Elon University

In an effort to "Expand Aid for Black Students to Attend and Experience Elon," the Division of Inclusive Excellence reported that as of August 2022, the Elon Black Alumni Network (EBAN) and University Advancement staff "continue to demonstrate leadership toward tripling the endowment of the Black Alumni Scholarship." Additionally, the scholarship endowment "was valued at $350,000 in 2020, and the goal is to increase it to $1 million by 2025." 

Elon's Love School of Business 2020-2025 Strategic Plan states that it would "Implement varied recruitment strategies to reach faculty, staff, and students from diverse backgrounds, ranging from engaging prospective undergraduates to attracting seasoned professionals to join the LSB community."

Elon's School of Communications 2020-2021 Diversity Assessment and Diversity and Inclusion Report states that it would "Recruit a student body reflecting the diversity of the population the university serves through school initiatives, faculty participation in multicultural weekends on campus, and working with Admissions on recruiting students from diverse backgrounds."

New and Returning Students will be required to take anti-racist training.

Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds's book "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You" was selected as the 2021-2022 common reading for incoming students and "will serve as a starting point for conversations about racism in the United States."

One of the authors of the 2021-2022 Common Reading, Jason Reynolds, delivered the Common Reading lecture "focused on his work on this year's selection, 'Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.'"

The Periclean Scholars Class of 2024 was "busy engaging with antiracist writing and thinking, and serving as peer-educators across multiple campus spaces" during the Fall 2021 semester. Specifically, they "chose to deeply engage with the common reading on 'Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You' by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, and further explore the complex history documented in this text" and "transferred a condensed version of this timeline onto poster boards and created a collection of interactive exercises and in-depth discussion questions related to both this history and antiracist action."

The university announced, "In fall 2020, Student Involvement, New Student Programs and the Center for Race, Equity & Diversity Education implemented anti-racism programs and offerings for new and returning students. These efforts were incorporated in new student orientation and student leader training."

Faculty will be responsible for infusing “inclusive pedagogy” into their curricula.

Infuse anti-racist content throughout the curriculum.

The university is in the process of infusing "Anti-Racist Content and Pedagogy throughout the Curriculum." The university said, "Building upon existing efforts in the Core Curriculum and Elon 101, Academic Council launched a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Team to examine processes and practices across the university with a goal of remedying areas where inequities exist. This DEI team will explore ways to increase intercultural consciousness, hold all faculty responsible for making their teaching more inclusive and assess and reward positive efforts so that further progress can be made."

The existing Diversity Course Database "will be retooled and organized with courses that include substantial content related to social identity and social justice related to systems of oppression in the United States."

On February 8, 2023, in an article titled "College Board makes major changes to AP African American Studies curriculum," Elon News reported that the College Board "released a stripped-down curriculum for its new Advanced Placement African American Studies course, removing topics like critical race theory on Feb. 1 — the start of Black History Month." According to the article, "The new curriculum makes contemporary topics including the Black Lives Matter movement optional to teach nationwide."

On September 15, 2022, in an article titled "New racial equity course requirement driven by Elon students," Elon News reported on Elon’s new "advancing equity initiative, centered on the addition of a four-credit course focused on racial equity." The course would first be introduced as a requirement for the class of 2027 in the fall of 2023.

Beginning in the Fall of 2023 at Elon University, "the teaching faculty have voted to add an Advancing Equity requirement (AER) to the Core Curriculum graduation requirements." Learning outcomes for AER courses are described (in part) as follows: "Students will apply real and/or theoretical solutions to systemic racism and other forms of oppression including how historically marginalized groups advocate for self, resist oppression, and build solidarity."

According to Elon's Division of Inclusive Excellence, responding to then-President Book's call to "revise the curriculum and require students in all majors to take courses that drive deeper understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion," as of May 2022, Elon faculty "voted to approve two proposals that support equity education for all students." The first proposal is titled "Equitable Thinking: An understanding of methods to address or remedy injustice and inequality," and the second states, "starting in 2023, students will complete a 4-credit​ course designated as an Advancing Equity Requirement."

Elon's Division of Inclusive Excellence links to the University's Diversity Course Database which includes hundreds of courses from the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Communications, Love School of Business and School of Education and "identifies courses according to the way they address seven dimensions of diversity – race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability and global."

The Intercultural Learning Certificate Program is "based in the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education that all teacher education students beginning with the class of 2022 will complete." This Program offers "an experiential deep dive into issues of social justice, inclusion, equity, and diversity through an intentional structure of an orientation session, academic coursework, co-curricular engagement, experiential learning project, capstone and a digital portfolio capturing your collective experiences."

