July 21, 2020

Hello everyone, and happy Tuesday,

As many of you know, this summer, we are encouraging members of the university community to read Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Anti-Racist. The Office of the Vice President for Diversity has put together supplemental readings and resources here.

And students–later this week I will also be announcing a new Campus Read initiative designed to appeal to and engage all of you specifically!

In keeping with our sense of urgency and purpose around equity, this morning the members of the Executive Leadership Team and the Deans joined the Reverend Dr. Jamie Washington for a facilitated discussion about how we can make CSU an anti-racist institution.  What became clear during this rigorous session is that our leaders are truly ready to have the hard conversations and make the bold decisions that we need to be true to our own high standards for equity and inclusion for everyone in our community.

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I know many of you have spent some time this past weekend or this week reading the comprehensive message I shared with faculty and staff regarding the COVID-19 plans, preparations and precautions that CSU has in place for our Fall 2020 semester.  This morning, I shared a distilled version of these plans with our students and families in a list of “10 Things for Students to Know About the Fall 2020 Semester at CSU.”  If you missed this information, I encourage you to read one or both of these recent messages or refer to our COVID recovery website.

And for those of you who still have questions and concerns about Fall 2020 on campus, please do join us for one of the two COVID Recovery Town Hall sessions we have planned for this week.  The panelists for these sessions are working for all of us, with extraordinary expertise, energy, compassion, and focus.  And while we will have our public health team on both panels, please note that Dr. Alan Rudolph will be joining the panel on Wednesday, while Dr. Blanche Hughes will join on Thursday.  The link to each session will be posted here the morning of the event.  I look forward to (virtually) seeing many of you there.

Warmly,

Joyce