Pictured Above: The dashboard serves as a resource for the USF community regarding anti-racism.
Darnell Henderson | The Crow’s Nest
President Steve Currall announced the launch of USF’s new anti-racism website on Dec. 4.
The website “will serve as a collective resource and information warehouse for content related to USF’s commitment to anti-racism,” Currall said in an email to students.
In August, Currall announced a plan to dismantle systematic racism within USF and promote racial equality in the university and community. The anti-racism website is the next step in this plan.
The website will offer opportunities for community involvement, training resources for faculty and staff and information on anti-racism courses for students.
It will also include a timeline of USF’s commitment to diversity, guidelines for understanding inclusive language and a news feed featuring stories related to anti-racism, equity and inclusion in the Tampa Bay area.
Efforts to address biases in USF employee’s compensation are also being made through the creation of a staff and administrator salary equity task force.
“The task force – which includes representatives from all of our campuses – will lead an analysis of salaries with the goal of revealing disparities based on gender, race or other factors impacting equity,” Currall said. “The work of the task force will begin with an analysis of staff salaries after which options will be considered for a review of faculty and administration salary equity.”
A $60,000 grant from the Helios Education Foundation will further assist USF’s diversity efforts. The grant will be used to hire a consultant who will help the university recruit more black students.
While USF has been nationally recognized for closing the achievement gap by race and ethnicity, the number of enrolled black students has decreased by 2.4 percent over five years according to the university’s statement.
This fall, only one black freshman enrolled in USF St. Petersburg.
“This investment will reinvigorate our access for success approach to enrollment planning so that we can provide even more opportunities for black students to attain a college degree,” Vice President for Student Success Paul Dosal, said in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times.
Dosal will serve as the co-chair for the initiative.
