Kansas State University President Richard Myers released further details this Wednesday on the university’s plan to combat racism and discrimination.
He also responded to calls for a K-State student who “posted racist messages on social media” to be expelled, saying the university as a government institution must take steps that do not violate the law.
The plan is broken down into two categories of action steps the university will take, one category being student related and the other being faculty related.
The action steps as they are laid out in Myer’s release can be found below.
Student-Related Action Steps:
1. Create a Student Ombudsperson Office in collaboration between the Provost, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, and Vice President for Student Life to advocate for students experiencing a campus climate concern.
2. Establish a work group to analyze and make recommendations regarding all university policies, including discrimination and harassment policies and the Student Code of Conduct, with the goal of identifying and addressing institutional bias and barriers through an anti-racist lens.
3. Increase recruitment efforts with the aim of raising enrollment of students of color to meet or exceed the state of Kansas demographics.
4. Increase efforts to raise retention and graduation rates of students of color with annual measurable goals.
5. Increase the amount of need-based scholarships with annual measurable goals. Additionally, this next fiscal year’s voluntary salary reductions from administrative leaders will go directly towards need-based scholarships for students.
6. Improve the process for receiving complaints of discrimination.
7. Develop a policy on social media usage for students that balances our institutional values and free speech. Currently one exists for faculty and staff.
8. Initiate a “Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation” campaign through Student Life modeled after the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ program to develop and track progress on co-curricular equity initiatives.
Faculty-Staff Related Action Steps:
9. Increase hiring and retention efforts for faculty and staff of color with the goal of meeting or exceeding relevant local, state, and national labor market demographics.
10. Work with the colleges and faculty to adopt the U.S. multicultural overlay as a university-wide model.
11. Develop and offer mandatory cultural competency workshops for faculty and staff.
The university will also offer a publicly accessible dashboard for monitoring university progress and accountability.
Myers says the plan will begin immediately and that progress will be reported each month.
The full release can be found here.
