Chancellor Rebecca Blank met with representatives of the Associated Students of Madison Monday, agreeing to the implementation of cultural competency training for herself and executive administration by the Fall 2016 semester, according to an ASM release.
ASM also sent a letter to Blank Monday, demanding that administration begin the training in light of “numerous incidents of hate and bias targeted at students of color and underrepresented students on our campus.”
Diversity training will be mandatory for first-year students, according to the release. The pilot program was formed by ASM Intern Katrina Morrison, as well as the Cultural Competency Pilot working group facilitated by the Division of Student Life.
In the letter, ASM said the swath of recent hate incidents highlighted by #TheRealUW indicates all members of the campus community need to work on recognizing their biases, a process that includes administration.
“Every decision that you make as Chancellor is constructed in part by your biases as an individual, and these choices have unintentional impacts on the underrepresented students of our University,” the letter said. “If you elect not to enforce cultural competency training amongst administration, you will have knowingly failed all students on this campus.”
According to ASM Shared Governance Chair Jessica Franco-Morales, however, there is more work to be done.
“This goes beyond initiatives and trainings,” Franco-Morales said. “We need institutional policy changes that will shape a more inclusive campus.”
In the letter, ASM also made demands about shared governance in addition to the demand for cultural competency. Shared governance is a structure of university oversight that incorporates student and faculty voices into decision-making, but was weakened by provisions in the most recent state budget.
ASM demanded shared governance be reinstated, as well as the creation of a joint shared governance committee that includes the chair of each shared governance group. They said these demands also relate to improving conditions for students of color.
“Without shared governance, none of the current proposals put forth to address matters of diversity, hate, and bias would have been possible,” the letter said.
