physical injury and further death.

“Perhaps most powerfully, these events remind me of our national commitment to equality of treatment before the law, a principle included in the 14^th��Amendment over a century ago. The inequities that led to its passage, as recent events demonstrate, are tragically still with us. For my part, I therefore hope that this historical moment will lead all of us to re-examine the persistent��disparities and inequities��that too often characterize the structure and practice of our institutions,��enabling systematic oppression of particular groups, and especially of African Americans.��I hope that many of you feel the same.��The current events show us that we still have far to go to be able truly to��claim to be ‘one nation, undivided, with liberty and justice for all.’

Lawyers can help change that reality. Lawyers will be evermore important in the coming months and years. More will be demanded of us as we are called upon to dedicate ourselves, as officers of the court and as those who translate our highest principles into laws and regulations, to the cause of justice applied equally and fairly for all people, no matter what they look like or their station in life. As Justice Brandeis famously said, ‘The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.’��This is no time for us as a people – and as lawyers – to be inert.”

The CJ reports that “Freddie Gray’s Baltimore” class at the University of Maryland helped inspire UofL’s class. Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore in 2015 for possessing a knife. He fell into a coma while being transported in a police van and later died due to injuries to his spinal cord. Breonna Taylor’s death obviously hits closer to home.����

“We’re the only law school in this city, so it’s really important that we engage,” . “I’m really hoping (the students) will come up with a solution of their own and feel they’ve been empowered to think about these matters differently and use law as a tool for positive change.”

Resources added ahead of the verdict

The Counseling Center, Cultural Center, LGBT Center, PEACC, and Student Affairs are collaborating to hold virtual drop-in group sessions for students who want to connect, share, and find support in light of the Attorney General’s impending announcement on the Breonna Taylor case. Student well being is a priority, as we strive to foster an environment of inclusiveness that empowers us all to our highest potential without fear of prejudice or bias. Groups will be held via Microsoft Teams. The sessions will not be recorded. .

Additionally, the Office of Diversity and Equity has compiled a list of for the campus community. The list will be updated on an ongoing basis.

Angel McCoughtry, the , rebounding and steals, led UofL to its first NCAA title game in 2009. She now plays for the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Earlier this month, she helped create the WNBA/WNBPA Social Justice Council to address issues like inequality and systemic racism.��

, this season’s WNBA jerseys will include the names of people who have experienced social injustice – a way to bring the conversation to a bigger audience.

McCoughtry announced this initiative by posting an Instagram photo of her Aces jersey with Breonna Taylor’s name on it. Taylor was fatally shot by the Louisville Metro Police Department in March after officers executed a no-knock search warrant.

“This is a way to use our platform to be a helping hand during these trying times,” McCoughtry wrote in her post. “Silence is an ally for EVIL and when sports resume WE WILL NOT BE SILENT.”

The WNBA season is expected to return later this month.

Meanwhile, former UofL Football and current Atlanta Falcons player Jamon Brown has done plenty of activism work in his former community recently. , who was selected in the NFL draft in 2015, established the Jamon Brown Foundation to help those in need in Louisville.

In March, Brown launched a through that foundation to specifically provide financial support for those affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Most recently, Brown has been using that platform to attend and speak at local protests, , “I’m a citizen before I’m a football player. I’m a Black man before I’m a citizen. But I’m a human before I’m any of those … I’m trying to do what I can to shed light on what’s going down.”

Brown has influenced a number of current UofL players to join him in using their voice to raise awareness. Indeed, a number of those players have marched beside Brown and have led efforts to clean up the community and participate in other service events.

UofL’s football staff has also encouraged current players to use their voices.��

Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown told the Courier Journal that this encouragement comes from head coach Scott Satterfield: “That’s one thing Coach Satt said, we need to make sure we don’t let this thing die, you know about racial diversity, racial tension and police brutality against people of color, we don’t need to let it die down.”

The Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund in Nursing will be a four-year renewable award. In choosing the recipient, preference would be granted to Kentucky residents. It will cover full tuition and fees. The fund is created with 100% participation by the UofL Health board members. It was announced today by members of the University of Louisville Black Student Union.

Taylor, who would have turned 27 today, was an emergency room technician at UofL Health-Medical Center East. She was killed in March by police officers serving a “no-knock” warrant at her home.

