{"id":201789,"date":"2017-01-20T13:38:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-20T18:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=201789"},"modified":"2023-07-25T13:41:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T17:41:43","slug":"a-message-from-the-equity-and-social-justice-task-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2017\/01\/a-message-from-the-equity-and-social-justice-task-force\/","title":{"rendered":"A Message From the Equity and Social Justice Task Force"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut has long committed itself to the values of diversity, collaboration, and informed intellectual inquiry, and for the past several years, has designated equity and social justice as a focal area in our academic vision.<\/p>\n

\"Stock
(ThinkStock Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As members of the Equity and Social Justice Task Force, we believe that the new social and political context created by the presidential election requires not only that we reiterate these commitments, but also that we, the Equity and\u00a0Social Justice Task Force,\u00a0acknowledge and empathize with the many individuals and groups in our community who are experiencing a considerable amount of pain, fear, and concern for their safety. During the recent political campaign, women, members of the LGBTQ communities, individuals with \u00a0disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, Muslims, refugees, and others were targeted with disparaging remarks. Given the recent spike in hate crimes\u00a0across the country since the election (as chronicled by the Southern Poverty Law Center\u2019s #reporthate), legitimate fear exists that such remarks will continue to translate into acts of harassment, incitement, and even violence.<\/p>\n

In recognition of the current unrest in our country and on our campus, we, the Equity and Social Justice Task Force,\u00a0would like to emphasize the following points:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The Neag School of Education\u00a0is an inclusive, open, democratic, diverse, and caring community that values the diversity of its students, staff, and faculty.<\/p>\n

2. We,\u00a0the Equity and Social\u00a0Justice Taskforce,\u00a0do not condone and will actively oppose any effort to target, harass, intimidate or exclude individuals or groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, language, religion, national origin, disability, or immigration status.<\/p>\n

3. We, the Equity and Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0believe that recognizing the inherent human rights and equal dignity of all people, listening to and\u00a0striving to understand one another, and making a commitment to work together is the way to foster sustained, positive change in our society and world.<\/p>\n

4. We, the\u00a0Equity and Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0stand in solidarity with individuals and groups who advocate for empowering those who have been and continue to be systemically oppressed.<\/p>\n

In summary, we, the Equity and\u00a0Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0want to assure our students, staff, faculty, and partners that we will be vigilant in ensuring that our spaces are safe for all members of our community. The university\u2019s policies and procedures with regard to bias, harassment, and intimidation are clear. Community members should should not hesitate to follow these procedures, and we encourage everyone to report any incidents directly to the Neag School Dean\u2019s Office, their department, or other responsible members of the Neag School administration to ensure a comprehensive and timely response. We, the Equity and Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0also would like to remind community members that additional support and counseling are available from the\u00a0university\u2019s Counseling and Mental Health Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Resources:<\/h4>\n

Bias Incident Protocol<\/h4>\n

Counseling & Mental Health Services<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our dedication to our core values is not contingent upon political and\/or social pendulums, but rather, is rooted in a lifelong pursuit of equity and justice for all. We, the Equity and Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0believe each individual and group reflects their values through their actions as well as through their inactions. Hence, we, the Equity and Social Justice Taskforce,\u00a0will continue to work diligently alongside our social justice partners to deconstruct systems of oppression, empower groups that have been marginalized, and foster a deeper manifestation of diversity and inclusion in policy, and more importantly, in practice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Equity and Social Justice Task Force Members<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dominique Battle-Lawson<\/p>\n

Joseph N. Cooper<\/p>\n

Anne Denerville<\/p>\n

Madison Hooper<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Howard<\/p>\n

Thilagha Jagaiah<\/p>\n

Mark Kohan<\/p>\n

Eric Loken<\/p>\n

Jennifer McGarry<\/p>\n

Glenn Mitoma<\/p>\n

Natalie Olinghouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As members of the Equity and Social Justice Task Force, we believe that the new social and political context created by the presidential election requires not only that we reiterate these commitments, but also that we, the Equity and Social Justice Task Force, acknowledge and empathize with the many individuals and groups in our community who are experiencing a considerable amount of pain, fear, and concern for their safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-201789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-11 02:29:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201790,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201789\/revisions\/201790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201789"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=201789"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=201789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}