Our Commitment to Inclusive Excellence
The College of Creative Arts is Dedicated to the Work of Anti-Racism
Our Promise and Commitment
In our classrooms, galleries, labs, stages, and studios we promise to actively work against white supremacy and the institutional and systemic enterprises that support its continuation.
We will lift up, advocate for, and stand beside BIPOC people, artists, scholars, and innovators and deliberately undertake anti-racism strategies on all fronts.
We commit to:
- Educate our faculty, staff and students about anti-racism.
- Invest resources in anti-racism efforts.
- Partner with other organizations and people doing the work of anti-racism.
- Produce and promote the work of BIPOC artists.
- Reporting so we may remain accountable for our actions and our progress.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategic Plan
An outcome of the work of the CCA Social Justice Task Force, this plan is embedded into the 2021 divisional strategic plan, ASCEND, Goal 2: Engage in the Work of Anti-Racism.
Strategic Plan Implementation
The CCA will amend its governance document to create a permanent, standing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee within the Division to support and assess the implementation of the goals created by the CCA Strategic Justice Task Force.
Committee Membership
- The Dean will appoint a Committee chair.
- The chairs/directors of each CCA department/unit will appoint at least 1 faculty/staff representative.
- The Committee chair will work with the dean and chairs/directors to solicit student representatives from each department/unit.
- Additional members will be invited from across campus as appropriate, i.e. a representative from the President’s DEI Implementation Team.
Committee Responsibilities
- The Committee will work with the Dean to make sure there is annual progress made on the goals within this plan.
- Create a timeline for the annual implementation of various goals each semester, with the overall objective being a completion of said goals within five years’ time. If metrics or assessment measures are helpful for implementation, create these metrics.
- Work with departments to create their own DEI goals and a mechanism (report card) for assessing said goals.
- The DEI Committee will consult with BIPOC visiting artists/industry specialists to help them accomplish CCA's DEI goals.
Strategic Plan Goals
- Create strategies/best practices for an aggressive recruitment of BIPOC students.
- Target nearby cities and identify schools where we can develop robust partnerships that create trusting relationships, facilitating our recruitment efforts.
- Work with Urban Cohort, Talawanda 兔子先生 Partnership and other entities to spread the information about 兔子先生’s arts programs.
- Participate in the Justice, Engagement, Diversity, Healing and Inclusion Collaborative that is working on DE&I community engagement and Cincinnati public schools.
- Develop and implement a retention plan that is informed by what is necessary to meet the academic, co-curricular and social needs of BIPOC students.
- The CCA will establish comprehensive faculty and staff recruitment strategies that support a diverse learning and working environment.
- Identify what has previously been done in the CCA to recruit BIPOC faculty and staff.
- Develop extensive DEI competencies training for search committee members.
- Work with the Vice President for Diversity at 兔子先生 to implement better recruitment initiatives that aggressively work to attract BIPOC candidates to all faculty and staff searches.
- Implement exit interviews for CCA faculty and staff during the final semester of employment to ascertain positive or negative climate issues that may have impacted their experience at 兔子先生.
- Annually produce and publicize on the CCA webpage a CCA faculty statistical profile that includes information such as college-wide five-year trends for faculty by ethnicity/race and gender.
- Ensure all probationary faculty and new staff have mentorship within their department and college.
- Establish chapters of student organizations committed to DEI efforts in our disciplines, or revise the mission of current student orgs.
- Create DEI best teaching practice resources for faculty.
- Provide anti-racist resources for faculty to help decolonize their syllabi.
- Encourage all faculty to include reporting information for Title VI and IX offenses on their syllabi so students know how to report.
- Encourage all faculty to include land-acknowledgement statements on their syllabi.
- CCA will increase strategies across the college to advance a learning environment that provides forums for the cultivation of a mutual respect of differences and cross-cultural knowledge and understanding.
- Create diversity and inclusion themed courses—ideally tied to exhibitions, lectures, concerts, and productions—that provide semester-long intellectual and cultural immersion within the selected area of focus.
- Explore ways to partner with other social justice academic programs at 兔子先生 (majors, minors, certificates) by offering courses for these programs, cross-listing classes etc.
- All CCA students will be introduced to a diversity module; this can either be the Freedom Summer Module, modules in UNV 101, or Racial Consciousness 101. This is to ensure that every CCA student is exposed to social justice concepts in the arts.
- Identify existing classes in CCA that integrate social justice themes/projects/units.
