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Northern Arizona University

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
S San Francisco St
Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
Phone
(928) 523-9011
Email address
admissons@nau.edu
School Information
Northern Arizona University's mission is to provide an outstanding undergraduate residential education strengthened by research, graduate and professional programs, and sophisticated methods of distance delivery. NAU is a high research university with its main campus located on 740 acres in Flagstaff, Arizona. With online classes, the competency-based program Personalized Learning and more than 30 community campuses located throughout Arizona, including NAU-Yuma and NAU-Yavapai, Northern Arizona University brings education within your reach.
General Information
In 2020, Northern Arizona University released a “Diversity Strategic Plan” to commit to university-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives, mandatory “learning opportunities,” and further scholarship in diversity and inclusion. The Diversity Fellows Program was created to expressly honor those committed to the diversity and inclusion initiative. The commission on Ethnic Diversity seeks to establish “equity” in salaries and working conditions. Students are required to complete six total credits under the category of diversity to graduate. They also have access to optional—but recommended—training courses on diversity and inclusion in the workplace and managing bias.

Actions Taken

Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • The Equity and Access Office offers "two optional, but highly recommended courses" titled "Diversity: Inclusion in the Modern Workplace (EDU)" and "Managing Bias."
  • NAU released a 2020 "Diversity Strategic Plan" which lays out diversity and inclusion priorities. NAU plans t o "Widely acknowledge, disseminate, and promote NAU's commitment to diversity, inclusion and cultural competency. It also will "Increase mandatory and optional learning opportunities in multiple formats." It also seeks to "institutionalize the value of diversity-centered learning, service, scholarship and work."
  • On June 3, 2022, the university hosted a Lived Black Experience workshop to focus on “Black health to discuss the ways in which racism embedded in policies, practices, and interpersonal interactions across the state influence the well-being of Black Arizonans.”
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • Effective in 2013, all students have been required to take "3 units of coursework that meet the criteria for the U.S. Ethnic Diversity requirement," along with "3 units of coursework that meet the criteria for the Global Diversity requirement."
  • The university’s “new General Studies Program, approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in October 2021, requires students to take four Diversity Perspectives courses, one in each of the following categories: Global Diversity, U.S. Ethnic Diversity, Indigenous Peoples, and Intersectional Identities.”
Program and Research Funding
  • The Diversity Fellows Program was created to "recognize those that have demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion at NAU." There are 8-10 fellows on the council "who have demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion..."
Resources
  • The Commission on Ethnic Diversity offered the goal to "Advocate for equity in salary and working conditions by strategically negotiating policies and practices"
  • NAU's Diversity Strategic Plan aims to "recruit underrepresented faculty, staff, and administrators."
  • The Center for Health Equity Research provides numerous anti-racism resources as an evolving compilation with a featured video of Ibram X Kendi’s TED 2020 “The Difference Between Being Not Racist and Anti-Racist.”
  • The Southwest Health Equity Research Collaborative (SHERC) is a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) grant-funded cooperative agreement through the NIH within the Center for Health Equity Research at NAU. SHERC works closely with community partners to expand their capacity to address health disparities and takes a "team science and translational research approach within a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice framework."
  • NAU's Fairness First Campaign was established to "support inclusive and meaningful conversations in our communities about health equity, fairness, and justice." Fairness FIrst hosts talks and has a podcast show and blog.
Symbolic Actions
  • The NAU Center for Health Equity Research’s (CHER) statement on anti-racism addresses “the everyday violence, trauma, and terror that reverberates from institutionalized racism, white supremacy, and forces of settler colonialism.” The statement continues by saying they “condemn the relentless racial profiling, surveillance, harassment, degradation and excessive use of force performed by law enforcement on Black, Indigenous, Latino, and other people of color, and the complete and utter failure of our justice system and other institutions to provide retribution and solace to these victims of state sponsored violence.”
  • In March 2021, NAU released a statement against anti-Asian hate.
Last updated January 25th, 2024
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