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University of Louisville

Undergraduate School

Mailing Address
Louisville, Kentucky 40292
Phone
(502) 852-5555
Email address
admitme@louisville.edu
School Information
"The University of Louisville is a state-supported research university located in Kentucky's largest metropolitan area. It was a municipally supported public institution for many decades prior to joining the university system in 1970. The University has three campuses. The 287-acre Belknap Campus is three miles from downtown Louisville and houses eight of the university's 12 colleges and schools. The Health Sciences Center is situated in downtown Louisville's medical complex and houses the university's health-related programs and the University of Louisville Hospital. The 243-acre Shelby Campus is located in eastern Jefferson County." The university enrolls over 22,600 students, employs over 2,600 faculty, and offers a wide-range of academic programs. (Source: https://louisville.edu/about/) (Source: https://louisville.edu/about/profile)
General Information
The University of Louisville has fully embraced anti-racism, as its university president announced that anti-racism "is where the world is going". Among other actions, the school has launched the Cooperative Consortium of Transdisciplinary Social Justice Research to study “housing justice” and “microaggressions.” No mandatory Critical Race Training sessions are yet required of students. However, see developments below:

Actions Taken

Admissions Policies
  • U of L's Office of Admissions has a "Diversity Recruitment team" in order to "support diversity recruitment initiatives and promote post-secondary educational awareness." The team is comprised of 25-30 undergraduate students from "various backgrounds."
  • On October 18, 2023, in response to the Supreme Court's Affirmative Action ruling, U of L's Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity published a memo titled "Campus-Wide Listening Session #17 'How will UofL Recruit and Retain Diversity'?” The memo's "session focus" section states the following: "Over the summer, the Supreme Court ruling ended race-based affirmative action initiated by the lawsuits from the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. What impact does this ruling have on the University of Louisville community? Additionally, with recent laws in Florida and Texas to eliminate DEI work, departments and titles dedicated to DEI have been changing names. As affirmative action ends and an attack on DEI efforts continues to spread, how will we recruit and retain racial diversity at the University of Louisville?"
Anti-Racism, Bias, and Diversity Training
  • An internship meeting was held on March 3, 2022 where “The Office for Diversity Education & Inclusive Excellence is looking for interns. The Inclusion and Equity internship program serves as a resource for students by training participants and giving them the tools to positively contribute to the campus climate. Interns undergo a training process with the office before serving as trainers and facilitators for offices, departments, and organizations around campus.”
  • The Office for Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence was "designed to support campus and community-wide diversity education and training" and "serves as a focal point for driving the University of Louisville’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion; which fundamentally advances our mission of achieving preeminence as a premier anti-racist metropolitan research university."
  • The university's 2023-2024 Inclusive Excellence and Belonging Report outlines its many programs and initiatives including the "Inclusive Excellence and Belonging Certificate," which trains participants on topics of implicit bias, microaggressions and white supremacy.
  • On January 10, 2024, the Office of Institutional Equity is facilitating a workshop titled "Anti-Racism for White People," which is described as follows: "White supremacy and the violence it inflicts on society is a problem that directly impacts all of us. In this session, we will dive into white supremacy and how an anti-racist practice is an integral need of how white people move through the world."
  • The Office of Institutional Equity offers many trainings/workshops on topics of diversity, anti-racism, and inclusion, including "Exploring (White)Supremacy," "Exploring Power and Privilege: A Journey Towards Equity," and "I am NOT Racist."
Curriculum Changes and Requirements
  • As part of UL's general education requirements, students "must take one course in U.S. Diversity (D1) and one course in Global Diversity (D2)." Diversity courses "will center on race, socio-economic status, and gender, and/or their interactions with other social demographics."
Disciplinary Measures
  • The Office of Institutional Equity outlines the work of its Bias Incident Response Team and states that the team is a "group of faculty and staff who are committed to creating a proactive response for students, faculty and staff to instances of hate and bias...."
Faculty/Staff Requirements
