Davidson College

Davidson College continues to expand its resources and expertise in supporting the development and education of undocumented students and students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. We encourage interested applicants to apply for admission regardless of their immigration status and for admitted students to explore the following resources.

The Access Davidson Program took place between September 10-12, 2023, and is "designed for high school seniors from historically excluded racial and ethnic groups, those who are first in their family to attend college, and students from rural or low-income backgrounds." The program "provides prospective students with an opportunity to hear from current students, faculty, and staff over the course of their stay."

The university will be instituting "Mandatory antiracism training for all students, faculty and staff."

Through the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Equity Advisers "are trained in best practices for inclusive academic searches" and work alongside the Student Initiative for Academic Diversity (SIAD). SIAD are "trained student workers who conduct on-campus interviews with potential tenure-track faculty and senior administration candidates with a focus on the candidates' experiences and preparedness to teach, advise, support, advocate for and serve a diverse student body."

Starting with the class of 2021, each student must take one course that satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community (JEC) requirement.

Courses that satisfy the cultural diversity requirement focus on one or more cultures that differ from the main cultures of the United States or Western Europe. Through these courses, faculty members guide students as they explore cultural differences from an academic perspective. Many courses also may satisfy Ways of Knowing, major, or minor requirements.

"AFR 371 - Critical Race Theory" and "EDU 371 - Critical Race Theory" satisfies a major requirement in Sociology and Africana Studies, a minor requirement in Educational Studies, and a Social-Scientific Thought distribution requirement.

Reporting Bias Incidents & Hate Crimes Davidson College is an institution of higher learning and is committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment for all members of the community. Students, faculty, and staff all play a vital role in creating living and learning spaces that are free from bias, harassment, intimidation and hate. If you have been the target of a bias incident (or have witnessed a bias incident) please complete the form:

"Eight Davidson faculty and staff participated in the August LACRELA workshop 'Teaching the Truth About Slavery and America’s Racial History,' and a separate delegation participated in the September workshop: 'Strategically Hiring Faculty of Color."

Davidson received a $1 million grant from Lily Endowment Inc. in 2016 to fund a five year study "racism among white-dominant" churches.

Davidson received a $1.2 million grant in 2017 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund its new course requirement in Justice, Equality and Community.

The university will be "Providing $50,000 in grants in the 2020–2021 school year for student initiatives to build an anti-racist community."

The STRIDE (Students Together Reaching for Individual Development and Education) Program at Davidson "provides direct support to first-year and transfer students of color so that they can...successfully complete their first academic year of college...through inclusive dialogues, events and relationship building with Davidson students, staff and faculty, this program attempts to minimize institutional challenges students of color may have at a predominantly white college."

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) fosters an inclusive and welcoming environment on campus for systemically underrepresented student populations at Davidson College. The Center pursues this goal by providing direct support services, educational programming and community building opportunities within and across social groups.

Community Spaces Center for Diversity and Inclusion This student-centered lounge strives to be a community building space for diverse students to have organic conversations and enjoy social activities such as games, coloring, music and refreshments.

Educational Studies Major and Minor Our department prepares you to: Understand and apply multiple and conflicting perspectives on education and schooling; Understand how historical events, social forces, and moral principles related to democratic institutions can inform and direct schooling practice, leadership, and governance; Understand the full significance of diversity in a democratic society and how that bears on curriculum and instruction, school and community leadership, and state and national governance; Analyze critically both historical and current educational policies and practices at national, state, and local levels, and their impacts on teaching, learning, and the assessment of P-16 students. Prepare students who plan to enter graduate school in various education-related fields, such as school psychology, speech pathology, educational policy, education law, etc. Fulfill the needs of students who are interested in the academic study of educational history, sociology, psychology, theory, and policy.

Course EDU 385: Race, Families, and Inequality The family that you're born into profoundly shapes your life chances. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from sociology, political science, and psychology we will learn how family background and other non-school factors shape unequal educational experiences and outcomes in K-12 and beyond.

The Gender and Sexuality Studies Major and Minor at Davidson The gender and sexuality studies (GSS) program trains you to examine gender relations and the construction of gender and sexual difference from a globally-informed perspective and to consider how gender and sexuality intersect with the social categories of race, class, ethnicity, disability, and age to produce our complex social identities.

Davidson In Washington Internship Summer internship that includes a seminar: Race and Place: Structural Inequality and U.S. Public Policy

On August 11, 2020, Davidson welcomed "‘How to Be an Antiracist" author Ibram X. Kendi to "engage in a conversation with Davidson President Carol Quillen via Zoom."

In response to the Commission on Race & Slavery, the university pledged "to create four new tenure-track professorships, in part or entirely, in Africana Studies."

As of fall 2021, the college began offering a course titled "#Abolishthepolice: Race and Policing in the U.S."

Associate Professor of Psychology Phia Salter states, "My research utilizes cultural-psychological and critical race perspectives to inform my work on collective memory, social identity and systemic racism."

The Division of Student Life links to a "Racial Justice Resources" document and states, "Developed by team members in the Division of Student Life to provide students with resources to support active engagement in dismantling systems of oppression in our communities, this document is organized by ways we can learn, reflect and act."

The Davidson E.H. Little Library provides "Anti-Racism" resources which link to several online projects including: "Civil Rights and Social Justice ,"Davidson Anti-Racism and Inclusive Pedagogy Resources," and "Davidson Microaggressions Project."

In response to Charlottesville, the president of the college created Davidson College Commission on Race and Slavery

Faculty Senate called for antiracism training for faculty, staff, and students. The Senate also stated, "We therefore strongly support and pledge to join or initiate various forms of action to aid the BLM movement in its goals for an immediate end to systemic racism upheld by racist and discriminatory laws, systems, institutions, and practices, and manifested as racist discrimination and violence by public servants in the United States..."

Following the release of the Davidson Commission on Race and Slavery report, the university "issued a public apology today for its support of slavery during the college’s first 30 years and its embrace of the racist laws and policies that followed."

On March 29, 2023, DC's President announced plans to build a memorial at Davidson that would honor the " the enslaved and exploited people whose labor helped build the college."

On November 7, 2023, the college announced that it is "advancing its work on understanding the college’s history regarding slavery and expanding its commitment to education and reconciliation efforts in the present and future." Davidson's Board of Trustees and President Doug Hicks would establish a "new Committee on Education and Reconciliation to guide and support the college’s strategic efforts in understanding its history and building an inclusive Davidson College community."