“Breonna was a member of our UofL Health family,” said UofL Health CEO Tom Miller. “We grieve her loss, but we are hopeful her legacy can inspire meaningful change. This scholarship is part of an overall commitment to ensure diversity in our workforce and develop ongoing plans to eliminate racial inequality in health care.”

UofL Health is a nonprofit health provider affiliated with University of Louisville. It is governed by an .

UofL President Neeli Bendapudi said having unanimous participation from the board members in establishing the fund shows that Taylor’s life, while cut tragically short, continues to make a community impact.

“While I didn’t know Breonna, I have learned that she was a wonderful person and a health care hero,” Dr. Bendapudi said. “Our hope is that this scholarship will provide the opportunity for another phenomenal young Black woman to follow in Breonna’s footsteps.”

“I am so appreciative that the University of Louisville, in partnership with the Black Student Union, will honor Breonna’s life through the creation of the Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship,” said Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer. “Breonna is smiling down knowing that there will be a path for students to pursue nursing degrees without accumulating student loan debt. Thank you to the university and its students for ensuring that Bre’s legacy will continue for generations to come.”

Anyone interested in supporting the Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fund can visit .

In addition to Bendapudi, other signatories include Susan Donovan, Bellarmine University;��Travis Haire, Ivy Tech, Sellersburg; Ty Handy, Jefferson Community and Technical College; Jay Marr, Sullivan University, Louisville; Tori Murden McClure, Spalding University; Alton B. Pollard, III, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and Ray Wallace, IU Southeast.��

In a joint statement, the presidents announced five ways they plan to address racism in Louisville. The letter, including those proposed actions, is below:��

“James Baldwin said, ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’ The harsh truth that must be faced is that Black Americans still face obstacles that leave them, in far too many cases, lagging behind their White counterparts on important indicators of education, income, health, and wealth. Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd are just the latest names on our collective dishonor roll of Black lives that were taken casually and, all too often, without consequence. The very real racial��inequities of today are the result of a legacy of systemic racism.����

“We, as leaders of higher education institutions in greater Louisville and Kentuckiana, are aware both of the promise of higher education as a transformative force in society, and of the problematic history of these very institutions in perpetuating racial inequity.

“As leaders of these institutions, we, too, are complicit in maintaining the status quo and it is therefore incumbent upon us to take real and meaningful action to achieve the ideals of equity that our institutions espouse.��

“We believe that by working together we can do more and do better as agents of positive change.

1. We pledge to educate ourselves and our own college and university communities to recognize and work against structural racism.
2. We pledge to work together to improve access to higher education for our African-American and other students of color.
3. We pledge to create pathways for African-American and other students of color to meaningful and high-demand jobs and careers and acknowledge the need for more Black professionals in healthcare and education and engineering and law as in many other spheres.��
4. We pledge to engage fully and meaningfully in the life of West Louisville.
5. With our institutional privileges of knowledge, reach, resources, legacy, and more, we pledge to consistently demonstrate our commitment to the objective fact that��Black Lives Matter.”

Photo provided by Brendan J. Sullivan, Bellarmine University.

“Dear��Maliya:��

Thank you, again, for reaching out to me and for spending your time and energy advocating for change in a moment when it is desperately needed. I know we do not know each other well, but I hope to earn your trust as an ally in this work in the weeks, months and years to come. I have pledged since I arrived at UofL to do my best always to celebrate diversity, foster equity, and strive for inclusion. I appreciated very much spending time with you and the BSU officer team yesterday.

I, too, am outraged by the murder of Breonna Taylor in our own backyard. I am heartbroken. Breonna was a meaningful part of our city and of our UofL Health family. There is no excuse for the behavior of the individual officers involved. Police brutality in any form at any time is a violation of a contract between individuals and our criminal justice system. This, compounded by the recent killing of David “Yaya” McAtee has left our community hurting, grieving and suffering once again.

You raised two key issues in your letter to me: 1) the UofL Police Department’s (ULPD) relationship to the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), and 2) the name of the Honors House. I want to address each of these issues and explain how I intend to move forward.