  • The university states that its Information Technology employees are "required to participate in diversity training" through the Cultural Center.
Program and Research Funding
  • Launched the Cooperative Consortium of Transdisciplinary Social Justice Research to study “housing justice” and “microaggressions.”
  • University Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity released Thematic Report on the search for the next university president with a focus of the administration to support diversity and racial equity as an “anti-racist university” through a “push for more minority faculty and staff in leadership positions” and “robust funding for the incoming VPDE in the way of staff and budget as well as other diversity initiatives.”
  • As part of the university's 2023-2024 Inclusive Excellence and Belonging Report, the "Interns for Resistance, Education, Action, and Leadership (R.E.A.L.) Change program" is described as follows: "[The] program is designed to expose college students to the scholarship and best practices concerning equity and social justice. This program aims to empower college students to actively engage in social and political change. This internship program provides college students with hands-on experience, leadership development, and opportunities to become actively involved in causes related to resistance, education, activism, and leadership."
  • The Martin Luther King Scholars Program is a "mentored scholar program" and has "historically been awarded to ten Black/African American or Latinx high school graduates from Kentucky or Southern Indiana." MLK Scholars "enroll in courses focused on social justice and peace studies...and, during the second year, participate in a civil rights immersion travel experience." Scholars are awarded "full in-state tuition plus an $8,000 stipend to cover some of the other university expenses."
  • The Woodford R. Porter Scholarship at UL "was created in 1984 to award students who meet the academic requirements and exhibit a strong aspiration to succeed and give back to the community" and "has historically been awarded to Black/African American students who are residents of Kentucky or Clark, Crawford, Floyd, Harrison, Perry, Scott, and Washington counties in Indiana."
Re-Imagining Policing
  • U of L states that "all campus police officers are required to participate in diversity training" through the Cultural Center.
Resources
  • Though the training request form has been deactivated, the college still lists implicit bias, anti-racism, and microaggression trainings on its site.
  • The College of Education and Human Development has created a new "Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion," which will implement programs and policies to "engage in dialogue around bias, privilege, oppression, and anti-racism," among other objectives.
  • On March 24, 2022, the Kent School planned to host It’s Time to Reconcile, Focus and Direct talk with Hannah L Drake and Josh Miller of IDEAS xLab “about the role of culturally-responsive and community-based efforts for sustaining anti-racism work.”
  • As part of Black History month, “The Kent School's Anti-Oppression Committee has created an infographic presenting some key moments in Kentucky Black History.”
  • On February 24, 2022, a virtual gathering was held for all “Kent School students, staff, and faculty who are survivors of anti-Black racism, such as racial discrimination and micro-aggressions.”
  • The university provides anti-racist pedagogy resources which are "designed to empower educators from all disciplines in their journey towards fostering an inclusive and antiracist classroom environment."
  • The university's Department of Sociology posted a talk by Dr. Cynthia Ganote who discussed "the debate surrounding teaching critical race theory and what people are getting wrong about it, along with the recent 'teach the truth' teacher's pledge in many schools around the country."
Symbolic Actions
  • Anti-racist athletics committee has been established.
  • University president announced that anti-racism "is where the world is going".
  • The university president may be exploring modifying its hiring practices in response to a request by legendary basketball player and coach, Butch Beard, to remove his name from the university's records.
  • The Kent School released its Anti-Racism Position Statement, stating, “As part of its mission to be an anti-oppressive School, the Kent School of Social Work and Family Science is dedicated to promoting anti-racism in all its endeavors, including service, research, teaching, practice, policies, and climate.”
  • On November 3, 2021, the Kent School released its Black Lives Matter Position Statement.
  • UL's Department of Comparative Humanities issued a statements on its "Support for the Black Lives Matter Movement" which reads in part as follows: "We support the Black Lives Matter movement and the fight against systemic racism, anti-Black oppression, white supremacy, and police brutality. We will seek to increase the number of African American, Indigenous, and immigrant faculty, staff, and students in our department and at the university."
Last updated January 30th, 2024
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