Acting on Equity & Racial Justice

Portland State University will be a place where all students have the opportunity to succeed and where students and employees feel safe, feel a sense of belonging, and prosper — no matter their background.

- President Stephen Percy

It is time for Portland State to accelerate its effort to combat racism and advance social justice across our campus with dogged determination and long-term commitment. We will build on the work of many to engage all of PSU in this effort, applying an antiracist lens to every signal we send, every model we create, and every policy we enact. We will measure our progress and hold each other to account. We will double down on our efforts to expand diversity—among our administrators, faculty, staff, and students—and ensure success for all. 

When we get it right: PSU will have designed and implemented measurable steps to eradicate persistent and structural racism, ushering in success for all students, more equitable working conditions, and an environment where people feel safe, belong, and prosper.

Equity Task Force Recommendations

More than 500 members of the Portland State University community created a vision for a just and equitable campus at the Time to Act Fall 2020 Equity Summit. Five cross-campus task forces then recommended continuing actions to make that vision a reality.

Prioritized recommendations qualified for funding through the Racial Equity Fund — with each task force receiving $50,000 for investments to advance student retention and success, nurture an empowering climate for BIPOC employees, and support the development and deployment of an anti-racist lens. 

We encourage you to review each task force's initiatives in the PSU Plan for Equity & Racial Justice.

Leadership and Infrastructure: Coordinate organizational change to support our diversity goals, create a structure that supports the implementation of diversity and inclusion goals and the achievement of desired outcomes, and set PSU on the path for becoming a model of sustained success in the areas of access, racial justice, inclusion and equity in our region and among our peer and aspirational institutions.

Campus Climate and Intergroup Relations: Develop a shared and inclusive understanding of diversity by creating a welcoming campus climate that is supportive of all students, and that fosters positive and meaningful interactions across different cultures.
 

Employee Access, Success and Equity: To recruit and retain a diverse workforce, this work group proposes using trauma-informed care practices, targeting talent development to prioritize marginalized employees, and creating more opportunities to hire and promote BIPOC individuals.
 

Education, Scholarship and Service: Develop a curriculum that fosters domestic and international cultural competencies through curricular and co-curricular content and experiences, with an emphasis on experiential learning. Ensure that students and employees become literate in their own, and other cultures, and experiences, and are competent in interacting across difference. Foster cognitive complexity and critical thinking in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
 

Student Access, Success and Equity: The task force recommends developing an equity framework for student communications to remove any microaggressions or links to racial trauma. They also propose creating a committee of first-generation students to train staff in student services, expand capacity-building experiences and culturally-specific supports to increase the retention of BIPOC students.

Ideas in Action

Portland State is building on years of work by students, faculty and staff to make our campus just and equitable. It’s important to celebrate our progress as we acknowledge how much farther we still have to go to reach our goals. We are engaging with our community, creating innovative programs, and taking bold action to make meaningful change. We invite you to share your Ideas in Action to be featured here.