On June 9 and June 12, two petitions were released by the Coalition of Black Organizations and there have been several questions about what’s happening. Here’s an update on what’s been going on — including dates of meetings, administrative response, and which demands have already been met:
There have been multiple meetings between the administration and the Coalition of Black Organizations. Throughout these meetings, all of the demands were discussed and plans were created to meet the demands.
Chancellor Woodson, Sheri Schwab, the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity, Lisa Zapata, the Vice-Chancellor and several other administrative members have come together to create a detailed response to the two petitions. This detailed response will include status updates, in detail, about which demands have been met and the plans to meet the other demands. This response is set to be released within the next week.
Once released, we will share their detailed responses on our social media platforms.
The updates for the two different petitions are separated below:
Advancement of Black Life Petition
On Juneteenth, Chancellor Woodson released a statement committing to meeting the demands listed in the petition, saying “I fully commit NC State’s administration and this university to achieving the items listed in the petition.”
Chancellor Woodson also publicly stated that there is more work that needs to be done, saying “as rightfully stated in the petition, there is more work that needs to be done and more steps that need to be taken.”
On Jun. 22, the Coalition of Black Organizations met with Chancellor Woodson, Sheri Schwab, Lisa Zapata, and Stephanie Helms Pickett, the Associate Vice Provost for the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, to go through the petition in detail.
Since this meeting, several of the demands have been met:
Demand 1: Sheri Schwab, the Vice Provost for the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, has fully committed to holding monthly meetings with leaders of Black Organizations on campus.
Demand 2: On July, 7 Diversity Training for both faculty and staff was implemented. The training is mandatory. There is still additional training being developed to address the specificity of the sensitivity training requested.
Demand 3: Several student leaders were invited to be apart of the interviewing process for a full-time director of the African American Cultural Center. The process is still underway and we are hoping to have an announcement in the next couple of weeks.
Demand 5: All Chapter presidents of on-campus Greek Organizations will be completing a diversity and inclusion training on August 7. Organization members are set to be added to this requirement (completing diversity and inclusion training) in the Fall 2020 semester.
Demand 6: There will be increased advertising of the Strategic Planning Task Forces webpage — this page includes the guidelines for the task forces as well as descriptions of each task force. Students, faculty, staff, and community members can provide feedback through this webpage.
Demand 7: The African American Cultural Center Enrichment Fund and the Multicultural Student Affairs Enrichment Fund are both currently available through various university webpages. Due to the existence of these two separate funds, there will not be the creation of a new fund. The Office of Inclusion and Diversity is currently working with University Advancement to increase giving opportunities specifically for the support of Black student organizations, student spaces, and programs.
Demand 8: As seen in the statement from OIED, The Black Male Initiative (BMI) Village will stay in Avent Ferry.
Request For Change In Policing Petition
As seen in the Q&A with Chancellor Randy Woodson, the immediate response to the police petition was scheduled for July 8. The town hall was postponed to a date still unknown.
On July 7, Chief House sent the Coalition of Black Organizations a document detailing UPD’s response to the petition.
On July, 8, the Coalition of Black Organizations met with Chief House, Charles Maimone, Vice-Chancellor of Finance and Administration, David Rainer, Associate Vice Chancellor of Environmental Health and Public Safety, Lisa Zapata, Vice-Chancellor, and Sheri Schwab, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity.
In this meeting, the coalition and the administration discussed each demand in detail. Chief House agreed to release a public statement detailing the department’s response to the petition, clearly stating which demands could be met and which ones could not. The concern with the communication sent on July 7 was the lack of clarity and ability to be easily read by the public.
As of July 23, there has been no public statement from the University Police Department.
Sheri Schwab, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity, has communicated that there will be a detailed response from UPD, similar to the communication that was shared on July 7.
