Approved by the Board of Trustees, Thursday, July 30, 2020
We, the members of the Board of Trustees, offer the following resolution on diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice, with the goal of supporting and delivering against Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology’s mission:
We acknowledge and condemn the presence of systemic racism in our society, aware that it permeates virtually all institutions based on the legal and historical realities of the last four hundred years and the present day.
We understand that even those doing constructive, positive work for change are inherently part of a system that is rife with unacceptable truths and barriers that need to be dismantled.
We recommit to be an institution that reflects continually on its obligation to help dismantle systemic racism.
We recommit to investment in our diverse students with a high degree of cultural competency, empathy, and impact. We call on the Governance Committee of the Board of Trustees to establish a task force of trustees to work with the staff to adopt a formal diversity policy including, but not limited to, ensuring we are an institution where diversity, equity, and inclusion are reflected in our Board and committees, in our faculty, and in our student body. The task force will examine diversity policies as it relates to racial, gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, and economic status. To support this, we will develop specific plans and metrics for achieving all of the above according to appropriate standards and a new standard of excellence in inclusive practices for:
- recruitment and successful academic development of students
- hiring faculty and development of staff
- purchasing and procurement
- partnership development that foster community and extend educational mission
- representational composition of decision-making entities (board, committees, etc.)
- allocation of resources
- design, location, and use of spaces
We call on the task force to ensure that our policy requires Trustees, staff, faculty, and students to participate in appropriate training and programming about the school’s commitment, expectations, and examination of unconscious bias.
We call for the development of an informed view of barriers to advancement faced by non-whites in the fields for which we prepare students to work. We call for the Board and staff to adopt a point of view and specific plans for how we participate in, and contribute to the dismantlement of barriers identified.
