Colorado State University

CSU's 2023-2027 "Academic Master Plan" states that the university would "Design distinct recruiting, retention, and student success strategies that promote education, research, and engagement for all underrepresented and underserved groups."

CSU's Office of Inclusive Excellence "provides a variety of diversity, equity, and inclusion training opportunities for CSU employees, which includes faculty, staff, and graduate students." DEI training courses include: "Understanding Oppression," Microaggressions and Inclusive Language," and "Tools for Bystander Intervention."

Employees may take "six Creating Inclusive Excellence Program courses" to receive the CIEP Certificate. The required courses include "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Foundations," "Uncovering Bias" and "Principles of Community Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Faculty" among others.

Incoming students are invited to complete the "Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Module" during the second week of the Fall semester; however, the module will remain open "throughout the academic year."

During the "We Are CSU program at Ram Welcome" incoming students "hear about the Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging training module and engage in related discussions."

"Colorado State University's diversity course requirement for all students to graduate, titled 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,' will now be graded, in part, on 'student engagement in dialogue,'" Campus Reform reports.

The School of Education at CSU highlights several of its teachers and how they infuse diversity into their curriculums. For example, professor Kari Dockendorff describes her course, Quantitative Research Methods (EDRM 700), by stating "We use data to represent educational processes and outcomes to reveal systematic inequities."

The Faculty Institute of Excellence's goal is "to create a learning environment for faculty to engage in topics of diversity and inclusion in pedagogy, curriculum, and campus communities," to transform classrooms so "that awareness regarding diversity and inclusion is integrated within pedagogical practices" and "to develop awareness, knowledge, and skill sets that promote equity and social justice in educational settings."

According to the University's Note Regarding the All-University Core Curriculum, "each baccalaureate program of study must incorporate" the fundamental competency of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion."

CSU's Division of University Operations Diversity Plan states that it would "[r]equire members of search committees to attend one of the search training sessions offered by the Office of Equal Opportunity..." and that "[r]ecognizing implicit bias and learning how to prevent it are important skills that are taught in search chair training and inclusive excellence training."

University Leaders officially posted articles calling for the defunding of police.

The university's website featured the Fort Collins Anti-Racism Network, which is "a new group that seeks to help end racism. They are holding gatherings as they design the group dynamic and future anti-racism work."

The School of Education released a "Rising Up Against Anti-Blackness and Racial Violence" statement. The School states that it affirms "the experiences of the Black members of [the] community and the deep pain of this raw wound of white supremacy." Furthermore, it fully commits to using its "power and privilege to be change agents" in classrooms, on campus, and in the community.

The goal of CSU's Faculty Institute of Excellence is "to create a learning environment for faculty to engage in topics of diversity and inclusion in pedagogy, curriculum, and campus communities." The purpose of the Institute is "to transform classrooms and positively influence campus climate such that awareness regarding diversity and inclusion is integrated within pedagogical practices" and "to develop awareness, knowledge, and skill sets that promote equity and social justice in educational settings."

CSU is a member of the Rocky Mountain Alliance for Minority Participation (formerly the Colorado-Wyoming Alliance for Minority Participation), which is a "consortium of institutions committed to increasing the quality of education for underrepresented minorities (URM) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields.”

The Office of Inclusive Excellence sponsors "mini-grants." $12,000 was given to Diversity Strategic Plans in 2018-2019. The Office also "supports eight $1000 and eight $500 matching grants."     

The Human Dimension of Natural Resources offers a "Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship," open to those "who self-identify as being historically under-represented in the natural resources field." Up to 5 students will be awarded the scholarship of $1,000.

CSU Engineering has a "Diversity Scholarship" for students with financial aid, from traditionally underrepresented populations, with a special preference for first-generation students. The award amount varies.

The Dean's Office offers a Diversity Scholarship, according to the application, students must "identify with one of the following race or ethnicity:" American Indian or Alaskan Native, Black, or Hispanic. Recipients will be awarded $1,850.

The Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR) Diversity Goals are to "embed diversity and inclusion across OVPR units, enhance the visibility of CSU's research activities around diversity and inclusion, and improve access and engagement of underrepresented students in reach and scholarship experiences."

The University stated that it has "started a long journey of assessing every aspect of [the police] department." The University stated it is "examining policies and procedures, trainings, and the type of police officers [it] recruits to [the] force."

The University Police Department states it will "continue to train [the] entire force on implicit bias and racism and how they impact our every-day interactions and," starting in 2021, "expand that training to include the expertise of the CSU Vice President for Diversity Office."

The School of Education is "hosting sessions dedicated to inclusive pedagogical practices in the 2021 Diversity Symposium." The symposium "is a five-day-long conference... to come together as a community to explore and learn around topics of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice."

Colorado State University, Pueblo held an Anti-Racism Workshop with two sessions: "Change Begins With You: Strategies For Everyday Anti-Racist Action" and "Educate To Liberate: Tools for Teaching Writing In the Anti-Racist Classroom."

CSU's WAC Clearinghouse published a special issue titled "Anti-Racist Activism: Teaching Rhetoric and Writing," which states "This special issue helps meet a pressing need to continue and deepen a critical dialogue about race matters, particularly in classrooms that take up the pedagogical aims of synthesis, analysis, argumentation, persuasion and presentation, in short, the teaching of rhetoric and writing."

The University's Black/African American Cultural Center published an "Anti-Racism Resources" webpage which includes "Anti-Racist Baby" and "How to be an Anti-Racist" by Ibram X. Kendi and "White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" by Robin DiAngelo.

On October 29, 2019, CSU News reported that School of Education Professor D-L Stewart published a book titled "Rethinking College Student Development Theory Using Critical Frameworks," which includes "theories that expand student development through critical race theory, queer theory, feminist theory, and more."

CSU Libraries published a research guide on "inclusive excellence" which "contains resources related to topics of equity and inclusion in higher education, particularly topics related to pedagogy and underserved student groups."

The functions of the President’s Multicultural Student Advisory Committee at CSU are "to engage in conversations with university faculty and administrators, share students’ perspectives, and provide recommendations that will develop and sustain a campus climate of inclusiveness and help CSU better serve its increasingly diverse population."

The Social Justice Speaker Series at CSU's College of Health and Human Sciences "seeks to stimulate thought and action as we continue to work toward promoting equity and inclusive excellence at CSU."

CSU states that it promotes "cultural responsiveness throughout the student experience (including in the classroom, research and mentoring)."

During the Diversity Symposium sessions titled "Moving Towards Anti-Racism and Social Justice in the Master of Public Health Program: Leveraging a Moment in Time," "Refusing to 'Return to Normal': Lessons from the COVID, Racism, Environmental & Disinformation Pandemics," and "Creating Equitable and Decolonized Campus Spaces" among others.

The University’s Department of Biology hosted a new course called "Recognizing and Addressing Oppression in the Sciences" where students discuss "queer ecology and Indigenous epistemologies... to examining the ways modern academic spaces uphold principles of whiteness." Furthermore, "the course delved into the overlaps between science and oppression in ways many students had never experienced before."

CSU launches ‘Black Lives Matter’ programming with mural at Visual Arts Building

The University hosts an annual SOMOS Latinx/e Graduation.

Every year, the Native American Cultural Center "holds a reception to honor their Native graduates." Each graduate is honored "with a song by 'Ram Nation' Drum Group and enlightened with a speech by a chosen CSU alumnus."

The University released a Land Acknowledgement stating it "acknowledges, with respect, that the land we are on today is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute Nations and peoples" and states "we accept that our mission must encompass access to education and inclusion."

Each college and division within the institution is required to have "Diversity Strategic Plans."