Gonzaga University

On June 29, 2023, Gonzaga's President issued a statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action which states the following: "Commitment to creating and sustaining a diverse student body, and commitment to the creation of a truly inclusive university environment, is thus a fundamental expression of our obligations and prerogatives as a religious institution. Gonzaga University will, along with its many colleague institutions and associations, review the Supreme Court’s decisions on these cases thoroughly to identify whether any modifications to our admissions processes will be necessary. The Court’s decisions will not, however, change our mission-based commitments, which include ongoing efforts to create a welcoming, inclusive, and diverse campus community – a community that recognizes that prejudice and social discrimination do exist, and must continue to be examined, understood, and eliminated if true equality is ever to be achieved in our country."

Gonzaga offers a Diversity Edu training for both students as well as faculty and staff. The DiversityEdu for Students course is “research based and teaches students about concepts and skills in areas of language, behavior, and the impact of microaggression and implicit bias, as well as much more.”

Gonzaga is home to the Inclusive Excellence Leadership Academy, which will “utilize multidisciplinary strategies and cover topics such as oppression, anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion, implicit bias, micro-aggressions, race, privilege, power, inequities, gender identities, current issues, generational intelligence, and more to deepen and expand the collective cultural competency of the Gonzaga community.” The IELA hands out the “Inclusive Excellence Leadership Certificate” to individuals who “attend monthly workshops over course of an academic year, attend monthly debriefing, and complete a cohort project.”

In the summer of 2022, Gonzaga had conducted “three searches [which] had the assistance of trained equity or search advocates who participated in trainings.” Furthermore, “an additional four faculty and staff were trained this past year, funded in part by CAS and the Office of Inclusive Excellence.”

Gonzaga created the Bias Incident Assessment and Support Team in order to work towards “supporting people and groups who experience bias incidents (defined below), monitoring and reporting on those incidents, and recommending educational initiatives to minimize bias.”

The College of Arts and Sciences offers a minor in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies which “unpacks how domination, (settler) colonialism, racism, and slavery have sustained white supremacist capitalist patriarchy historically and in the present.”

The Foley Library at Gonzaga University has a page dedicated to “Anti-Racist Resources” for “information for anti-racism learning and practice.”

It was announced that the school hosted “the first Equity-Minded Teaching Co-Lab during the summer of 2021, and the first cohort in this year-long initiative continued to meet throughout the academic year.

In summer of 2022, it was announced that “subcommittee member Amy Anderson produced a DEI Checklist to be used by instructors as a tool to prompt reflection on how equity-minded our courses are, and to encourage self-conscious DEI practices and design in course planning and teaching.”

The Department of Religious Studies within the College of Arts & Sciences issued a “Faculty Statement against Systemic Racism,” stating, “In recent weeks, the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and David McAtee, without regard for the God-given human dignity and inherent value of Black life are visceral reminders that racial injustice not only has shaped but also continues to shape the ways we live and work in this country. This is part of the larger American problem of systemic racism, which, along with colonialism, has led to disparate experiences of harm in the current coronavirus pandemic. As we are confronted with these violent realities, we condemn anti-black racism and white supremacy in all forms.”

On February 16, 2023, Gonzaga held an event for “Leading Against Hate: The Language of American Racism” within the Office of Mission Integration.

Gonzaga’s ODEI conducts an assessment known as the Intercultural Development Inventory, which “measures intercultural competence, such as cultural awareness and readiness such as attitudes and world view.”

The ODEI also conducts the Cultural Intelligence assessment, which “goes beyond existing notions of cultural sensitivity and awareness” and measures cultural values.

Gonzaga has a Social Justice and Anti Oppression Monthly Reading Group offered by the ODEI. The group is “structured to provide participants to read about topics related to social justice and anti oppression through short reading assignments.”

On April 5, 2023, Gonzaga announced, “As we near the celebration of UMEC’s 25th anniversary, I want to again affirm the importance of our University commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and ask that each of us commit to engaging in and deepening our understanding and awareness of inclusive attitudes and practices in our work, and daily experiences.” The school also announced the creation of the DEI Leadership Group, which “will play a critical role in shepherding and supporting the implementation of our Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan, which has been in development for over the past year.”