ULPD and LMPD

One of the central duties of any leader in any organization is to maintain the safety of her constituents. I take this responsibility very seriously in my role as president. Since your email, I have engaged a significant number of individuals in conversation about this issue including our Chief Diversity Officer Faye Jones, Chief of Police Gary Lewis and Criminal Justice Department Chair Cherie Dawson-Edwards, all leaders with important perspective on this issue.

Your request for us to immediately terminate our relationship with LMPD would not make our campus or its constituents safer, and it would be an insufficient answer to a very complex problem. The harder work in a necessary partnership is to change, mold and evolve the partnership and the partner to best facilitate the university’s need without compromising our values. We have already begun to do this and will take additional intentional steps to ensure we are doing everything we can to make this so.

It is important to understand several things about ULPD’s ties to LMPD and the police force in the city and the commonwealth:

• The two police forces have concurrent and, in some cases, overlapping jurisdiction in various geographies throughout the city and based on the nature of an incident. Because of this fact, there has been a long-standing relationship between the two police forces to ensure adequate resources exist to support the community, but there is not a formal document or agreement between the two agencies that stipulates the parameters of this relationship.
• In February 2019, Chief Lewis requested assistance from LMPD in increasing a law enforcement presence following a number of significant crimes. This collaboration resulted in the successful apprehension of a rape suspect.
• In late 2019, ULPD initiated steps to reduce the number of LMPD officers working special athletic events on our campus and were successful at making this change.
• Under previous leadership, LMPD provided a large percentage of services, however, under the leadership of Chief Lewis, ULPD – a state certified law enforcement agency – takes the lead role in protecting our campus community.
• Regularly, we engage with LMPD for real-time investigative support that ensures the safety of our campus community. ULPD does not have the infrastructure or the funding to support these real-time investigations independently.
• UofL is home to the Southern Police Institute (SPI), a 60-year old police leadership training institute right in the heart of the Belknap campus. SPI provides training and courses, many led by UofL Criminal Justice faculty members, to a significant number of officers each year.
• The Department of Criminal Justice has important relationships with LMPD that fuel the department’s scholarship and community impact, and many faculty at the University have contracts with LMPD for community engaged research projects that inform best practices in related areas of study.
• ULPD Chief Lewis has led numerous campus sessions over the last year to engage students, faculty and staff on how he could best lead ULPD and what additional safety measures the campus was looking for. Hundreds of individuals have participated in these sessions in the last year and changes have been made in our policing approach based on the feedback. These sessions will continue this year as well.

The items I have shared here are merely to show that we have an intricate relationship with LMPD that touches many parts of our campus and virtually all of our faculty, staff and students. This is not to say there are not significant issues within the police force that must be addressed. This is true and they must, but our relationship with LMPD is necessary to the University for these reasons and more.

Again, I believe the harder approach and the one we will commit to is evolving and molding our partnership with LMPD so it clearly reflects our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, our Cardinal Principle, and other guiding values of our institution. There is no way to build a comprehensive plan for that evolution in a few short days, but some immediate steps we will commit to take include:

1. Ensure ULPD as Lead Law Enforcement Agency
   ULPD will serve as the lead agency in any investigation dealing primarily with a member of the campus community. Joint investigations including LMPD will still occur as dictated by jurisdictional overlap and nature of an incident. This change has already begun, but will be formalized and enforced.
2. Perform Equity Audit in All Criminal Justice Academic Programs
   Cherie Dawson-Edwards, in her capacity as department chair and with support from the Office of the Provost, will lead an equity audit of all academic programs. The Department of Criminal Justice offers multiple programs that educate current and future LMPD officers, including police leaders. These courses will be audited for the inclusion of social justice-focused principles in the coursework. The equity audit will include the Police Executive Leadership Development Certificate, BSCJ, MSCJ and Ph.D. programs.
3. Reduce Need for External Law Enforcement Support at Athletics Events
   Chief Lewis and Vince Tyra will find additional and alternative ways to continue to reduce the need to have direct support by outside law enforcement agencies. With a venue the size of Cardinal Stadium, relying upon partnering agencies is a national model, but we will look closely at this partnership while not compromising safety and security for our students, faculty, staff and visitors to our campus venues.
4. Provide Training for All Partnering Officers

Chief Lewis, in partnership with Dr. Dawson-Edwards, students leaders and other UofL constituents, will develop a de-escalation and cultural sensitivity training that will be required for any police officer working a university-sponsored event or hired by ULPD. This training will be developed and deployed no later than the beginning of the fall semester.

5. Leverage Southern Police Institute (SPI) as Catalyst for Change
The Department of Criminal Justice (CJ) and the Southern Police Institute are uniquely positioned to have a positive impact on the current social unrest, in relation to the criminal justice system. Leadership in the department and institute will work together on the following items:

• Curricula has historically been developed to provide training and technical assistance as a result of mandates from the federal government. SPI, in partnership with CJ, has the ability to be “ahead of the curve” and develop a more robust procedural/social justice component which can be used to create new stand-alone classes as well as integrated into our current Police Executive Leadership Development Certificate and Continuing ����ֱ�� curricula.
• Since 1951, the SPI mission has aligned it with the early civil rights movement and traces its actual founding to healing the divide between the police and the minority community. SPI and the Department of CJ are uniquely positioned to sponsor seminars/panels to discuss social or procedural justice issues with our students (including law enforcement students) and featuring police and social justice leaders as speakers to address those “difficult conversations” with our campus community.
• SPI has long standing and large scope access to police leadership all over the United States, through our network of graduates of our education and training programs. This access allows for a direct conduit to the decision/policy makers and today’s American law enforcement community. The respected SPI brand could be used to connect academic and progressive change models with the law enforcement community.

To reiterate, this is neither the beginning nor the end of the work we will do. We are actively assessing our partnerships and working to ensure they reflect the values of our institution and support the success of our students, faculty and staff.

Honors House

The term “overseers” is a racialized term. It hearkens back to American slavery and reminds us of the brutality of the conditions and treatment of black people during this time. The term is also one widely used in higher education. This is true because this institution like so many others has evolved within the same racist system that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor. If we are committed to an equitable anti-racist environment, the term should not be used at UofL. I take responsibility for this issue not being addressed earlier.

As you may or may not be aware, more than a year ago and after consultation and conversation with many justice seeking stakeholders in this campus community, I led the conversation to change the name of our Board of Overseers to the President’s Council. This decision was made intentionally and in recognition of the racist implications of the term I mentioned before. Had I been more intimately familiar with the campus and the names of the buildings, I would have made the same change at the Honors House that I made with my main external advisory board.

On Monday, my team implemented an interim solution to remove this problematic term from the sign outside the Honors House. We will be purchasing a new sign as a permanent step and will have that in place as soon as we can get it delivered (certainly before the start of the Fall Semester). As a further step, I have asked my team to comb our websites to make sure that we remove digital references to this term on sites that we control and maintain. Importantly, this change requires final approval by the Board of Trustees given our institutional naming policy requirements. The chair of our trustees has given provisional approval to have the name removed and the board will vote to formalize this change at its June meeting.

This sign has likely caused incalculable and unnecessary pain to many of our students, faculty and staff over the years. I am sorry that it was not addressed sooner, but it is done now.

Moving Forward

After meeting with you, it became abundantly clear that we have not centered the voices and experiences of students in our efforts for change in the ways we must to effectively move forward. To that end and at your suggestion, we will commit to:

• Require Student Representation on All Change Initiatives

Whether it is on the criminal justice academic programs equity audits, the development of officer training programs, or other measures that arise from our ongoing conversations, I will require our leaders to include student representation, particularly the Black Student Union, to ensure the approaches we take are informed by the lived experience of our most fundamental constituency.

• Elevate Students’ Lived Experiences as Catalysts for Change

Dr. Dawson-Edwards, Chief Lewis and I commit to bolster the number of opportunities that exist for students to directly engage and inform the learning of law enforcement officers, including those in SPI. Truly understanding the lived experiences of our students and your expectations for police conduct will serve as a meaningful catalyst for mutual understanding and change.

I know this answer is probably still insufficient in meeting your calls for revolution, but it is incredibly important to remember that we are a city within a city. We do not exist on the outskirts or the far edge of our metropolitan area, we are right in the center of the Greater Louisville area, our Health Sciences Campus is in the heart of downtown Louisville and our ShelbyHurst campus is in the relatively more suburban east end. These concurrent, and in some cases overlapping, jurisdictions between our three campuses and the larger city require a good working relationship between ULPD and LMPD to ensure the safety of our Cardinal Family as best we can as we move seamlessly and regularly between the campus and city. Indeed, without this strong relationship we would not be able to keep our campuses safe.

