Yale
president, responding to protests, says will make school more inclusive
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[November 18, 2015]
By Richard Weizel
MILFORD, Conn. (Reuters) - Responding to
boisterous student protests, the head of Yale University vowed on
Tuesday to build a more inclusive school, in part by expanding financial
aid to low-income students and creating a center for the study of race,
ethnicity and "social identity."
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Peter Salovey, the university's president, outlined the moves in a
letter to the Yale community that comes after a string of
demonstrations that first began over a faculty member's email over
Halloween costumes.
It also follows the resignation earlier this week of the University
of Missouri's president amid student complaints that the school did
not take allegations of racial abuse on campus seriously.
Small-scale protests and walkouts in sympathy with the Missouri
students have also taken place at universities across the United
States this week.
The protests build on the "Black Lives Matter" movement, which was
involved in massive and sometimes violent demonstrations in cities
including Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore over police killings of
black men.
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Salovey said in his letter that the university would double the
budgets for four campus cultural centers, provide multicultural
training for all staff in the mental health and counseling
department at YaleHealth, and appoint a deputy dean for diversity.
He also proposed hiring four extra faculty members who would provide
"cutting-edge scholarship on the histories, lives, and cultures of
unrepresented and under-represented communities," and to add
teaching staff and courses starting in the spring of 2016 to address
race, ethnicity and related topics.
Salovey did not mention a student demand to remove two faculty
members whose emails about Halloween costumes outraged the Yale
community.
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"I have heard the expressions of those who do not feel fully
included at Yale, many of whom have described experiences of
isolation, and even of hostility, during their time here," he said
in the letter.
"It is clear that we need to make significant changes so that all
members of our community truly feel welcome and can participate
equally in the activities of the university."
Salovey also promised to name two new residential colleges after
women and minority group members.
(Reporting by Richard Weizel in Connecticut; Editing by Dan
Whitcomb)
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