In the summer of 2020, President Neeli Bendapudi charged the to lead a taskforce in bringing forth recommendations to guide UofL in becoming a premier anti-racist metropolitan research university.

“To be an anti-racist institution, UofL cannot rest on the racial advancements of the 20^th century,” Bendapudi said. “We are facing long-held racist beliefs, action and inaction, and we aren’t shying away from the fight.”

The agenda, now in the final stages of development, underscores the strategic vision of the university as a great place to learn, work and invest through celebration of the unique attributes every individual brings to the university community.

“The approach of this work focuses on evaluating policies and institutional behaviors as a means of shifting cultural values and perspectives toward greater racial equity,” said V. Faye Jones, interim senior associate vice president for diversity and equity.

CARA progress

Representatives from throughout UofL’s campuses — faculty, staff, students, trainees (residents and post docs) and administration — helped develop the agenda. These five subgroups of the taskforce have carefully and thoughtfully drafted a report of six priority areas, and action steps, which are now being refined. Completion of a final plan, along with implementation is expected this year.

The six broad priority areas are:

• Culture, Policies, Practices and Procedures
• Equity in Work, Compensation, Professional Development and Reward
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Images and Communication
• Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Talent
• University and Community Relationships

This year the taskforce anticipates a report with action plans for every strategy, a data dashboard making diversity data transparent and accessible and a CARA cultural impact to improve the lived experiences of the entire Cardinal family.

Campus movement

As details of CARA are being finalized, movement to support the agenda is already in motion. Every unit throughout campus is laying groundwork to break down barriers and make changes that reflect our anti-racism goal.

For example, leadership from each of the four Health Sciences Center schools participated in a 10-week immersive executive leadership program with the Aspen Institute focused on leading institutional diversity, equity and inclusion. Not only this, but leaders at many schools and units throughout the university have set aside funding to support dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion positions at the director, assistant dean and associate dean levels.

Faculty, staff and student support is one area of growth. Through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), faculty, staff and students can receive on-demand access to mentoring, professional development and support leading to success in the academy. Several faculty of color are being supported by their school’s dean and the to participate in NCFDD’s Faculty Success Program designed to help faculty increase research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work/life balance. This opportunity will provide needed resources as the faculty pursue tenure. Meanwhile, Human Resources has developed an affirmative action review process for faculty tenure and promotions, seeking to understand whether decisions made regarding tenure and/or promotion adversely impact members of certain groups.

Launched through the Office of Research and Innovation, the new  provides mentorship, funding and other support to high-performing associate professors. The goal is to boost the national impact of the fellows’ scholarship, with a focus on work in diversity, inclusion and community empowerment.

Other actions, too, are helping the CARA progress, as staff and faculty have opportunities to participate in book studies and Continuing ����ֱ�� sessions on the topics of implicit bias, microagressions, power and privilege, health disparities and racial justice. A new Lunch and Learn series also helps welcome, mentor and retain Black faculty, with plans to extend to Hispanic and Latino faculty. Development of a faculty search document, Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Increase Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) will lead to workforce change, and a new Employee Resource Group is focused on faculty and staff who identify as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Office of Diversity and Equity, in collaboration with the Employee Success Center, also is working to better incorporate diversity and equity in university onboarding, leadership and retention programs, policies and practices. Programs and services to support employees and students experiencing racial trauma also give credence to one of UofL’s guiding principles as a Community of Care.

A new Undergraduate Student Success Taskforce, coordinated through the Office of Diversity and Equity, aims to make it easier for underrepresented, underfunded and first generation students to have an equal opportunity for achievement. The group will work to improve information sharing, communication and collaboration across units; identify gaps in services, student performance and experience; and develop creative ways to eliminate barriers and build student success. The taskforce will have a plan in place this fall.

A course for first-year students taught by student success center staff also is being revised in time for the new academic year to more intentionally thread themes of diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the curriculum. All GEN 100 instructors will be trained on what it means to be an anti-racist institution and tie the work of CARA to first year students’ experience as they join the university community.

And advancement is working to raise funds for student financial support aimed at racial equity. The School of Nursing’s Breonna Taylor Memorial Scholarship and the J.B. Speed School of Engineering’s diversity education scholarship through are two examples.

New committees and groups

The Student Government Association recently created a diversity and inclusion committee, the Staff Senate created a and new recognized student organizations have launched this year, including the Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA).

Jason Deakings helped lead the effort in bringing together the BGSA. As a CODRE student representative, he’s also helping shape CARA. Deakings worked on a committee to explore anti-racism initiatives at other universities, and had the opportunity to listen to both graduate and undergraduate student ideas and concerns related to the agenda.

“Inclusiveness is of paramount importance for students,” Deakings said. “Even as new RSOs have been created, we are working toward unification and progressing inclusivity.”

Inclusiveness and belonging are key, says Jones.

“We must ensure equity in all of our practices and policies that are inclusive of our multiple identities,” she said.

As the world begins to recover from the devastating effects of the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, we maintain our commitment to providing education that is fair, just and true, and leads toward an end of the devastating effects of the long-term racial pandemic.

President Bendapudi reviewed the university’s commitment to anti-racism. Updates were provided to senators on the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity (CODRE), current progress on commitments made in the , and the financial benefits of healthcare expansion.

CODRE has been tasked with developing a plan to implement the university’s anti-racism agenda. CODRE is considering reforms and actions needed within five key groups in the university community: faculty, staff, students, administrators and trainees, which was identified as a subcategory of students. A representative from the Office of Diversity and Equity will be assigned to each broad area and will assist in future implementation of anti-racist policies and practices.  