During our conversations, I was encouraged by your thoughtfulness and commitment to demanding justice and nothing less. I imagine I will fall short of that call in some of our institutional responses, but I commit to meaningfully moving the needle and changing our trajectory. The time is now. My chief of staff and external affairs, Michael Wade Smith, is developing a plan that evolved from our conversations that will acknowledge the great social justice achievements of our past, highlight the ongoing social justice actions of the present, and, most importantly, lay a path for the important and necessary anti-racism work we must do to move forward as a campus community. I hope to share more on this initiative in the coming week.

As we committed to yesterday, I look forward to staying in regular contact as we work through these issues. I also hope you will engage with Chief Lewis and Dr. Dawson-Edwards as they take the steps listed above to improve our approach to campus and community safety. You have my cell phone number. If you need ANYTHING during this time, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Neeli Bendapudi,��President”

“Cardinal Family,

This pandemic has surfaced many truths about our society. In many cases, it has highlighted the goodwill and caring community found across this country as individuals have banded together to help address the growing need created by the global public health crisis. In many other cases, however, it has shown us the glaring disparate impacts of Covid-19 on communities of color due to longstanding health and structural inequities, legacies of slavery and racism we grapple with still today.

In the last four months, we have come to know the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and most recently George Floyd. Ms. Taylor is from our very own Louisville community. Whatever your perspective on the specifics of each case, I hope we can agree that these three lives being taken from us so soon is devastating.

At the University of Louisville, Diversity and Inclusion is one of our core Cardinal Principles. This university strives to be a home and safe haven for our students, faculty and staff of color just as we strive to do this for all of the many rich and diverse identities held throughout our campus community. I believe that in many cases we succeed in helping people survive and thrive, but I am also certain that in numerous cases the same expressions of hate and exclusion that daily impact people of color and vulnerable communities outside the campus affect our Cardinal Family right here in our own backyard.

To our students, staff and faculty of color – I see you. I hear you.

Given these tragic incidents and mounting tension building in our own city and across the country, I know many of you are in deep pain having to confront these inequities, sometimes on a daily basis. Please know that I am here to support you, this university is here to support you and we will continue our endeavor to provide an environment where everyone can thrive.��

I want to highlight some of the actions taken recently and others we will soon take to ensure we fully live out our commitment to being a Community of Care that values Diversity and Inclusion:

1. The Campus Environment Team is in the process of revamping the Bias Incident Response Team to better equip the university to support our constituents, track its occurrence, and implement strategies to counteract incidences of bias, microaggression and racism.
2. The University of Louisville Police Department’s primary mission is to focus on providing a safe campus community, which includes supporting diversity and equity within the department and on campus. The Department continues to be actively involved in open forums discussing critical racial issues that impact our campus and local community.
3. The Office of Diversity and Equity, the HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and all affiliated offices are enhancing programming related to structural racism, and reaching out to support those experiencing pain and isolation as well as those who want to learn more and work to change inequitable structures.
4. The Department of ����ֱ�� Leadership, Evaluation and Organizational Development in the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development, in collaboration with the Office of Diversity and Equity, are developing an educational series for faculty and staff on topics related to diversity and inclusion.
5. We have made available a curated list of resources on the Diversity and Equity site for the campus community to engage with to learn more about the historical legacy of slavery and racism in America.

These actions represent some progress, but they are not the solution. The thing that will ultimately change these unfair systems that continue to disproportionately harm people of color, particularly black people, is for each of us to learn more, to understand how we contribute, both knowingly and unknowingly, to these systems and to actively work to change them. I too am committing to learn more, to take real actions to make a difference, to be better and to do more.

The frustration and anger that has led to protests here and across the country is understandable. Each of us must choose how to take meaningful action to improve the society we live in. Take care of yourself and take care of each other. This is what our Cardinal Principle of Community of Care requires of each of us.

It will take all of us acting collectively with informed intention and empowering care to start to see the change we need. I ask each of us to please take an intentional step today to be better and to do more. I need your help. Our Cardinal Family of color needs your help. Our society needs your help.

Sincerely,

Neeli”