University of Illinois at Chicago

The Office of Diversity and the Dean of Students launched an implicit bias training to all of the university community.

As part of the 2021 "Update on Advancing Racial Equity Initiative," UIC states that it would "[increase] resources for anti-bias training for faculty and staff across the university to help generate a more inclusive campus climate."

In March and April of 2024, the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Engagement is holding campus-wide workshops on "Understanding Implicit Bias and Exploring Mitigation Strategies." The workshops are open to faculty, staff, and students.

UIC outlines its "Bias Reporting Tool" and states, "This includes providing a space for students, faculty and staff to report incidents of bias and have their concerns heard, and opportunities for education both for those who may have engaged in biased behavior and for the campus community at large."

The Office of Diversity in partnership with the UIC School of Public Health has established the "Partnerships for Antiracist Campus Transformation" that has the goal to "identify various community needs and organize our university expertise and response."

As part of the 2021 "Update on Advancing Racial Equity Initiative," UIC states that it is "committed to becoming the leading university in the Midwest in graduating Black students in the STEM fields by establishing and funding this critical pathway program in the 2022-2023 academic year, regardless of whether we are awarded the HHMI [Howard Hughes Medical Institute pathway program] grant or not." Additionally, UIC would establish "new avenues of support for scholarships for Black students, including, but not limited to, the promotion and dissemination of the Ida B. Wells Scholarship fund."

As part of the 2021 "Update on Advancing Racial Equity Initiative," the UIC Police Department will "no longer routinely use race, ethnicity or national origin as a descriptor in public safety advisories."

On March 29, 2022, the university hosted an event on the Legacies of Racism to provide insights “between structural racism, education, and wealth gaps” from the “perspectives of academic researchers, a higher education advocate, and a political leader.”

On March 10, 2022, the university welcomed Dorothy A. Brown for the year’s Bowman Lecture to discuss her book, “The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans - and How We Can Fix It.”

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Engagement has a tracking page to highlight all of the progress from the Advancing Racial Equity Initiative which includes numerous actions towards the five main goals of Centering Student Equity and Inclusion, Advancing Faculty and Staff Inclusive Excellence, Collaborating with Chicago Communities, Reimagining Public Safety, and Achieving Transparency and Accountability.

On April 4, 2022, the university hosted a discussion of “Critical Race Theory and its role in public school systems, universities and national politics.”

On March 8, 2022, the UIC College of Social Work hosted a panel “discussion with scholars who interrogate the criminal justice system through the lens of critical race theory.”

On April 14, 2022, the university hosted a panel discussion on Critical Race Theory.

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Engagement has a Diversity Strategic Plan listing efforts for diversity education and a Diversity Resource Portal with numerous diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.

On April 3, 2023, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence at UIC published an article titled "Legislative Suppression of Critical Race Theory in Higher Education" which claims that CRT has been "a scapegoat for the discussion of what versions of America we will teach and what versions we will resist, because it is the study of systems and structures, not individual actions." The article goes on to state the following: "CRT is a framework of analysis that centers race and racism as key to the development of the fundamental structures that facilitate American Democracy, such as law, education, and the economy. Its major tenets are that racism is a fixture in American laws, government, and society; white supremacy serves material and psychological purposes in American society; that racial categories exist to include or exclude groups from privilege and power at various points in history...."

On September 28, 2023, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UIC hosted an event titled "The Humanizing Critical Race Theory Project" which featured Dr. Adrien Wing, Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law Programs, University of Iowa, and was funded by the Mellon Foundation.

UIC's Center for Healthy Work (School of Public Health) issued a "Statement of Solidarity with Black Lives Matter" which reads in part as follows: "We are disheartened, enraged, and moved to action by the recent events that have taken place. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, a historical pandemic of systemic racism was brought to the forefront. The lives of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor remind us of the many others before them that unjustly suffered a similar fate at the hands of those who are sworn to protect us."

On February 16, 2023, as part of Black History Month, the Center for Student Involvement at UIC hosted an online event titled "Abolitionist Presence" which was described as follows: "Black Lives Matter to BLM Politics: We are hosting an Abolitionist Presence presentation/teach-in to facilitate conversations of how our Black communities can build the presence of abolitionist safety, wellness, and liberation. Thus, we take the historical pursuit of Abolition to the present day pursuit of Abolition. Black history essentially, but with vision building for a future where we are free, liberated, and well."

John Marshall Law School will be changing its name, due to petition pressure.

The Advancing Racial Equity Initiative and comprehensive action plan was established “in response to campus voices mobilizing for Black lives and against racism.”

As part of the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, students and faculty from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences formed the NSF-sponsored Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences (URGE) program to develop, modify, and discuss anti-racist policies and strategies.

In 2021, UIC was “commended for its diversity efforts by receiving the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from Insight into Diversity magazine for the sixth year.”

The mission of the Women's Leadership and Resource Center is to "provide opportunities to learn about the histories of and contemporary issues in feminist movements, activism, and scholarship, especially as they relate to white supremacy, ableism, heterosexism, transphobia, wealth inequality, et al."