Our campus, our culture, our responsibility

Halfway through my first spring semester as provost at the University of Iowa, I continue to feel privileged to be a part of this wonderful community and proud of the ways we are working together to build a culture of success. Our university’s culture and climate are the direct result of our collective actions, and I am inspired by the interest and engagement I encounter in all corners of campus.

Montse Fuentes

As we continue to strive for excellence, it is important that we remember that our environment is what all of us make it; each of us is responsible for creating the future to which we aspire. As a community of faculty, staff, and students who come together to share and to advance knowledge, we recognize that we learn and grow from encountering ideas, cultures, and perspectives that are new to us. We can only truly achieve excellence as a university if we all embrace our shared responsibility for creating an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued.

To that end, we all need to work to become more aware of the impact our actions, words, and behaviors can have on others. In a diverse community, there will sometimes be words that cause discomfort, hurt, or offense. We all need to exercise our freedom of expression responsibly, and we need to recognize and be prepared to help when students or colleagues do not feel welcome.

Right now, our community is experiencing heightened anxiety around the coronavirus. We need to be mindful of how this may be affecting our international students. The UI strives to be a welcoming and inclusive campus, and it is important to avoid assumptions about who may or may not be carrying the virus based on their identity. I am certain that most members of our community understand that the virus has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Making assumptions or mistreating members of our community harms us all.

Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or national origin is unacceptable, counter to our core values, and will not be tolerated at our university. If you are a victim of or witness to bias related to the virus, please contact the Campus Inclusion Team or the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. It is up to all of us to reject such behavior, to counter it with open and honest communication and with compassion and support for those who have been made to feel unwelcome. Each of us must accept responsibility for maintaining a safe, welcoming, and inclusive campus environment for all.

Many members of our campus community are already hard at work to create this positive change, guided by our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Plan, as mentioned in our annual update earlier this year. Among those efforts, the Office of the Provost and the Path Forward Steering committee has ensured that DEI is a key component in upcoming leadership training, and we are working to add DEI material to new-student orientation. The Center for Teaching and the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are partnering on new Inclusive Classroom and Teaching workshops for instructors, and next year the university will participate in a new training program, which includes diversity, equity, and inclusion, for new deans from all Big Ten universities.

I’m also pleased to announce that the search committee for the new associate vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion has been formed. Nadine Petty, director of the Center for Diversity and Enrichment, and Russell Ganim, associate provost and dean of International Programs, will serve as co-chairs. Read more about this, including the full committee list, in the announcement in Iowa Now.

This spring, I continue to be inspired by the hard work, ingenuity, and passion of our faculty, staff, and students. The more people I meet, the more I feel honored to be a leader here.

We are a remarkable group of unique individuals, and when we come together in celebration of our differences and embrace our responsibility to support one another, we become even better.

Montserrat Fuentes is executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa.