Full Plan: Addressing Racism, Educating for Justice

The protests that have occurred across the country and that have brought together people from every race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and age group in the aftermath of the brutal killing of George Floyd are both a cry of the heart coming from a community that has been the victim of systemic racism for our entire history, and a call to a national examination of conscience on race relations and on racism itself. And a call to action for Fordham. 

Fordham University pledges to address racism and educate for justice by:

• Developing robust admissions strategies for the effective recruitment of students of color
• Recruiting and retaining a more diverse faculty, administration, and staff
• Developing curricular and co-curricular initiatives that support the imperative of confronting racism and educating for justice
• Creating a more welcoming and affirming campus
• Building lasting partnerships with our neighbors
• Amplifying our voice in educating for justice beyond the campus

With the backing of the whole Fordham community (from the board to the faculty to the staff to the students), the administration, the provost, the vice presidents, the deans, the chief diversity officer, and I have drawn up the action plan that is outlined here. As the board, the administration, and I share it with you, I assure you that this should be seen as the first in a series of steps in what we now recognize must be an iterative process: as we listen more attentively and as we do more, we will learn more and adjust our plans and actions accordingly. Therefore, let us begin.

I invite the whole Fordham community to see this inflection moment in our nation’s history and in Fordham’s history as an opportunity to work for the creation of a more just world.

Sincerely,
Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
A Message to the Fordham Community, June 29, 2020