The Faculty of Academic and Career Preparation (ACP) at KPU fully supports the mandate of the KPU Taskforce on Anti-Racism (TFA).
The Faculty of ACP affirms its commitment to recognizing and addressing all forms of racism and ethnic oppression. The Faculty of ACP faculty, staff and administrators are united in the pursuit to end racial and ethnic bias and to empower our students towards this collective goal.
The Faculty of ACP is also committed to creating an environment that respects the dignity and civil rights of all persons, particularly those from groups that have experienced discrimination and persecution, for it recognizes that intolerance and prejudice decrease the possibility of reaching one’s full potential.
We acknowledge that regardless of one’s own race or ethnicity, individuals are at various points along an anti-racist journey. We also understand that bias can be unconscious or unintentional and that racism is the combination of social and institutional power plus racial prejudice. Identifying these two specific forms of oppression and disparate outcomes does not automatically mean that those involved intend negative impact; therefore, conversations about them require courage, respect and compassion, and may not always be or seek to be comfortable.
We acknowledge the historical legacy of exclusion and marginalization in higher education, which has led to a social system in which white people enjoy structural privilege over other ethnic groups, on both a collective and an individual level. We affirm our responsibility to continuously learn about and disrupt systems of privilege, inequality, and oppression, and to reform our programs, policies, pedagogy, and practices in accordance with this responsibility.
WE STAND COMMITTED:
- To affirm explicitly and in united solidarity our identity as an anti-racist academic unit.
- To explore and examine implicit bias and systemic advantage/oppression both at the individual level and institutionally, such that our anti-racism commitment be reflected in the life and culture of The Faculty of ACP through our policies, programs, and practices as we continue to learn about racism and ethnic oppression.
- To develop and implement strategies and best-practices that dismantle racism and ethnic oppression within all aspects of our faculty, university, community and society.
- To help the KPU community identify and challenge discrimination and marginalization of any sort. Institutional policies and practices deserve particular scrutiny, including but not limited to the recruitment and retention of students; the recruitment, hiring, retention, and professional development of a faculty and staff; curriculum and pedagogy; health and other student support services; and overall campus climate.
- To identify, discuss and challenge issues of race, color, ethnicity and the impact(s) they have on students, faculty, and staff members.
- To create a community where every member is respected, and can speak, work, teach, and learn free from intolerance or harassment.
- To educate ourselves on the issues of linguistic discrimination and micro-aggressions and to work to eradicate them from our own classrooms.
Adapted from:
The School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. (n.d.). Anti-Racism Statement. Retrieved May 28, 2021, from https://socialwork.uncc.edu/about-us/anti-racism-statement
Reed College. (2009, November 28). Reed College Diversity Statement and Reed College Anti-Racism Statement. Reed College Office for Institutional Diversity. https://www.reed.edu/institutional_diversity/diversity-statement.html