ASU President commits university to various actions to address historic and current racial issues
TEMPE, Ariz. - The President of Arizona State University is speaking out amid continued controversy over racial issues on campus.
The statement by President Michael Crow was released days after a march that called for defunding ASU Police, as well as faculty diversity. The march was organized by an unofficial student group, while members of an ASU student organization called the Black African Coalition claimed university officials threatened to suspend participating students.
Statement makes various commitments on racial issues
In the statement, President Crow says recent incidents, including the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin, are reminders that the university needs to "turn a mirror on ourselves to identify our own missteps, inadequacies and deficiencies."
The statement lists 25 courses of action the university commits itself to, including:
- Supporting a proposal to undertake a historical study of race and discrimination at the university, as proposed by a law professor
- Appointing an advisory council on African American affairs, to be established and convened as soon as possible in September 2020
- Measures to address systemic bias in identification of job candidates and hiring
- An ASU police force where all officers have a bachelor's degree, or the opportunity to earn one if they don't have one
- Develop racial sensitivity and other new training for police officers
"I do know this list of actions will be inadequate by itself. I also want to acknowledge that many units across the university have already been hard at work at introspection and planning on how they will address racial injustice," President Crow wrote. "We will work harder, invest more and do more to ensure that Black students, faculty and staff — and other underrepresented groups and individuals — are provided an educational, work and living environment that is welcoming, supportive and empowering to their success, creativity and ability to achieve their personal, educational and professional goals all for the betterment of this university and our nation."
Recent racially-related controversies at ASU
ASU, which has a number of campuses in the Phoenix metro area, has seen race-related controversy in recent months.
In June, the university's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication rescinded a job offer to Sonya Duhé for the school's vacant dean position, amid various accusations that during Duhé's time at Loyola University in New Orleans, she engaged in behavior described by some students as racist or discriminatory towards students of color, as well as students in the LGBTQ community.
Following the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse in connection with the shooting death of protesters in Kenosha following Blake's police-involved shooting, an ASU student group named "College Republicans United" announced an initiative to donate half the funds they raise during the semester to help pay for Rittenhouse's legal defense. In response, ASU officials say the school cannot prohibit a group from fundraising, but that the school does not endorse the fundraiser.
On August 31, ASU's on-campus radio station, Blaze Radio, removed its station manager, Rae'Lee Klein, over a tweet posted by Klein on her personal account.
According to tweets made by Klein on August 29, the original tweet, which has been deleted, was about the police shooting of Blake.
"It was not my intent to make an excuse for what happened to Jacob Blake," Klein wrote, in the tweet. "The point of my tweet was to provide an additional perspective."