Justice, Equity, Diversity + Inclusion

Our Commitment

Artists have long used their crafts as a means of rising up in the face of injustice, and this moment is no different. A prominent part of our college’s strategic plan includes protecting and enhancing our most prized resource - our human capital - with objectives, initiatives, and actions particularly centered on addressing issues of diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice. That we are committed to this work means, in considerable part, that we want to learn and grow from it. It’s our intent to better understand our ‘blind spots,’ where we are deficient, how we can better support all of our people – especially those historically marginalized by institutions of higher learning and in the visual and performing arts-related fields, and actively, strategically, deliberately doing better. 

The College of Fine Arts’ five-year Strategic Plan includes actionable items woven throughout all four of its main overarching goals, which are:

  • Develop and Transfer New Knowledge
  • Promote Student Success to Transform Lives
  • Engage Communities to Improve Health and Quality of Life
  • Ensure the Long-Term Viability of the College of Fine Arts
Take me to the Strategic Plan

Report a Bias Incident

We have partnered with the University of Utah Office for Inclusive Excellence to provide members of the CFA Community (faculty, staff and students) access to safe, anonymous (if chosen) bias reporting. 

Report a Bias Incident

Our Statement on Anti-Racism: We have work to do

Artists have long used their crafts as a means of rising up in the face of injustice, and this moment is no different.

The University of Utah College of Fine Arts unequivocally denounces racism, and actively works to dismantle the systems of oppression that breed inequality, discrimination, and pain — and acknowledge we aren't immune from them. Our vision is the manifestation of a culture rooted in justice, equity, and inclusion.

We are listening and will continue to work to amplify underrepresented voices within our campus and beyond.

We can all do better.

Individual units' statements: 

Defining JEDI

JUSTICE 

The seeking or realization of fairness, equity, and inclusivity. 

 EQUITY

The creation of opportunities for historically underserved and underrepresented populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs, professional growth opportunities, and resource networks that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion, and demographic disparities in leadership roles.

 DIVERSITY

The variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. It is the variety created in any society (and within any individual) by the presence of different points of view and ways of making meaning, which generally flow from the influence of different cultural, ethnic and religious heritages, and includes personality, learning styles and life experiences, and from the differences that emerge from class, age, ability, country of origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, ability and other socially constructed characteristics.

 INCLUSION

The active, intentional, and ongoing invitation and celebration of diversity — in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect — in ways that increase awareness, access, knowledge, empathy, and understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.

 

University of Utah resources