Letter from NSU President Timothy Downs on New Diversity and Inclusion Initiative

The following letter was sent to faculty, students, and staff at Northern State University via email on February 3, 2021.

Faculty, Staff and Students,

The values of our university include community: building a culture of inclusion, belonging and collegiality that respects diversity in knowledge, culture and worldview.

Until all members of our community are valued, and are treated with respect and dignity, we’ll have work to do. It means that we listen to and learn from each other. We must strive to encourage and lift up each other’s voices – particularly those marginalized voices that are often not heard.

Although there are many positive aspects and opportunities at Northern, at times, we fall short with some of our goals, and this is one of those times.

A student employee recently pointed out discrepancies in how the telecasts of this season’s basketball games were handled. I have directed Athletics to correct this problem immediately, and the responsible party has since apologized for this error. Going forward, we will provide viewers with a holistic view of Wachs Arena during the National Anthem. This will include shots of our student-athletes, fans, the video board and the American flag.

In addition, the university and I failed to publicly recognize the students who elected to kneel during the National Anthem in a timely manner. Our initial efforts focused on making alumni, donors and friends of the university aware that students have the constitutional right to express themselves. I hope you will forgive our error in not immediately sharing our support publicly. Leadership can often mean standing up for what you believe is right, even if it is uncomfortable and you are standing alone – I applaud our students for exhibiting this value with clarity and courage, and want to let them know they are not standing alone.

Finally, what changes will we make to better uphold our value of building an inclusive community?

Effective immediately, the NSU Senior Leadership team is requesting the Diversity Action Committee be elevated to the Diversity Action Pillar Team, thus adding a fifth pillar to our university strategic plan. This will raise the committee’s good efforts to a larger platform, express our intentions loudly, and ensure these efforts have access to resources. Northern’s strategic efforts are activity-based, referred to as strategic doing; with a goal to identify and implement actions that will improve the university and student experience. In order to tackle some of these systemic issues, we must make constant and purposeful progress, and strategic doing calls for tangible and actionable items to be recognized and addressed at least every 30 days.

The NSU Senior Leadership team also recognized the need for training to help us and the campus community better respond to the needs of our marginalized communities. I have asked the Diversity Action Pillar Team to assist with identifying training that will help us expand our capacity for this work.

Change starts with us, within our own campus community, and through “strategic doing” activities, we have a mechanism to inspire and instill change throughout campus.

I encourage anyone reading this to submit their strategic action ideas, feedback and solutions through this online form, which is now found at northern.edu/action.

Sincerely,

TIMOTHY M. DOWNS, Ph.D. President