University of Oregon

The Student Services and Enrollment Management, which includes the Office of Admissions, Registrar, and Financial Aid, states its mission "is to build a diverse, exceptional, and inclusive campus community."

Following the Supreme Court's decision on Affirmative Action, the University stated, "We are disappointed in the decision made today by the United States Supreme Court related to race-conscious decisions in admission."  The statement explained that "the UO will continue to seek to attract and retain underrepresented and underserved students while providing them with equitable and inclusive access to higher education."

The University Senate has its own Anti-Racism Academy where it "continues to examine how to ensure that [UO teaches] within inclusive classrooms and [builds] tools to evaluate whether [UO is] achieving this goal."

The Office of the Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration held an "Implicit Bias Awareness" project to "examine racial diversity as well as to understand barriers that exist for communities of color and those based on gender, sexuality, and disability." The project consisted of two components, "(1) a computer-based self-assessment through 'Harvard Project Implicit', and (2) in-person activities...as well as institution-wide training on 'Understanding Implicit Bias'."  Around "60% of employees in Finance and Administration" participated in the project and "close to 370 people attended an implicit bias training on campus, participated in events hosted by the diversity committee, and/or elected to complete an online self-assessment."

University launched a new black studies minor.

The University of Oregon Student Government is working with administrators in the university to implement Critical Race Theory curriculum to become a graduation requirement for undergraduate students and all bachelors degrees.

Annually, the SOJC’s DEI Committee recommends a "Common Reading" book for the whole community. The 2021-22 Common Reading included books "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants", "So You Want to Talk About Race", "Algorithms of Oppression", "Minor Feelings", and "On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life."

The University provides a form to report instances of "Discrimination, Harassment, Bias, and Retaliation."

Faculty are required to submit a statement including a "discussion of contributions to institutional equity and inclusion" when in consideration for promotions or tenure.

The university discussed endorsing Black Lives Matter.

In an April 14, 2021 letter to the community, the Provost said UO has been "actively engaged in the implementation of House Bill 2864, a piece of statewide legislation calling on all...in higher education to approach [their] work with cultural humility."

The Black Strategies Group (BSG), the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center (BCC) and the Black Academic Excellence (BAE) released a statement which states, "BLACK.LIVES.MATTER." It continues, "systemic racism continues to disproportionately impact us not only in policing, but also in healthcare, education, economic inequities, and much more." They condemned "UO leadership" for releasing a statement that "deprioritized Black lives."

The university received a $4.52 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to create a new institute dedicated to research on racial and climate justice.

The university will be creating an $11 million research and policy center focused on racial disparities and resilience.

UO's School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) has a Diversity Excellence Scholarship that supports students from underrepresented populations and helps advance the school’s commitment to building a more inclusive and diverse student body. Students can use the scholarship to pay for all educational expenses, including tuition, fees, books, supplies, and room and board.

The Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center offers a scholarship for incoming first-year students through graduate and law students with the purpose of supporting the continuation of enrollment or degree completion for Black students. Award allocations are based on academic classification and range from $1,000–$6,000.

The "Black Studies" minor prepares students to combat "racist oppression and anti-Black violence," and to create a "world of employment and governance based on radically imagined Black liberation and a more just future."

The "VPFA Ducks for Diversity Fund" is for employees "to actively seek or create diversity-related events and trainings." Sponsored by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, "the fund will help reduce financial barriers" to increase "access to diversity-related events and trainings," and to "[empower] individual employees to choose or develop events and trainings."

The university also discussed defunding its police.

The University has introduced "Community Service Officers" who "unlike Sworn Officers, are unarmed." The Community Service Officers will "go through a comprehensive training program, which includes learning about campus security protocols, UOPD and UO policy, and mandatory implicit bias and de-escalation training with the state."

The Police Department has a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiative to fulfill the Department's "ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion" and to foster "a community policing philosophy that permeates the entire department."

All UOPD employees are required to participate in "community-based training" on "implicit bias" and "euphemized bias."

