UTSA’s new inclusivity statement

September 18, 2020

These last few months we have witnessed communities locally and around the nation rising up and coming together to fight for a new future based on equality and systemic change.

As mentioned in President Eighmy’s email last June, we have work to do to be exemplary in building an environment of inclusive excellence and have been working toward creating change on our own campus. One of these efforts—the development of a UTSA’s new inclusivity statement—has been underway for the better part of a year. After an extensive development process involving students, faculty and staff, this summer we invited the community to offer feedback on the statement’s draft, which was then integrated.

We are very pleased to share the final statement with you today:

The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.

The statement articulates the concept of inclusive excellence as fundamental to UTSA’s identity and aspirations, and is the result of a broad participatory process involving many dedicated members of our community. Now more than ever, the notions it expresses signal our intentionality, both in recognizing our history and our collective commitment to change.

Read the full message »