Updates were also given about the university’s Strategic Plan. The plan outlines a commitment to increase need-based aid for first-time freshmen to 20% by the year 2022. Bendapudi was proud of the progress made on this commitment, reporting an increase from 8% to 17% as of this year.��

Bendapudi added that efforts toward diversity and equity are also related to the university’s healthcare enterprise expansion, which included UofL Health-Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, the only hospital in Louisville located west of Interstate 65. Last year’s healthcare acquisitions as well as partnerships made with Norton pediatrics have proven to be strong financial assets for the university.

“In my third year, we are much stronger financially than we were, and we are making investment in things that we think matter,” she said.��

Executive Vice President and University Provost Beth Boehm addressed a student petition for a pass/fail option for the fall 2020 semester. Both the Academic Scenario Planning Committee and the Coordinating Committee determined that this would not be in the best interest of students or the university for many reasons, including accreditation for future semesters.

The Academic Scenario Planning Committee is reviewing the use of proctoring software, specifically Respondus, which depends on facial detection. Concerns about racial bias within the software were brought before the committee over the summer. Faculty members and students are contributing to the committee and they are working diligently to prepare recommendations for the future. The provost emailed all faculty on Nov.6 with a warning about this bias.   

Both Bendapudi and Boehm gave remarks on the importance of flu vaccines in the coming months. TAll faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the free flu shots administered through Campus Health Services, even if they will not be physically attending courses in the coming semester.

Senators were provided updates on COVID-19 testing by the executive director of Campus Health Services, Phillip Bressoud.

Bressoud announced that Campus Health Services will be adding molecular Helicase Chain Reaction (HCR) testing for COVID-19. This new testing option is approximately half the cost of traditional Polymerise Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. Hundreds of the new HCR tests can be processed daily in office. It is expected that the new testing option will be available in December.

A winter break schedule is being developed so that COVID-19 testing can continue being available on campus. The testing site at Cardinal Station Health Center will be open between Dec. 18 and Jan. 4 in order to accommodate health care employees and the campus community.��

Senators received an update on a PeopleSoft HR software replacement from M. Rehan Khan, vice president of Information Technology Services and chief information officer. The system, initially developed in the 1990s, has inherent inefficiencies that can contribute to increasing costs and negatively impacting user experience.

The ITS team diligently worked within the campus community over the last year by engaging stakeholders across 20 departments for participation and feedback, conducting interviews with 14 higher education institutions using other software, and price negotiation among vendors. The result of their efforts showed overwhelming support for Workday HR Software.

Kahn reported that a recommendation to the provost and chief financial officer has been made in favor of selecting Workday as the replacement for PeopleSoft. The cloud-based HR software will be introduced to the university gradually in two-year phases, the first of which is set to begin in January 2021.

Committee reports and a of the virtual meeting can be accessed on the . The next Faculty Senate meeting is scheduled for Dec. 2 via Microsoft Teams.

To guide us toward this goal, UofL has launched the Cardinal Anti-Racism Agenda. The agenda entails a phased process, soliciting input from the university community, creating a committee to organize and identify priorities from that input, and seeking approval from the Board of Trustees to get this important, intentional work started.

This goal is an iteration of UofL’s mission of being the “premier, nationally-recognized metropolitan research university,” established in 1997 with the passage of HB1 – the Postsecondary ����ֱ��al Improvement Act. As part of that initial mission, UofL was obligated to serve the needs of a diverse population, including many ethnic minorities and place-bound, part-time, nontraditional students.

Indeed, in the 23 years since the passage of that legislation, UofL has transformed itself from an urban commuter college to a world-class research university. We serve a more racially and socio-economically diverse student population than most research universities in the country, and we have a unique and pervasive relationship with the City of Louisville. We are proud of our progress and of our standing.

However, times have changed, and it is appropriate as a higher education institution to change with them in an effort to achieve the highest ideals of society. It is incumbent upon us to explore and to grow for the purpose of being a model for the communities we serve. That is why we have created this Cardinal Anti-Racism Agenda.

Actions will define who we really are and what we truly believe as a community and there is no better time than now – – to stand on the right side of history.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice … Each of us who works for social change is part of the mosaic of all who work for justice; together we can accomplish multitudes.”

There is no doubt this work will take time and it will take all of us. Our first step is to harness our collective wisdom to lay the groundwork. We have already established a few key commitments, including the recruitment and retention of more Black employees and students, building intentionally anti-racism curriculum across all disciplines, ensuring diverse representation on boards and committees, developing budgets that reflect the priority of diversity and equity and more.��

In the coming weeks and months, the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equality (CODRE), in partnership with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, will lead the charge to engage our community for more potential items to add to our agenda. We will regularly remind our community to to craft an appropriately robust agenda, which will be put in front of the Board of Trustees at the Sept. 24 meeting.

Upon approval from the board, we will put the ball in motion to become a national model of anti-racism, proving that race will not negatively impact anyone’s experience at the University of Louisville.

We’ve made bold steps before. In 1951, for example, UofL integrated our student body several years before most of our Kentucky peers were willing to do the same. Our Department of Pan-African studies is one of the oldest of its kind in the country. We are that provide equal access for Black and Latinx students.

Those bold steps will be the foundation of our new objective. We will continue to lead the way here. We will become the country’s premier anti-racist university. .��

Check out President Bendapudi’s introduction of our Anti-Racism agenda: