Frequently Asked Questions.

+ What is the status of the #MoreThanDiversity campaign?

Campaign members met with Provost Lee twice and made progress on increasing University support for the CSRPC. Prof. Riley Snorton negotiated terms including the restoration of the CSRPC’s budget cut this Spring, that enabled him to accept the position of Interim Director. We formed an “Academic Unit working group” that, if the University will commit to funding an Academic Unit approved by the Council of the Senate, will proceed to planning. The goal would be to have a proposal to present by Spring, 2021. However, we have yet to receive a firm commitment from the Provost regarding our funding demands. We have not made progress on the issues of policing, reparations, changing how the University interacts with the communities in which we sit, nor on governance issues.

Much work remains, and we reiterate the withdrawal of faculty labor on Diversity and Inclusion Committees as well as on faculty searches. We also continue to refuse to collaborate with the University’s use of our accomplishments to promote the University.

+ What are you asking faculty who signed onto the demands letter to do?

We are asking you to honor the following until our demands are met:

1) No participation in any faculty searches approved beginning AY 2020-2021.

2) No participation in any Departmental, Divisional, or University committee whose nominal mission is related to Diversity and Inclusion.

3) No cooperation with the University's press office on matters related to diversity and inclusion.

If you are or your department are thinking about organizing any "race" themed events, please consider the following:

If your event or talk foregrounds issues of race, can you co-sponsor it with the CSRPC and/or reiterate the importance of the Center at the start and close of the event itself?

If your event aims to speak broadly beyond the University, can you foreground the work and conversations the University still needs to do and host around reparations and policing?

Is your event challenging disciplinary formations? Consider hosting it under the #MoreThanDiversity banner and underscoring the necessity of a Critical Race Studies Academic Unit at the University of Chicago.

Does the work and service you are doing transcend the desire for diversity and seek to address inequity, distribution of power and governance, and systemic racism that goes beyond intentions or good feeling? If not, perhaps reconsider your participation and, if possible, express your reasons for doing so to the colleagues and administrators involved in or organizing this service.

Is the committee you've been asked to join only advisory? If so, consider reiterating the demand for increased faculty governance to empower faculty to actually create and implement policy changes rather than just making suggestions about them.

+ Won’t this hurt our students and departments more than the administration?

Our work is pursued in partnership with several student organisations and in solidarity with South Side communities. College students have also been working towards departmentalization of race and/or ethnic studies for many years. Our collective goal is structural change at the University of Chicago, and while this work stoppage will mean less programming, pedagogy, and scholarship in the short term, we are confident our efforts will result in greater institutionalized support for race scholarship and pedagogy at the university, as well as racial justice for the South Side.

We desire nothing more than the rich exchange of ideas and investment in strong community ties - within, across, and beyond the university. Deepening our intellectual life requires a strong CSRPC, an academic unit devoted to teaching and research on race, and more faculty specialized in relevant fields. It also requires a coming to terms with the University’s participation in exploitative and discriminatory practices on the South Side and beyond as well as a genuinely collaborative relation with our neighbors.

+ I am a University of Chicago student/staff member/alumni and would like to support the principles of this campaign. How can I join in?

If you are a current student, talk about the campaign with your friends and in the organizations of which you’re a member. Consider joining one of the many student groups working on one or more the same issues. Write to the Maroon in support. Talk to faculty, college advisors and administrators about how the CSRPC matters to you and/or why you think it would be good to have an academic unit devoted to the study of race. Make your parents aware of the campaign and why you support it.

If you’re an alum, write to the University and express your support of the campaign. Consider informing the Development Office that you will not contribute to the University until they meet the campaign’s demands. If you have contacts with current administrators or members of the Board of Trustees, communicate your support of these issues.

+ I am not affiliated with the University of Chicago but I live on the South Side and would like to support the principles of this campaign. How can I join in?

Please communicate with your elected city council member, state legislator, or Congressional representative. The University’s unaccountable private police department operates with the approval of city and state government. Informing and pressuring your elected officials to pay attention to our campaign and concerns would be an invaluable contribution. You can identify and obtain the contact information for your city council member here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/iframe/lookup_ward_and_alderman.html

+ I would like to reach out to a faculty member who is a part of this campaign regarding an invitation/collaboration related to their work on race, but is it appropriate to do so during the campaign?

It is certainly appropriate to reach out to those colleagues, but do acknowledge the campaign and their participation. Ask under what conditions they would consider accepting the invitation or collaborating on your project.

+ I don’t like any of this and I would like to complain: I want to speak to the manager!

We also object to the circumstances we now find ourselves in, and would encourage you to air your concerns and frustrations to someone who may be able to help: Provost Ka Yee C Lee (kayeelee@uchicago.edu).