With the spring semester now well underway, I want to take a moment to remind us all of our campus values, the standards we hold ourselves accountable for and our commitments to each other as members of the CU Boulder community.
One of my highest goals is to ensure that every person at CU Boulder has a safe, welcoming and supportive learning, living and working environment. And I want to be clear that racism, discrimination and harassment have no place on our campus. We have much work to do to achieve this goal both on our campus and in our society at large, which is why I am reminding us of our shared responsibility for the progress we need to make as a campus community.
Each student on our campus is expected to know and uphold our student code of conduct. Each faculty member is governed by our professional rights and responsibilities. Each employee is expected to abide by our university’s code of conduct. These standards have been adopted through our shared governance model, and they apply to everyone who seeks the privilege of being a member of our campus community.
We have encouraging efforts underway through the recent adoption of our campus IDEA Plan and our collaborative work with student leaders and additional members of our community. These efforts are designed to help strengthen our campus climate, enable our progress toward making excellence inclusive, advance anti-racism and anti-harassment efforts and improve the campus experience so that everyone feels welcome, valued and safe on our campus.
Beyond our conduct policies, our work on the IDEA Plan and our collaborations with student leaders, it is up to each of us to ensure racism, discrimination and harassment have no home at CU Boulder. We must look to each other for support and grow our capacity to lean into these challenges. Our most important work to foster an increasingly inclusive campus is the actions each of us takes every day.
Don’t Ignore It. Empower yourself and your peers with knowledge about what to report, where to get support and how to help those in need. Show your care and take responsibility for each other. Be instrumental in realizing our shared vision of creating a safe and welcoming campus culture, every day, for every member of our community.
By working together, we can continue to enable the progress we wish to see.
Sincerely,
Philip DiStefano
Chancellor
Don’t Ignore It.
CU Boulder policy prohibits discrimination and harassment based on protected-class identity. All members of the campus community should report any acts involving unfair treatment, abusive words or expressions, or intimidating behavior aimed at any member of the campus community based on an aspect of identity.
Get additional information on this and other resources and reporting options at colorado.edu/dontignoreit.
