- Mailing Address
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
- Phone
- (205) 348-6010
- Email address
- itsd@ua.edu
- Website
- https://www.ua.edu/
- School Information
- The University of Alabama is a student-centered research university and an academic community committed to enhancing the quality of life for all through breakthrough research. Founded in 1831 as Alabama's first public college, The University of Alabama is dedicated to excellence in teaching, research and service. Our campus is a creative environment where students and scholars are equipped to become their best. Taught by leading faculty in their fields, our students make a positive impact in the community, the state and the world. UA’s history of success sets an expectation of greatness for the future. That is an expectation we will deliver.
- General Information
- The University of Alabama’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee created goals to increase the number of minority students and faculty, acknowledge and combat systemic racism, and post resources advancing anti-racism and critical race theory. Professor Richard Delgado, Chair of the Law School, is recognized as a founder of critical race theory. Dr. Bobby Wilson, a professor in the Department of Geography, received an award for his work in anti-racism. Alabama football players and coaches participated in an anti-racist video over the summer of 2020. Most recently, the University’s DEI committee formally opposed legislation prohibiting critical race theory, calling CRT a “useful lens.” While there is no evidence the University of Alabama requires any form of anti-racist or CRT training of its students or faculty, it plans to "Include diversity, equity and inclusion in the University’s general education requirement."
Actions Taken
- Admissions Policies
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The President's Advisory Committee aims to "increase the number of, retaining and graduating historically underrepresented students." The same goal is expressed for faculty and staff.
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The school states on its website, “UA has over 70 different student organizations which have diversity and inclusion as a focus.”
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- Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
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Under the "implementation" category of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee: "Infuse institutional expectations for the contributions of all students to build a more inclusive and welcoming University of Alabama community within the undergraduate student orientation (Bama Bound) and the graduate school student orientation." It also promises to "Work with the established general education task force to include diversity, equity and inclusion in the University’s general education requirement."
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- Curriculum Changes and Requirements
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The UA College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Hub provides guidance for faculty to create an inclusive syllabus with statements on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
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The school states on its website, “Over one-third of UA’s undergraduate curriculum (36%, 1083 courses) is diversity-related.”
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- Political Actions and Support for Anti-Racism
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The President's Advisory Committee created "four guiding principles of the University's Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion." One of the recommendations of the committee is "Acknowledgement of the University's role and responsibility in addressing the ongoing national crisis regarding the impact of systemic racism on the lives of all American citizens."
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"Education professors at the University of Alabama say proposed legislation and resolutions that target critical race theory would hurt their ability to train good future teachers." The University's "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee sent a letter this week [June 26, 2021] asking higher education officials to join an effort to resist recent efforts in Montgomery to limit how schools approach issues of bias and racism. The committee calls critical race theory a useful lens that helps educators understand the importance of diversity and systems that leave behind minority students and families.
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Professor Richard Delgado, the John J. Sparkman Chair of Law at the University of Alabama is "widely acknowledged as a founder of critical race theory."
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"Dr. Bobby Wilson, a professor in the department of geography at The University of Alabama, has been named the recipient of the 2012 Presidential Achievement Award, given by the Association of American Geographers, for his career-long dedication to anti-racist scholarship in geography."
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Alabama Football players and head coach Nick Saban appeared in an "anti-racism video." The video ended with the message that "all lives can't matter until Black lives matter."
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On September 17, 2021, the UA System Board of Trustees voted to “rename the Ferguson Student Center and Moore Hall” to the UA Student Center and Archie Wade Hal, the first Black UA faculty member, in an effort towards diversity and a “movement to remove racist namesakes from the US campus.”
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On February 3, 2022, the UA Board renamed the former governor Bibb Graves Hall to Autherine Lucy Hall to honor the first Black person enrolled at UA.
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- Resources
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The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee provides a "Resource List for Understanding Cultural Identity, Privilege and Allyship..." The list includes podcasts such as the 1619 Project, Articles called "The White-Savior Industrial Complex," and Ibram X Kendi's book, "How to Be an Antiracist."
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- Symbolic Actions
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The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion holds a monthly DEI program of Diversity, Coffee, and Conversations meetings for faculty, staff, and students.
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On February 4, 2022, the Intercultural Diversity Center continued its “Spring 2022 Social Justice Movie Series by showing Target: Philadelphia.” Participants explored ”the rise of police militarization within the parallel contexts of Black nationalism and the systemic disenfranchisement that incubates movements like Black Lives Matter, and the veracity of American exceptionalism is examined from a targeted perspective.”
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On February 18, 2022, the CHES Committee on Diversity and Inclusivity presented the Activating the Syllabus Statement: Inclusive Teaching Workshop by assistant professor Dr. Kimberly Blitch.
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The school states on its website, “UA has produced 1,695 active diversity efforts in the last 5 years.”
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On September 23, 2021, the UA Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hosted a webinar on “Critical Race Theory: An Overview and Conversation” presented by “two leading scholars in the field, UA Law professors Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado.”
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