Elon's Love School of Business 2020-2025 Strategic Plan states that it would "Integrate diversity and inclusion content into the LSB curriculum to demonstrate the business case for diversity" and "Enhance proportion of LSB students engaged in diversity-related educational experiences, such as enrolling in courses and minors that expose them to more diverse beliefs, ideas, and worldview that will enrich their learning within the LSB."

Elon's School of Communications "2020-2021 Diversity Assessment and Diversity and Inclusion Report" outlines "the ways in which diversity and inclusion are woven throughout the curriculum" and states that it would "Emphasize the importance of domestic and global diversity and the historic and current contribution of diverse voices in society, as evidenced by course objectives on syllabi."

Elon's School of Communications 2020-2021 Diversity Assessment and Diversity and Inclusion Report states that faculty member Colin Donahue "required students in his Media Writing course" to cover speeches from Ibram X. Kendi, the author of “How to Be an Antiracist.”

The School of Health Sciences at Elon University states that it would "create course content and co-curricular programs that prepare healthcare providers who are committed to advancing health equity, reducing health disparities, and serving all patients with the grace and dignity they deserve."

The university president called for a "redesign of Elon’s bias response system to be as effective and transparent as the law allows." Specifically, the university president requested "a public dashboard that provides the Elon community with data regarding incidents of racism on campus as well as the actions taken by the university."

Elon has a Bias Incident Reporting Form and states that "Bias-related incidents, including slurs based on racial or ethnic identity, faith tradition, gender expression/identity, sexual orientation, ability and others create, a hostile educational, living and working environment and such acts are not tolerated in our academic community."

As part of a requirement for the "Associate Director of The Center for Race, Ethnicity, & Diversity Education" position, the university requires "at least 3-5 years of progressive post master's experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion work or a related functional area in higher education" and, "Theoretical knowledge of student development, identity formation, racial equity, and social justice."

The university said, "Going forward, all future merit pay increases for faculty and staff will be based in part on their commitment to professional development related to diversity, equity and inclusion."

The university said that it will, "Implement Harassment and Discrimination Prevention and Anti-Bias Training For All Employees." The university said, "The Office of Human Resources will immediately enforce the university policy of requiring all faculty and staff to participate in an online training program titled 'Preventing Harassment & Discrimination for Higher Education.' This training includes modules that address discriminatory behavior, inclusivity, microaggression and bystander intervention."

Elon's School of Communications 2020-2021 Diversity Assessment and Diversity and Inclusion Report states that "all faculty and staff completed the required university bias and harassment training by July 1."

On June 1, 2020, Deans across Elon University released the following "#BlackLivesMatter" Statement: "The deans of the schools and colleges at Elon University stand unequivocally united against racism and police brutality. We believe Black Lives Matter. We are working to ensure our faculty and staff colleagues are better equipped to teach and lean into conversations that will help our nation and world change for the better. Hold us accountable to promote diversity and inclusion. Hold us accountable for recruiting and retaining diverse students, faculty and staff. Hold us accountable for meeting our diversity and inclusion goals. We are here to support our students, our faculty and our staff colleagues. We will work in our personal and professional spheres to make a difference."

Elon's School of Communications 2020-2021 Diversity Assessment and Diversity and Inclusion Report states that the school "won a grant to begin the Scripps Howard Emerging Journalist program which aims to recruit primarily junior BIPOC [Black Indigenous People of Color] students to participate in virtual and on-campus training."

The mission of The Center for Race, Ethnicity, & Diversity Education is to "advance the conversation on student diversity education campus-wide and to develop intercultural competence while providing race and ethnicity related advocacy, services, and programs to faculty, staff and students, particularly those from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities."

Belk Library posted a compilation of "Anti-Racism Resources".

The Belk Library also has an "Anti-Racism Resources" page, which includes Ibram X. Kendi's "How to Be an Antiracist" and Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility."

A university official has been promoted to "the new position of Vice President and Associate Provost for Inclusive Excellence." The official's "responsibilities cross all divisions of the university and he provides transparent leadership on Elon’s progress in the important goals related to diversity, equity and inclusion."

On February 24, 2022, Elon News published an article titled "Evolving education: Elon University professors reflect on teaching Black history today," which discusses how "Teaching African American studies and critical race theory proves challenging for some Elon University professors" due to the debate in the North Carolina legislature on the topic of teaching Critical Race Theory in public schools and universities.

On May 2, 2022, in an article titled "Cheat Sheet: Understanding relevance of critical race theory," Elon news reported on how Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation "illustrates how CRT plays [a] role in government."

The university is planning to, "Develop and Implement a New Procedure for Naming and Renaming Campus Spaces."

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