Equity & Diversity

Building a sense of belonging in Utah schools

Three members of the U’s University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) team recently returned from Washington, D.C., where they presented their work for the Flamboyan Foundation’s National Family Engagement Fellowship. Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, director of UNP and special assistant to the president for campus-community partnerships, and Paul Kuttner, associate director of UNP, have been members of the four-person […]


MUSE to host Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, the Academy Award-winning directors of ‘Free Solo,’ to keynote its theme year on ‘Vision’

The University of Utah MUSE Project is pleased to welcome Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi to campus early next year. Vasarhelyi and Chin, the Academy Award-winning directors of “Free Solo,” will keynote the MUSE theme year on “Vision” at Kingsbury Hall at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020. For the fourth consecutive year, MUSE […]


U to celebrate queero-themed Pride Week

Language is a powerful tool that can be used to both isolate and unite. Even more impactful is the reclamation or creation of terminology to embody a notion or rallying cause. “The word ‘queero’ was a joking combination of ‘queer heroes,’” Pride Week co-chair Taylor Anderson (she/her) laughed. “But the name stuck.” This practice is […]


Tanner Humanities Center hosts conference with Mormons Building Bridges

In partnership with Mormons Building Bridges, the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah will host “A Spiritual Home: Building Bridges for Sexual and Gender Minorities in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Sept. 27-28 at the Salt Lake City Main Library. “In the established tradition of the Tanner Humanities Center and […]


Power to the parents

A new policy memo released this week involving University of Utah and other researchers contends that educational systems need new strategies to meaningfully engage families and communities. In the memo, “Recasting Families and Communities as Co-Designers of Education in Tumultuous Times,” the authors describe how justice-based approaches to family engagement enable parents and families, particularly […]


University of Utah appoints first vice president for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

University of Utah President Ruth Watkins announced that Mary Ann Villarreal will join the university as the inaugural vice president for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Villarreal is currently associate vice president of strategic initiatives at California State University, Fullerton. She will assume her new role on July 1, 2019. “Mary Ann has extensive experience in […]


Hate incidents are notoriously underreported. Now, there’s an app for that

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is responsible for tracking hate crimes across the country, but the data are notoriously unreliable. Low reporting from victims to police and inconsistent reporting from police to federal authorities have created a massive gap in how we understand hate in America.  Researchers from the University of Utah want to fill that […]


Building an educational bridge between the Pacific Islander community and the U

Strong community, resilient history and vibrant traditions are key elements of the Pacific Islands culture. These same elements are the foundation of a Pacific Islands Studies initiative at the University of Utah—and a new $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will allow major acceleration of this effort. The three-year grant will be used […]


But I didn’t mean it like that

A new series of posters on the University of Utah campus highlight commonly used microaggressions. The posters show faces behind small sentences that say things such as, “Where are you really from?” “You’re pretty for a dark-skin girl,” and “What are you?” Microaggressions are subtle—often unintentional—statements or actions that reveal unconscious biases toward members of marginalized […]


U to graduate 8,568 students

University of Utah senior Hodan Abdi came to Utah with her family five years ago from a refugee camp in Ethiopia. She will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and an emphasis in biology this year, along with 8,568 other U students who will also celebrate achieving this milestone. The 149th general commencement ceremony […]