SUNY Board of Trustees’ Response to Maintaining Diversity and Inclusion Plan
July 5, 2018
The Board of Trustees for The State University of New York resoundingly decries and opposes The Trump Administration’s recent dissolution of the Justice and Education Department’s policy guidelines regarding diversity and inclusion. This action opposes the fundamental ideas of our country, will inflict incalculable harm on American Higher Education, and promises to compromise national economic competitiveness.
We appreciate Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s call to action to The State University of New York and The City University of New York. We will ensure that our Diversity and Inclusion Plans are furthering New York’s commitment to equity and opportunity. We also appreciate his tireless support of our efforts to expand racial, gender, and economic diversity during his tenure. We will work aggressively to develop the desired report detailing how we will continue to increase diverse representation on our campuses.
Our nation has gleaned great scientific and economic contributions from the diverse environments produced at our colleges and research universities. The proper inclusion of racial and economic considerations into admission processes allows universities to create environments that offer their students an optimal, well-rounded education. These considerations also ensure that academic institutions have minds from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds working together to produce dynamic solutions to our complex societal problems. Furthermore, nuanced academic admissions processes allow campuses to help ensure equitable opportunity is offered to demographics that our country has consistently disenfranchised.
The Trump Administration’s recent actions threaten to irrevocably unravel the fabric of Higher Education. The attacks on diversity will prevent an incalculable number of women, economically disadvantaged citizens, and people of color from being able to pursue the educations they are entitled to. Moreover, this order will prevent every student from being able to benefit from the brilliant perspectives of their multicultural peers.
We want our institutions to remain intellectually resolute, culturally dynamic, and economically viable. We will continue every effort to increase diversity on our campuses. America must continue to endeavor to become a country that truly offers equal opportunity to all of its citizens.
H. Carl McCall
Chairman
Kristina M. Johnson
Chancellor
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Holly Liapis
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