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Texas Christian University

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
2800 S University Dr
Fort Worth, Texas 76109
Phone
(817) 257-7000
Email address
frogmail@tcu.edu
Website
https://tcu.edu
School Information
TCU's Mission: To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community. This is a place where students learn how to adapt to whatever the future might bring, develop critical thinking skills and expand their creativity. With a choice of rigorous academic programs in 131 undergraduate areas of study, 49 master's level programs and 20 areas of doctoral study, Horned Frogs have opportunities to search for meaning and examine values, yet graduate well-prepared for professional accomplishment.
General Information
Texas Christian University requires its students and faculty to undergo continuous diversity and inclusion training including unconscious bias training, beginning in 2018, and microaggressions training, beginning in fall 2021. TCU commits to increasing the percentage of students and faculty of color. The University also funds a program dedicated to tackling systemic racism and oppression. In 2020, it commissioned a Race & Reconciliation Initiative to investigate and report on the racial legacy of TCU and make recommendations to ameliorate past injustices. The University’s website offers extensive resources and literature dedicated to privilege, anti-racism, and Black Lives Matter.

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • TCU adopted a policy of "enhancing recruiting and retention of under-represented students, especially students of color by adopting a strategic goal of increasing the percentage of diverse enrollment for undergraduate and graduate students." This same practice is to be replicated for faculty and staff.
  • TCU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion 2020-2022 Report includes the following recommendation from the Race and Reconciliation Task Force: "We recommend that TCU develop and implement a comprehensive strategic plan to promote equity and inclusion in graduate and undergraduate student admissions..."
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • "Diversity and Inclusion EDU is a required compliance training for all students, faculty and staff, and has already been implemented through our training platform. TCU offers ongoing DEI trainings throughout the year, including Unconscious Bias training that is offered every semester for faculty and staff since 2018. Microaggressions training will be offered beginning this fall."
  • TCU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion 2020-2022 Report states that in July 2021, "23 faculty and staff completed the train-the-trainer program" which "focused on mitigating unconscious bias and interrupting microaggressions." In addition, from fall 2020 to summer 2022, "university personnel, undergraduate and graduate students learned about unconscious bias and its impact on how we interact with one another, make decisions and engage in our work."
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • The Department of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies at TCU's AddRan College of Liberal Arts explores "race and ethnicity as active social, political, historical and cultural processes and use race and ethnicity as categories of analysis across time and space."
  • The Department of Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies at TCU's AddRan College of Liberal Arts offers "eight CRES-prefixed core courses, one for each stage of a student’s academic career" and "requires students to sample a wide range of CRES-affiliated courses offered by traditional departments." Core courses available include "Gateway Seminar in Critical Race Theory," "Social Justice Organizing & Activism," and "Engaging Difference and Diversity in America."
  • On February 16, 2022, the AddRan College of Liberal Arts at TCU published an article titled "Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Money" which details a new Department of Economics course titled “Economics of Race, Ethnicity and Gender." The new course "introduces students to what different economic theories have to offer when explaining the massive differences in socioeconomic status between people of different races and genders and possible solutions to address inequalities."
Program and Research Funding
  • TCU "R.I.S.E" (Responsible for Inclusion and Sustaining Excellence Certificate) is an "eight-month cohort model program"..."designed to increase our faculty and staff's ability to navigate cultural conflict and interrupt structural and systemic issues of power, privilege, and oppression..."
  • "TCU's Race & Reconciliation Initiative (RRI) released the First Year Survey Report following nine months of intensive exploration, uncovering documents and artifacts, and hosting public forums and town halls." "The Race & Reconciliation Initiative is an academically-based, historically-focused initiative designed to investigate and document TCU's relationship with slavery, racism and the Confederacy."
  • TCU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion 2020-2022 Report states that TCU Academic Affairs provides "Inclusive Excellence Research Grants." The grants "combine the considerable intellectual resources and practical experiences of faculty and staff to ensure deep integration of Inclusive Excellence into TCU’s mission to promote academic excellence and an inclusive campus culture that educates students to be responsible citizens and ethical leaders in a global community."
  • TCU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion 2020-2022 Report states that "Over the course of fiscal years 2023–25, the Office of the Provost will award each college/ school one DEI Scholar Fellowship, three per year, renewable for one additional year." The program is "designed to recruit emerging scholars from a range of disciplines who are well prepared to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students."
Resources
  • The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion provides "Inclusive Excellence Resources." The resources aim to "educate oneself around issues of discriminatory practices and acting as tools for all individuals to intensify our work against discrimination." Categories of resources include "Anti-Racism," "Black Lives Matter," and "Privilege."
  • TCU's Office of Diversity and Inclusion 2020-2022 Report states that since 2018, the "College Diversity Advocates promote DEI in their college or administrative unit by supporting diversity in DEI curriculum, co-curricular programming and the recruitment, selection and retention of employees."
Last updated April 25th, 2023
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