University of Richmond

UR announced that it has "hired its first director of admission for diversity outreach and partnerships who will directly oversee the diversity recruitment and outreach, international, and off-campus programming teams."

UR's Strategic Plan states that it would "[c]ontinue to implement strategies to recruit, retain and support a diverse and vibrant University community."

TIDE Program: Administrative Support in Thriving, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. Recent years have seen an increased focus on Thriving, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (TIDE) at UR, including the introduction of committees and councils, training for employees, and the hiring of an Assistant Dean for Diversity, Inclusion, and Thriving in the School of Arts & Sciences. While UR is taking a 10,000-foot view, questions still abound regarding their granular focus.

The Student Center for Equity and Inclusion provides "Ally Training" and workshops for social justice initiatives.

Through the Race and Racism Project at UR, students "receive academic instruction, technical expertise, and anti-racism training...."

UR regularly offers "[p]rofessional development workshops on diversity, equity, and inclusion for staff, faculty, and senior leaders...."

All first year students will "eventually" take part in the "WELL 100, a fourteen week extended orientation class" that was launched in 2021. This class "will allow new students to receive more dedicated instruction on...DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] awareness."

Report a Bias Incident. Discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, religion, national or ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression, disability, status as a veteran or any classification protected by local, state or federal law is prohibited and will not be tolerated at the University of Richmond.

UR's Human Resources and Provost's Office provide a faculty hiring workshop every year which includes "anti-bias training focused on the hiring process and is mandatory for department and search committee chairs."

The university has a program dedicated to anti-racist advocates in 1971.

The university held an event called "Strategies for Creating an Inclusive and Antiracist Classroom From the First Day Forward."

The Thriving, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (TIDE) Fund at UR "awards grants in support of projects advancing culture change toward greater thriving, inclusion, diversity, and equity." Projects that are "focused on advancing anti-racism are especially welcome" and are open to students, faculty, staff and all offices and departments.

As part of its 2022-2023 Campus Highlights, UR reported that "Howard Hughes Medical Institute awarded UR a $625K [Inclusive Excellence] grant to support efforts to enhance student belonging."

Richmond has a dedicated website called Common Ground in which they advertise a lengthy series of Racial Justice events.

Black Lives Matter: We offer the following resources for members of the University community who wish to participate in, support, or better understand the Movement for Black Lives. The resources are starting points, not a comprehensive list. Please contact us with your thoughts, questions, or suggestions. Education section includes writings by Ibrahim X. Kendi, Patrice Cullors, and others.

If you're curious about the Accountability and Progress pages, they have been removed as of this writing.

Richmond offers a minor in Education in Society: Education remains one of the biggest public policy challenges in the United States. The Education and Society minor encourages students to examine the institution of education and its role in society, with a focus on policy and politics, gender and ethnicity, and issues surrounding urban education. This minor does not lead to teacher licensure, but rather prepares students to think critically about reform and contribute to solving the many challenges facing education. By exploring the issues surrounding education philosophy and reform, students can prepare to engage in shaping future policy.

The Department of Education offers EDUC 376 Social Justice in Education: Examines how social inequality impacts public education, and how schools function to perpetuate and/or remediate social injustice. Further explores how socially constructed differences (race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds) may be used to privilege some learners and marginalize others. Considers teachers as agents of change and what individuals and communities can do to ensure that all students have equitable educational opportunities. A community-based learning experience is a required course component.

The website for the Office of Multicultural Affairs is currently being restructured.

The Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion at UR provides "collaborative support for units and unit leaders, as well as individuals seeking to develop thoughtful DEIB [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging] plans."

DEI statement on their webpage: "At Richmond, we are advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through a collaborative, shared leadership approach we refer to as distributed leadership. Put simply, responsibility for attending to DEI work at UR does not fall to a single person. It takes all of us, working together intentionally and urgently."

Student-driven equity summit takes on justice and inclusion October 22, 2020. University of Richmond students are engaged members of the Spider community who advocate for changes that meet the needs of the student body. A recent example is the University’s first Equity Summit that brought together more than 450 students, faculty, staff, and alumni on topics of inclusivity.

The Race and Racism Project at UR is a "joint undertaking between students and faculty to examine the history of race at the University."

The Student Center for Equity and Inclusion at UR states, "We challenge members of the campus community to join our efforts to promote social justice, cross-cultural dialogue, and awareness of systemic inequity."