University of Alabama

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.

UA's Strategic Plan (goal #3) states that it would continue to "[e]xpand current efforts that strengthen the recruitment, matriculation, retention, and graduation of historically marginalized and underrepresented students."

UA's Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion seeks to "[r]ecruit, retain and graduate more diverse students" and to "[d]evelop a more culturally competent campus community."

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."

Goal three of UA's Strategic Plan states that it would continue to "[e]xpand educational and learning opportunities in diversity, equity, and inclusion, to assist faculty, staff, and students in developing cultural competencies."

As part of the "Path Forward Diversity Report," UA intends to "[d]evelop and implement a campuswide [sic] inclusive hiring practice workshop for faculty and staff" which would "include training on recognizing implicit bias, building a diverse candidate pool and incorporating institutional cultural responsiveness in the search process."

UA's "Path Forward Diversity Report" states that it intends to "[e]stablish a series of inclusive-teaching professional development workshops to support faculty in their desire to make classroom learning more inclusive across all disciplines" and to "[e]stablish a center for DEI education and professional development that is designed to meet the ever-increasing needs of complex organizations."

The school states on its website, “Over one-third of UA’s undergraduate curriculum (36%, 1083 courses) is diversity-related.”

UA provides a link to its "Hate and bias reporting form."

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."

"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.

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."

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."

UA's Strategic Plan (goal #3) states that through the "Rising Tide Capital Campaign," it would continue to "increase access, achievement and diversity through scholarships, fellowships, and programming."

UA's Path Forward Diversity Report states that it would "[c]ontinue the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion grants designed to provide support for programming that advances the development of cultural competencies of the campus community."

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."

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.

The school states on its website, “UA has over 70 different student organizations which have diversity and inclusion as a focus.”

The Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life published a report titled "Going Woke in Dixie?: The Progress of DEI at the University of Alabama & Auburn University," which discusses in depth, the current DEI practices/programs at the University of Alabama. The report's executive summary states the following: "Half of Alabama’s colleges have DEI deans or DEI committees. All of the colleges are undertaking DEI reform. Sororities and fraternities would be overseen by diversity bureaucrats. Athletics would be made to show pride in all things LGBTQ+. Task forces would consider renaming buildings and streets and removing monuments around campus. The work is continuing."

The goal of Culverhouse College of Business' "DEI Leadership and Mentoring Initiative" is to "reduce success gaps that exist for historically underrepresented minorities."

"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."

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.”

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.

The Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion holds a monthly DEI program of Diversity, Coffee, and Conversations meetings for faculty, staff, and students.

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.”

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.

The school states on its website, “UA has produced 1,695 active diversity efforts in the last 5 years.”

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.”

UA's "Path Forward Diversity Report" includes the following statement: "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."