Whereas our country is reeling in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by law enforcement officers and police brutality against Americans protesting injustice;
Whereas police violence against Black Americans is pervasive and ongoing;
Whereas the racial inequities and injustices inherent to our social system have been brought into high relief by the unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas this University was founded by an enslaver, built and sustained by enslaved workers, and was the intellectual home of eugenics; and
Whereas structural racism prevents people of color from having equal opportunities at our university; now, therefore, be it
Resolved that the Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia:
- recognizes that White faculty have benefited from institutionalized racism;
- affirms the Senate’s responsibility to speak against the inequity and racism that is still deeply woven into the creation, history, and contemporary biases of our university and our country;
- commends the formation of a racial equity task force for the University;
- calls for the administration to respond publicly to student requests for action, in particular those from the Black Student Alliance;
- calls for the establishment of an oversight board for the University Police and Ambassador program to evaluate scope of function, effects on the university community, transparency, and funding levels; and
- pledges as a Senate to formally engage with student and staff organizations and the administration to identify concrete actionable steps to collectively dismantle structural racism and repair our institution’s long history of oppression.
Adopted by the University of Virginia Faculty Senate Executive Council 06/05/2020