North Dakota State University Department of Communication’s Statement on Anti-Racist and Anti-Discriminatory Education

The NDSU Department of Communication reaffirms its commitment to anti-racist and anti-discriminatory education. We recognize that being the target of racism is not new for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian (BIPOC) members of our community, and that recent acts of racism by an NDSU student snapchat group are part of a larger history. As a department specializing in how communication affects individuals and communities, we are committed to taking concrete actions as a department to create a better environment for students of color on the NDSU campus. With courses in intercultural communication, understanding media and social change, conflict communication, gender and communication, communication ethics and law, critical approaches to popular culture, argumentation and advocacy, and more, we are already a part of the national conversation and movement against systematic discrimination. But we recognize that we can do better. 

To this end, the faculty of the Department of Communication have committed to the following:

1. Faculty will lead department-oriented workshops on anti-discriminatory scholarship. These workshops will ensure that all faculty are aware of the current research on discrimination.

2. The department will review its curriculum to ensure that course design reflects the department's commitment to anti-discriminatory education. This means ensuring that Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, women, Trans, disabled, and other marginalized scholars and topics pertinent to the human experience are taught within and across the curriculum.

3. The department will support and work with NDSU's task force to create a plan to improve diversity on campus. The department will also revisit diversity issues as part of its yearly planning in August, and device concrete steps each year to make our department welcoming to BIPOC students.

The items listed above are part of an ongoing conversation within the Department of Communication, as we are adamant in our support of our marginalized students. We are also supportive of NDSU’s official policy on equal opportunity in our department’s employment decisions and educational programs and activities.

We look forward to working with our students, NDSU administration, colleagues across campus, the Fargo-Moorhead community, and the state of North Dakota to confront systemic discrimination and ensure that all individuals and communities are treated with respect and dignity.

Approved by Department of Communication Faculty on Jan. 14, 2021