Many People, One Community

Campus Community,

Our Strategic Plan makes clear that our mission is to advance this state in all that we do. As I shared in the video message I sent to our campus yesterday, core to that purpose is the idea that we are many people, who together, comprise one special community.

I’m deeply appreciative of the time many have taken across the campus recently to provide feedback about how we strive to strengthen and act upon that vision while being responsive to concerns that have been raised about how we honor our values.

As I mentioned recently to the campus, universities across the country are grappling with the same questions that we are asking and being asked around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

This past spring, legislators in Kentucky considered legislation that would curtail or prohibit efforts around DEI. Kentucky legislators have made clear to me in our conversations that they are exploring these issues again as they prepare for the 2025 legislative session.

If we are to be a campus for everyone, we must demonstrate to ourselves and to those who support and invest in us our commitment to the idea that everyone belongs — both in what we say and in what we do.

We need to be clear about our values.

As we strive to be a community where all people, no matter the background or perspective, feel a sense of belonging, we must seek to foster a sense of mutual respect among members of our community and for all those we serve.  We must do this while also protecting academic freedom — the idea that scholars and all members of the university community must always be free to inquire, to discover, to teach and to evaluate as they gain and impart understanding and knowledge.

These core values are foundational to who we are and what we are called to do — by our community, the Commonwealth and all those we serve.

After all, in Fayette County alone, there is more than a decade difference in life expectancy between one zip code versus another. In some areas across the state, the gap is even more drastic. 

More than 25 percent of our undergraduates — from all different backgrounds — will be the first in their families to cross that stage with a diploma in hand as they earn a college degree. When those students succeed, gaps in graduation rates — regardless of background or income — vanish.

We share the value that out of many people, we are one community. We share a promise with Kentucky that all who turn to us should have the same opportunity to live a healthy, long life or cross that stage with a diploma in hand. That is how we honor our shared, common humanity. 

But we’ve also listened to policymakers and heard many of their questions about whether we appear partisan or political on the issues of our day and, as a result, narrowly interpret things solely through the lens of identity. In so doing, the concern is that we either intentionally or unintentionally limit discourse.

I hear many of those concerns reflected in discussions with some of our students, faculty and staff across our campus.

Fulfilling our promise means being responsive to the concerns raised — particularly when they speak to whether as an institution and campus community — we are as welcoming to all perspectives and backgrounds.

With this understanding, it is time to make changes that live up to our values and our promise while responding to concerns that we aren’t fully meeting them:

We must ensure creating a community of belonging is a responsibility we all share, not the purview of one office or unit. We support the success of all students. We engage with entire communities. We welcome divergent perspectives. We are committed to constructive discourse. Our structure and organization must reflect those commitments. 

The Office for Institutional Diversity will be disbanded. Units previously in the Office for Institutional Diversity will be transitioned to other offices that support the entire institution, including a new office — the Office for Community Relations. Examples include:

• The MLK Center will be in the Office for Student Success, which supports all student initiatives.
• UK’s public radio station, WUKY, will be in the Office for Community Relations.
• The university’s lifelong learning programs, such as the Donovan Scholars, will be in the Office for Community Relations.
• The Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives will evolve under UK HealthCare.

Colleges and units will work with members of our community whose titles include diversity officer to better recognize what I heard from so many — that their efforts support all members of a college or unit. We have good and dedicated people doing important work. They serve the entire community; their job descriptions and their efforts should reflect that commitment.

To be clear, we are not eliminating jobs. There is much to accomplish throughout our institution. On any given day, there are more than 2,000 positions open. We have roles to play and needs to be met. And we must keep that talent and skill, which exists throughout our campus, so that we honor the principle of how we help everyone on this campus — as members of one community — succeed.

We will not mandate diversity training centrally or at the college or unit level. We also will not place required diversity statements in hiring and application processes. Many feel that mandatory trainings are not as effective and that diversity statements don’t speak to actions.

We will be impartial facilitators as an institution of broad perspectives. When we take a position, as an institution, on a partisan or political issue, we threaten the ability of everyone in our community to feel a sense of belonging and an opportunity to join the debate. Institutional policies will make clear that we will be impartial on current events, reserving official statements for issues that directly and broadly impact our community.

Websites will be free of political positions as a way of ensuring impartiality. We will eliminate statements that imply that the institution or unit has an official view on a current event.

This should in no way be construed as impinging upon academic freedom. Faculty decide what to teach as part of formal instruction and where discovery should take them as scholars in their areas of expertise. That means both scholar and student encountering difficult and challenging ideas together, pushing each other to toward deeper understanding, while maintaining a sense of mutual respect.

At the same time, a campus open to everyone — in how we heal, teach, serve and discover — is how we will advance Kentucky. Where there are barriers to those efforts, or questions about what we do, we must find ways to address them — openly, honestly and transparently.

I am confident that we will continue to find ways to make Kentucky stronger by answering simple but profoundly important questions: Did we care? Were we fair? Did we give all a fair shot? Thank you for being a community that always answers yes.

Eli Capilouto
President