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One year ago today, news of George Floyd’s death in police custody reverberated across the country and around the world, leading to Black Lives Matter protests and, at �鶹��ý, a strengthening of the university’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

“George Floyd’s tragic murder only reaffirmed the need to build an inclusive environment that recognizes and respects people of all backgrounds and experiences,” the chancellor said today (May 25), reflecting on a year of progress in diversity, equity and inclusion at �鶹��ý. “We were motivated and well positioned to take our DEI efforts to a new level.”

First the campus mourned with a Community Moment of Silence for George Floyd, whose death led to a police officer’s conviction for murder; Breonna Taylor and Stephon Clark and other people of color killed by police; and other victims like Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who died in a confrontation with two white men who chased him down in an Atlanta suburb.

Chancellor May knew there was hard work ahead. In written and spoken remarks in the days after George Floyd’s death, he said: “Inclusion — like social justice — doesn’t come easily. It requires collective effort. It requires each one of us working to make a difference, whether that’s through getting involved in your community, peaceful protesting or doing what you can to change procedures that reflect bias.”

Campus departments and units took up his call, despite struggling with the pandemic at the same time, putting diversity, equity and inclusion top of mind in mission planning and training.

Strategic Goal 3

�鶹��ý has long embraced diversity and inclusion in the , adopted in 1990 and updated in 2015 with a prologue acknowledging “that our society carries within it historical and deep-rooted injustices and biases”; in programming from the Office of Campus Community Relations; and in �鶹��ý’ , adopted under Chancellor May’s leadership in 2018, the year after he arrived.

Strategic Goal 3 states: “Embrace diversity, practice inclu