Seattle University

On June 29, 2023, the university's President issued a statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action which reads: "Because our commitment to diversity is intrinsic to our mission, it is also ultimately rooted in our Jesuit, Catholic character. This understanding takes on added significance in light of today's disappointing U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, which will likely hinder the ability of many universities to achieve a diverse student body. At Seattle University, we will continue to use every tool consistent with the law to create and sustain a diverse and inclusive academic community."

The university's 2022-2027 Strategic Plan states that it would "fully implement the LIFT SU initiative, improving our recruitment and retention of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students, faculty and staff...."

Goal one of the LIFT SU "action plan for racial equity and antiracism" is the "recruitment & retention of BIPOC students."

The Office of Multicultural Affairs “supports critical learning on diversity and inclusion” by providing numerous workshops and trainings on topics including “Understanding Structural Inequalities and Oppression, Deconstructing Systems of Privilege,” as well as Social Justice Advocacy.

The Sundborg Center for Community Engagement at SU is committed "to living and leading as an anti-racist organization" through "[e]nhancing individual and collective racial equity professional development for CCE staff, student leaders, volunteers and our partners."

As part of the Reigniting Our Strategic Directions Plan 2022-2027, Seattle University will reimagine and revise their curriculum to embed “racial injustice and widening economic inequity.” The university will “provide our schools, colleges, and departments the opportunity and resources to develop a revised curriculum, including the undergraduate Core Curriculum.”

The Department of Social Work states, "All courses in our curriculum, rather than one or two designated 'diversity' courses, examine issues of social justice." The program's social justice focus includes "Anti-Oppressive Analysis and Practice" as well as "Critical Pedagogy (including multiple critical theories)."

The University President, along with each Cabinet member and Dean signed a pledge of "Commitment to Live and Lead for Racial Equity and Antiracism."

LIFT SU "takes strategic action to address systemic racism." It prioritizes "affirmation of and allyship with our Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) community at Seattle University."

As a part of the Reimagining and Revising Our Curriculum plan, the 2021 Pilot Initiative on Anti-Racist Education: Curriculum Development Cohort “provides financial support for faculty to pursue projects which focus on integrating anti-racism into curricula.”

The Race, Racialization, and Resistance in the United States curricular project within the College of Arts and Sciences was recently made possible by a Mellon Foundation grant of $495,000. The aim of the project is to "enable faculty in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to design courses that explore the complex processes of the construction of race in the U.S. in global contexts."

The Sundborg Center for Community Engagement at SU "strives to live and lead as an anti-racist organization" and is "committed to anti-racist practices that honor the full humanity of all community members and collaborate across cultures and generations."

"LIFT SU" was founded as an "action plan for racial equity and antiracism." It "offers a beginning response further evolving our university commitment to inclusive academic excellence."

Seattle University’s Lemieux Library provides a number of resources on systemic racism, social justice and equity, microaggressions, and racial justice reads from authors including Ibram X. Kendi and Robin Diangelo among many others.

A course, PUBA-3200 Diversity & Soc Just in Wrkplc, is offered at the school, centering on “embodied diversity and social justice leadership praxis.”

The course, CMME-3201 Reporting for Social Change, focuses on “inclusive and empathetic narratives about marginalized or underrepresented subjects.”

Dr. Maureen Emerson Feit is Director and Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership at Seattle University and has "published on the application of critical race theory in nonprofit management education."

From January through March of 2022, the university hosted a month of meditations on racial justice in a reading and reflection group on The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice with Ignatius of Loyola.

On May 13, 2022, the university hosted a lunch and conversation on the Ignatian Work of Racial Justice where “faculty and staff reflect on how the Jesuit Catholic mission informs their anti-racist efforts and on their experiences at Seattle University working toward racial justice.” The event is “meant to inspire collaboration and deeper integration of the Jesuit Catholic mission and the work of racial justice.”

The Lemieux Library at Seattle University will focus on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Action Plan to present “goals aimed at advancing equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism at the Lemieux Library.”

Seattle University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs hosted a Faculty and Staff of Color Retreat in March of 2022 as a “dedicated space to focus on connection and healing as acts of liberation.”

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) hosts a monthly OMA Speaks Community Dialogue in an effort to “create opportunities for students, staff, and faculty to engage in meaningful dialogue about current topics related to identity, diversity, and inclusion.”

On April 19, 2023, Seattle University held the second Racial Equity Summit which “drew nearly a thousand people to deepen their understanding and build collaborative capacity to pursue antiracist education.”

As part of its recommendations to get involved in environmental justice, the school states that people should “be an anti-racist.”

As part of its mission, vision, and values, the Sundborg Center for Community Engagement at SU states the following: "We must actively reject the 'white savior complex', and instead collaborate in solidarity across racial difference in equitable relationships. The more open discussion of the reality and impact of systemic racism, the better equipped we are to pursue a more just and humane world ... #BlackLivesMatter."