To help “foster diversity.”
Via Campus Reform:
The University of Wisconsin is working on building a new “safe space” for black students this semester, The Badger Herald reports.
This safe space, a Black Cultural Center, is part of an 18-point plan to help foster diversity on the campus that also includes a weekly email to freshmen about inclusion and diversity, increases the capacity of ethnic studies programs, and hires three new staffers for “under-served student groups” and one who “specializes in the needs of students of color.”
Their plan also encourages raising awareness of the university’s bias incident resources, which allow students to report bias incidents.
Bias can be a “single [act] or multiple acts toward an individual, group, or their property that have a negative impact and that one could reasonably conclude are based upon actual or perceived age, race, color, creed, religion, gender identity or expression,” and a list of many other things, according to the university’s website.
“I think it’s great to be able to celebrate that community in a dedicated space that will bring positive things,” Willie Ney, executive director at the Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives, told The Badger Herald.