Collective for Black Student Advancement

Moving Towards Racial Justice

The Collective for Black Student Advancement is comprised of current students, alumni, donors, faculty, staff, and administrators reflecting comprehensive stakeholder collaboration in planning and implementing contributions to which the COE community will address and dismantle institutional racism while building up thoughtfully designed strategies for embracing and studying models of racial equity. This Collective will provide input for the development of activities and initiatives that specifically address anti-Black racism and provide the critical lens that is needed to keep the focus of the college’s efforts on target to address anti-Black racism specifically.

COE Commitment About the Collective Alignment with UF: The Decade Ahead Report

COE Commitment

The College of Education is committed to active participation in combating all forms of racism, discrimination, and behaviors or actions that threaten diversity, equity, and inclusion in the COE community and beyond. The COE commitment has three overarching goals:

Goal 1: Create an inclusive academic- and working-environment, in which best practices for addressing social justice, diversity, and anti-racism on behalf of students, staff, and faculty are emphasized.
Goal 2: Develop curricular and extra-curricular experiences that delve into the intersections of race, racial history, and the field of education.
Goal 3: Promote intercultural competency through community building, welcoming climate, and culture of respect, transparency, and inclusivity.

About the Collective

In June 2020, the College of Education has launched the Collective for Black Lives and Black Student Advancement (CBSA) after a group of College of Education students, including Black graduate students, alumni, and allies delivered a call-to-action letter to the COE Dean and leadership team expressing their concerns about “the state of Black Life in society and more locally, within our college.”

(See Action Letter to the COE, 2020).

Black Students’ Call-to-Action

In solidarity with demands from other Black students’ coalitions across the UF campus and across the nation, the graduate students call-to-action letter included a list of concrete action items to be accomplished by the College of Education, as follows:

Specialize

Implement a race-centered graduate degree specialization.

Educate

Increase the number of race-centered courses across the college and require that all students complete at least one of these courses.

Review

Review professional degree programs to ensure that race and racism is addressed and anti-racism is promoted, not in a singular course, but through each program.

Support

Hire, promote, and support Black faculty.

Grant

Ensure all Black faculty are granted graduate faculty status.

Transparency

Be transparent and implement equitable and consistent hiring practices for graduate assistantships.

Uplift

COE should lead intentional efforts to attract, recruit, and support Black students as it contributes to the efforts of diversifying the field of education.

Manage

The College of Education should create and fill an Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion position.

Alignments with UF: The Decade Ahead Report

The COE established foundational alignments to guide the work of the CBSA and ensure cohesiveness with UF’s The Decade Ahead Report, considering specific requests listed in the Black students and allies Call-to-Action letter.

The Decade Ahead, Goal 1

An exceptional academic environment that reflects the breadth of thought essential for preeminence, achieved by a community of students, faculty, and staff who have diverse experiences and backgrounds.

Objectives

Objective 1:

Recruitment, retention and promotion

Objective 2:

Community building climate and culture

Objective 3:

Fund, research and policies

Metrics

Metric 1:

Racial/ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic diversity

Metric 2:

Number and scope of activities and programs that promote diversity

Metric 3:

Percent of students and faculty engaged in interdisciplinary collaboration

Committees

CBSA Committee #1

Student recruitment, experiences and success

CBSA Committee #2

Faculty recruitment, development and research

CBSA Committee #3

Curricular opportunities for understanding racism and anti-racism in education

CBSA Committee #1

Supporting IDEA initiatives via advancement

Collective for Black Student Advancement

Moving Towards Racial Justice

COE Commitment

About the Collective

Black Students’ Call-to-Action

Alignments with UF: The Decade Ahead Report

The Decade Ahead, Goal 1

Objectives

Objective 1:

Objective 2:

Objective 3:

Metrics

Metric 1:

Metric 2:

Metric 3:

Committees

CBSA Committee #1

CBSA Committee #2

CBSA Committee #3

CBSA Committee #1

Resources

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