UNCSA Forward: Progress in EDIB

Dear Campus Community,

I am pleased to share the Fall 2021 Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) Progress Report. It outlines work by the various arts schools and departments achieved last fall.

EDIB Progress Report for Fall 2021

It is the third report in an ongoing effort that will continually surface our progress in tackling the systemic problems of racism and inequality in our campus community and in society. This recurring campus progress report will help us better understand the lived experiences and needs of students and employees and measure institutional progress toward EDIB goals.

EDIB is a strategic initiative of UNCSA Forward, our draft 2022-27 strategic plan, which I have been discussing with all of you since the fall.

UNCSA has been taking small steps toward EDIB for some time. But the hard work started in earnest in the summer of 2020, when our administration worked with consultant Shayla Herndon-Edmunds and presidents of Student Government and Artists of Color to craft a new framework that would be the blueprint for our steps going forward.

Another critical part of this process was the essential work that our campuswide EDIB Advisory Committee did last year. Considering the EDIB work done by the UNC System, our committee made recommendations and created a vision statement. All of this informed the work outlined in UNCSA Forward that will continue over the next five years as a crucial element of our university's future. 

Using the committee's final report and recommendations as a structure, each initiative from fall 2021 was categorized under the report's four themes that emerged during the process: Access and Success, Capacity Building, EDIB and Cultural Intelligence, and Support and Advocacy. What you will read in the Fall 2021 Progress Report ranges from the creation of a new shared governance committee (the EDIB Governance Committee) to the implementation of unconscious bias training for search committees to the introduction of gender-neutral casting for one of the most recognizable roles in "The Nutcracker" ballet (Drosselmeyer).

I am incredibly grateful for the work that continues to be done toward EDIB at this university and the dedication that many of you have demonstrated in achieving our goals. 

Sincerely,


Brian Cole
Chancellor

February 24, 2022