Penn State announces plan to combat racism, bias — including student coursework, employee training
Penn State President Eric Barron announced a seven-point plan Wednesday to combat racism and bias in the university community, including requiring mandatory bias training for employees and adding required racism/bias coursework for students.
“We must recognize that Black Lives Matter, and that racism, bias and religious intolerance yield an inexcusable cost to life and liberty,” Barron wrote in an open letter.
Here’s an overview of each of the seven points, which Barron called “a first step”:
- Create a task force to review the Student Code of Conduct. Barron said there will be “significant” participation by students here, including having a student in the role of co-chair.
- Initiate mandatory bias training for all employees. The goal is to start this initiative for the fall semester, and it will involve cooperation from the faculty senate, staff advisory council, student leaders and administrators. Barron said training modules have already been developed by the Equity Action Resources Team, and senior administrators will complete said modules “as soon as possible.”
- Have racism and bias coursework required for all students. This is a request students have pushed for, and Barron said “it is time to work with them.” He said this would be a partnership with the faculty senate and student leaders.
- Improve policies and procedures that will increase the hiring and retention of faculty who are members of underrepresented groups at the university. Barron said this “continues to be a major challenge.”
- Ensure educational and employment equity has the full attention of the Board of Trustees.
- Have the Task Force on Policing and Communities of Color reconvene. This task force was developed earlier but originally finished its work in 2017. The goal here would be to “examine where we have made, or not made, progress” over the last three years.
- Enhance mental health resources and community-building initiatives. Barron said it was important to prioritize the well-being of students and employees, especially considering some have cited feeling “unsafe and unwelcome” due to hate speech.
Although not included among his seven points, Barron also said he would select a Penn State Presidential Commission on Racism, Bias and Community Safety — consisting of “leaders and scholars at all levels” — to make recommendations on supporting the safety of university members when it comes to bias and racism.
Students’ outrage over bias and racism came to a head over the last two weeks, in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd, an African American man killed by Minneapolis police after an officer knelt on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. (Several officers looked on while he was killed.) Shortly after his death, two Penn State students were accused of committing hateful acts.
One male student was accused of, but denied, shouting the n-word and making comments about the KKK while driving past a peaceful protest in Aston, Pennsylvania. A female student appeared to have a photo posted showing a swastika in Sharpie on her exposed shoulder, although she claimed the symbol was the pre-Nazi Germany sign for good luck and the photo was taken five years ago.
More than 30,000 have signed a petition to expel the male student, while more than 150,000 have called for disciplinary action against the female student. According to four lawyers and experts of the First Amendment, however, disciplining such students would be virtually impossible — which Barron acknowledged.
“The path forward will be challenging,” Barron wrote. “We must work together to address both immediate issues and the solutions to long-standing problems, and to be candid and direct about what public universities can accomplish, while still setting the bar high as a national leader in higher education.”
In the meantime, Penn State touted a number of events and initiatives that students and alumni have already organized around the commonwealth. The university listed 12 events that already happened — such as the Smeal College of Business’ town hall meeting via Zoom on June 1 — and 15 others that are set to occur, such as a social justice collaborative at Penn State Berks on Thursday morning.
A university-wide virtual town hall will also be held in the near future at a time to be determined. More details will be “forthcoming.”
“Our very mission is to serve and advance the citizens of our commonwealth and nation through education,” Barron wrote. “It is a mission that fails if we are not diverse and inclusive. I believe in the power of the Penn State community to create a more just society.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 10:40 AM.