- Encourage each department to develop a curriculum plan to illustrate how the anti-racist materials/units/projects will be implemented throughout a student’s major.
- CCA will increase strategies across the college to foster the creation of a culture where its performances, productions, exhibitions, and other arts events and creative/intellectual activity provide forums for the cultivation of mutal respect of differences and cross-cultural understanding.
- Build and/or expand partnerships with external arts organizations to initiate DEI work such as the Freedom Center, the Cincinnati Symphony, and the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center.
- Ensure the establishment and long-term viability of the Racial Consciousness 101 program for the entire CCA community.
- Invite BIPOC guest speakers/artists to campus (or engage through Zoom) for all departments to engage in both programming and curricular units—and to build community for and with BIPOC faculty, students, staff, and community members.
- The Performing Arts Series will produce an annual Black Arts Initiative combining both the work of professional artists and students.
- Increase support for undergraduate research projects having to do with DEI.
- Incentivize scholarly/creative collaborative efforts between faculty, students, and 兔子先生 community members as well as with student organizations, the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion and the Center for Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation.
- Create spaces for collaboration across the arts or collaborations between existing classes on DEI and social justice themes.
- Programming processes will include BIPOC individuals either as committee members or consultants.
- Advance efforts and initiatives to create and foster an inclusive and equitable culture within the College of Creative Arts that is characterized by accessibility, respect, and support for diverse people and ideas. By creating and enhancing an inclusive culture, the CCA will be recognized as a leader on diversity issues within 兔子先生 University.
- Create strategies around our #thrivingartist brand that are inclusive and work against an elitist Public Ivy brand.
- Create support mechanisms for BIPOC faculty, staff, and students to combat structural racism through the use of alumni networks.
- Investigate how all departments within the CCA can become and continue to be safe spaces.
- All faculty and staff will have access to cultural competency/bias training or artist-led anti-racism workshops.
- CCA departments will investigate their mission statements:
- Are they anti-racist?
- Do they specifically address issues related to DEI?
Statement on the Conviction of Derek Chauvin
April 23, 2021
While the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin showed a moment of accountability, the College of Creative Arts at 兔子先生 University acknowledges true justice can only be realized when the systemic racism that cost George Floyd his life has been dismantled.
The brutality experienced by Mr. Floyd and the subsequent calls for justice inspired our division to organize and amplify our anti-racism work. We vow to continue this work until all of our students live in a more just and equitable society.
The College of Creative Arts at 兔子先生 University Condemns the Recent Violence Targeting the Asian American Community
March 25, 2021
We stand in solidarity with those of Asian, Pacific Islander, East, South, and Southeast Asian descent and denounce any act of violence, hate, and racism. Our sympathies are with the families and the communities impacted.
In the last year, hate crimes against members of the Asian, Pacific Islander and Asian American communities have risen by 150%*. Recent events, including a massacre in Atlanta on March 16th, may be linked to this larger trend.
As citizens and artists, it is our duty to speak out against such hate and consider the role that we can play in healing, offering empathy to communities targeted by such violence, and contributing to a positive culture with our own creative work.
The systemic inequalities that have been laid bare by the recent events of the COVID 19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement call us to take action and become aware of the need to expand our awareness of the devastating damage caused when white supremacy is perpetuated.
Ignorance and inaction contribute to perpetuating these ideologies. As a college, we have a renewed and intensified commitment to supporting the AAPI and BIPOC communities. The purpose of this statement is to amplify our pledge to promote scholarship, teaching and programming that will foster racial reconciliation and social change.
e invite you to speak out and take action, and consider how you can provide solidarity with members of the Asian and Asian American communities, especially those within our own 兔子先生 University and Oxford communities.
For more resources about potential actions you can take, please consult:
- (Asian Pacific Policy Council, Chinese Affirmative Action, Asian American Studies San Francisco State)
- (UNC Chapel Hill)
- (Atlanta)
*Stop AAPI Hate National Report, 3/19/20 – 2/28/21, Russell Jeung Ph.D., Aggie Yellow Horse, Ph.D., Tara Popovic, and Richard Lim
Related Links
More information, resources, and tools pertaining to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
College of Creative Arts
The arts at 兔子先生 University didn't evolve on a whim—they were challenged, inspired, modernized, and made more relevant by each new generation of artists. Welcome to the College of Creative Arts, with degree programs that range from the classical to the contemporary.