NYS Legislature: It's Time to Add Anti-Racist Language to SUNY's Mission Statement

Please help the UFS follow through on our January 21 resolution to add anti-racist language to SUNY's official Mission Statement.

At the January 2021 SUNY UFS Plenary, the Senate passed a resolution requesting the Board of Trustees petition the state legislature to add anti-racist language to SUNY’s official Mission Statement.
 
The current mission statement lacks any language that would suggest that social justice, inclusivity, and equity are important aspects of SUNY.  
 
The BOT’s Resolution, No. 2015-53 created the 2015 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy which declared “The intent of this policy is to support campus and System Administration efforts to achieve the goal of becoming the most inclusive public university system in the country.”
 
It seems clear that SUNY Administration continues to support this goal with the creation of the “Comprehensive 25-Point Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan to Close the Racial Equity Gaps, and Eliminate Cultural and Institutional Racial Discrimination Across SUNY.” One of the key aspects of this policy is to “Embed Racial Equity into Curriculum and Toward Racial Equity.” 

The UFS believes “racial equity” should be embedded into SUNY’s Mission Statement by explicitly adding this language: “create, support, and defend anti-racist policies.”
 
The Senate encourages you to contact your local state Senators and Assembly members and request that they support this necessary and overdue change to the SUNY Mission Statement.
 
You can find your representatives through these two NYS.gov websites:
https://nyassembly.gov/mem/search/
https://www.nysenate.gov/find-my-senator