The Levine Scholars Program affirms its commitment to diversity, access, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our scholarship, civic engagement, professional development and advising. We believe that our lives, perspectives and practices are enriched when we actively engage in discourse and inclusive actions around complex ideas and issues, whether they pertain to race and ethnicity; sex; gender identity; political viewpoints; sexual orientation; special health needs; age; belief system; country of origin; or socio-economic status.
Beyond words, we affirm our commitment to behaving in ways that respect people regardless of their differences and affirm our commitment to: no tolerance of behaviors that are exclusionary or disrespectful of these differences, educating people about how diversity influences us all, and educating diverse individuals in ways that are inclusive.
The staff and scholars of the Levine Scholars Program express our profound sadness and anger at the continual racialized police brutality which has brought the issue of systemic racism to the forefront of our collective conscience. While the Levine Scholars Program has always had a stated commitment to fostering inclusivity, we recognize that we have not always taken all the steps possible to increase racial justice in the spaces we occupy. As such, we have committed ourselves to weaving the work of radical anti-racism into the fabric of our program – we are implementing evidence-based solutions to interrogate the root of the problem while recognizing that this work will never be finished. Our explicit goal moving forward is to uplift our Black community members and other community members of color. We affirm that complacency and silence only serve to reinforce institutionalized racism.
To avoid the dangers of complacency and silence, this is an intentionally living statement. Staff and scholars in the Levine Scholars Program are in conversation about current and future actions being done to ensure greater education and awareness within our community. Our goal is to increase racial justice in the spaces that we occupy at programmatic, university, and greater community levels. We have worked to create change within the existing structures and curriculum of our program, and are continuing to design new ways to further our commitment to anti-racism. Such programming includes the deliberate planning of locations for service trips, invitations for experts and guest speakers, internal discussions, curriculum development, and critical roundtables.
Please use this form to express your opinion of the program’s statement and plan of action. We welcome any feedback or critique and look forward to reading your submission.
— Levine Scholars Program