Monday, January 27, 2025

DEI on the local level at SIUE

I have a lot of thoughts on what's happening at the national level with DEI. And I'll soon pull together more links to articles for you and others. In the meantime, I wish there was more discussion at the local level regarding how a number of DEI efforts positively shaped SIUE over the last 10 years. Today, we have more Black faculty here than ever in the university's history. Why? Two major developments: 

1.) Every, not many, not most, but every Black faculty member hired since 2015 is a direct beneficiary of organizing by faculty, students, and staff that took place around 2014-2015, where a group of us urged the university to hire more Black faculty. Or, put another way, we asked them to stop routinely overlooking Black candidates. 

2.) The activism following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, led the university to do some soul-searching and create new areas, most notably the Office of Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

All of this is to say, the university has greatly benefited from some serious organizing and organizers. 

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