Promoting tolerance on today's college campus

3.6.11

(Chancellor Katehi delivered the following address at the Hillel at Davis and Sacramento's Annual Brunch on March 6, 2011.)

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about one of UC Davis’ top priorities.

As you know, UC Davis has a long tradition of promoting community – and the Principles of Community – on our campus. Just this week, we celebrated our 21^st year with those principles with an entire week of events.

Our commitment to respect, equality and freedom of expression runs deep.

Our home is the rich and diverse state of California. That means diversity must be integral to our achievement of excellence.

So last year, when we created our roadmap for the future, we made diversity and inclusivity fundamental aspects of our Vision of Excellence.

We said that we want to celebrate our cultural and intellectual richness. And that we want to be resolute in advancing inclusion and equality in our community.

That is our goal.

But as you know, last spring, UC Davis experienced heartbreaking incidents of intolerance.

These acts were unacceptable, and unusual for a campus known for its civility.

We knew we needed to stop and ask: Do we have the right building blocks in place for an inclusive campus community? Do our students, staff and faculty feel respected, safe, welcome and part of this larger community?

We have taken action to build on our Principles of Community and put the necessary building blocks into place.

Actions since last spring

Our longstanding Campus Council on Community and Diversity developed an action plan that is responsive to incidents of hate and bias and proactively supports educational opportunities.

• We created a Rapid Response Team to address incidents of hate and bias on our Sacramento and Davis campuses. 
• The team is led by Rahim Reed, our chief diversity officer and Griselda Castro, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs.
• The Campus Council formed two new subcommittees: one devoted to academic issues and concerns and the other dedicated to student life issues and campus climate.
• A UC systemwide reporting system was also instituted and publicized across the UC Davis campus and throughout our health system.
• Our response since last spring also includes a far-reaching initiative to build an inclusive community: the Hate-Free Campus Initiative.

This is an outline rather than a fully drawn plan because we want our entire campus community to contribute ideas, suggestions and proposals for programming under this umbrella initiative.

We want everyone to assume some level of responsibility for helping to make our campus hate- and bias-free. 

We are working with student government – also fraternity and sorority leadership, athletics staff, etc.

We are funding proposals from student groups for activities that promote a hate-free, bias-free campus.

This included:

• “A Conversation with Moises Kaufman: The State of Hate Crimes and Identity.” Kaufman is co-author of The Laramie Project, about reaction to the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay man killed in 1998 outside Laramie, Wyoming.
• This past week, a visit by Kate Bornstein, LGBT community advocate, who has given a number of lectures nationally following the tragic death of a gay student at Rutgers University this past fall.
• “The Said and Unsaid: Reclaiming Civility on Campus.”  This yearlong effort is funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 
• Four graduate student “Civility Fellows” will use history and art in individual projects to illuminate the power of the “said” and the “unsaid” in uncivil exchange, while inspiring alternative engagement in the future. They will also make a “far right” collection in our library accessible to the campus through workshops and a public display of “uncivil discourse” materials placed in their proper historical/cultural context.
• Our “Reclaiming Civility” project will be part of the California Council for the Humanities’ “Democracy Project,” a yearlong engagement with communities across the state prior to the 2012 elections.  

Hate-Free Campus Distinguished Speakers Series 

A series that began with Jim Leach, chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who brought his 50-state “civility tour” lecture to UC Davis.  The series continued with Tim White, nationally known for his speeches, books and training programs against racism.

Campus Community Book Project event

In December, author Beverly Daniel Tatum discussed her book, “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” to spur a candid discussion about race relations. 

Los Angeles' Museum of Tolerance collaboration

Last spring, we began a collaboration with the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance with visit by UC Davis delegation arranged by Rabbi Aron Hier and Museum Director Liebe Geft.

We invited the museum to bring its Point of View Café exhibit to our campus.

And we have invited Rabbi Hier to meet with our Campus Council on Community and Diversity and to propose further ideas for collaboration to confront hate and bias.

These are just some of the highlights of the actions we have taken to build an inclusive community.

We know that the reality is that there is no truly hate-free zone in this country or in the world.

But we are taking the steps to build a more inclusive community. And that starts with promoting dialogue across racial and cultural barriers.

It starts with creating the right climate for civil discourse between people with different ideas.

This is our commitment at UC Davis.