Dear UC Davis Athletics Community,
Last week we released a
statement in which we committed to doing more to combat racism.
Recent national protests have helped increase awareness about how systemic racism impacts the Black community. However, real and sustainable change will only occur from substantial and consistent action.
Planning our forward-looking actions to combat racism has prompted more thought about the past experiences of our student-athletes. As we continue to reflect and listen to feedback from our community, we think it is important to concretely acknowledge that the experiences of some of our Black and non-white student-athletes included navigating anti-Black racism and other forms of racial prejudice from within the athletics community and beyond. While we have never condoned racism, we acknowledge instances where we failed to adequately address these issues and proactively provide support for our Black student athletes to be and feel safe, seen, and celebrated like other members of our athletics community. The realization that we've come up short in the past provides us with further motivation to drive necessary change.
Accordingly, we are redoubling our engagement in education about systemic racism so that our actions moving forward will be maximally effective. Additionally, we will continue to communicate publicly about the steps we are taking in order to hold ourselves accountable for making progress.
We remain committed to
our existing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan, and we are increasing the intensity of our efforts. We have lots of work ahead, but here are the actions we've taken since last week.
- Our DEI Lead, Dwight Smith, joined our senior administrator meetings and will continue as an important contributor in these meetings for the foreseeable future. DEI issues are now a more regular part of senior staff discussions, and all ICA decisions will be more elaborately considered through a racial justice lens.
- I met with leadership of the Coalition of African Diaspora Student-Athletes (CADSA) on June 3 to hear directly from them about how they are processing current events, and to hear their views on how our department can move forward. I will be meeting with CADSA leadership every two weeks.
- All coaches joined a Zoom meeting on June 5 for a conversation about the racial climate in our teams. We discussed our need for additional education and how we can best support our student-athletes as they navigate issues related to racism.
- Every team is required to participate in a facilitated conversation about race that will include student-athletes, coaches, expert resources, and the sport administrator. A majority of our teams have taken action on this requirement and are also planning follow-up conversations. The remaining team meetings are scheduled.
- We are finalizing options for ongoing anti-racism training that will be implemented throughout the department in the coming months. Training will involve campus resources as well as outside experts at the intersection of race and sports.
- Election Day on November 3 will now be a required day off from mandatory athletics activities so all student-athletes will have maximum flexibility to vote. Coaches and staff will also have flexibility to change their work schedules that day in order to vote.
- The Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) will organize a voter registration drive in the months leading up to the election to better inform student-athletes about their rights, the registration process, and resources for voter education.
- Beginning in the fall quarter, we will implement a quarterly "racial climate report card" where student-athletes will provide feedback about the racial climate within their teams and the athletics department.
We have lots of work ahead in our efforts to combat racism. The actions described above are not comprehensive, and we will continue reporting publicly about our actions and progress.
Best,
-Kevin