The University’s Division of Equity and Inclusion outlined various steps it took to offer courses, training programs, and resources for DEI.

The University’s Division of Equity and Inclusion supports the school’s “five strategies groups: Asian, Desi, and Pacific Islander Strategies Group, Black Strategies Group, Latinx Strategies Group, Native American Strategies Group, and the Deconstructing Whiteness Working Group” which advocate for equity and inclusion throughout the campus.

UO Libraries has "Antiracist and Inclusion-Building" readings and media for the Senate Antiracism Academy. Ibram X. Kendi's book "How to Be an Antiracist" and TED Talk "The Difference Between Being 'Not Racist' and Antiracist" are recommended materials.

In efforts to combat racism, the Center for Multicultural Academic Excellence has a Student Leadership Team that plans and leads workshops, discussions, and activities for the annual New Student Fall Retreat specifically for first year and transfer students from underrepresented backgrounds. Members of the leadership team have to undergo ten-week of intensive diversity training, which cover intersectional issues, leadership development, fostering difficult conversations, and conflict resolution.

UO Libraries has a list of books and other resources that specifically address systemic racism and ways to combat it. The list includes books such as "Black Marxism" by Cedric J. Robinson and "Stamped from the Beginning" by Ibram X. Kendi.

The Office of the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion promotes inclusive excellence by working to ensure equitable access to opportunities, benefits, and resources and through engagement with the campus and the community. It strives to embed the IDEAL (Inclusion Diversity Evaluation Achievement Leadership) framework in its work.

The Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC)'s mission is to "[advance] inclusive excellence at the University of Oregon through critical thinking and an ethic of care." The center offers faculty development, graduate support, and implicit bias workshops.

UO's SOJC Diverse Alumni Mentoring Network is a collective of SOJC alumni who volunteer their experience and time to help students of diverse cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds adjust to the UO system, the school’s culture, and navigate professional fields.

New Faculty are invited to the "September Institute for New Faculty" which orients them with "UO’s mission for inclusion and belonging" and "[defines] UO’s teaching pillars: professional, inclusive, engaged and research-informed" along with several other topics.

The Office of the Provost provides resources on "inclusive teaching" which encourages faculty to "self-reflect" on their biases. Faculty should help students feel welcomed by "learning and using preferred names and pronouns" and should utilize "multiple perspectives and diverse social identities" for "diversity of representations in course materials."

Name of Matthew Deady, first president of the UO Board of Regents, may be removed from campus building.

The University will be spending $31,940 to cover four murals which contain “racist, exclusionary language and imagery.”

In the Department of Philosophy's Antiracist Statement, it declared that the department "categorically rejects racism, white supremacy, and police brutality", asserted that the "United States is built upon stolen and looted Indigenous land under the justification of manifest destiny and settler-colonialism," and affirmed Fannie Lou Hamer's words that “nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

The University has a "Continuum of Becoming a Thriving, Anti-Racist and Fully-Inclusive Institution" resource, which is an "Equity and Inclusion analysis of where the UO has been and where it seeks to go with respect to inclusive excellence, thriving and antiracism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional and organizational levels."

The University released an "Inclusion Roadmap" which stated the goal is to shift "UO from being a mono-cultural institution, where racial exclusion was the norm, to a resiliently inclusive multicultural institution." The statement continued, "Inclusive multiculturalism exists when traditionally marginalized individuals and groups feel a sense of belonging and are empowered to participate and lead in majority culture as full and valued members of the community, shaping and redefining that culture in equitable and anti-oppressive ways."

The School of Journalism and Communication released a statement of "Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Antiracism, and Anti-Oppression" which stated, "We believe in the importance of diverse representation, antiracism, and anti-oppression as vital components of education and communication" and affirmed the Department's "[commitment] to continue building a more inclusive learning and professional working environment." 

The University celebrates an annual "Weaving New Beginnings" event, which is "a networking reception" held at the beginning of the semester "to welcome all students, faculty members, and staff of color and their allies."