Striving for Justice, Equity, and Anti-Racism

The University of Minnesota’s Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences is committed to eliminating systemic racism, both locally and worldwide. Our department, along with the entire University of Minnesota, condemns racism, bigotry, and hatred. The killing of George Floyd, a member of our Minnesota community, has laid bare the long-standing racism in our society to those who weren’t already experiencing it on a daily basis themselves. It prompts us to affirm and build upon our commitment to ensure meaningful change within our classrooms, department, college, university, communities, professions, and nation.  We pledge to do our part in a collective effort to eradicate racism, bigotry, and hatred of all kinds. 

Lack of acknowledgment of systemic racism has resulted in many individuals in our department unfairly benefiting at the cost of the trauma and suffering of racialized and minoritized people, including Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color. This must stop immediately. 

Communication is the essence of human connection, and everyone has an equal right to that connection. Among our many missions, we are a department that educates audiologists and speech-language pathologists to serve all people in educational and clinical settings. Core to our mission is educating individuals to provide equitable services across all racialized and minoritized communities and providing equitable services in our department’s clinic. This ideal extends to our undergraduate and doctoral programs, where our mission guides us to be inclusive in the study of the science of human communication. Achieving this ideal is made difficult by the extreme homogeneity in our professions, in which greater than 90% of people are white and female.   

Recent department activities to further build an inclusive learning environment include: 

• Infusion of justice, equity, and anti-racism consideration across all departmental committees.
• Opportunities for students to provide feedback regarding inclusion and supports throughout their program of study, including use of this Stakeholder Survey and Feedback Form.
• We pay University application fees for first generation college students who apply to our AuD in audiology program, MA in speech-language pathology program, or PhD program.
• Faculty book club to discuss increasing student inclusivity in all aspects of their SLHS program.

We know that these changes and commitments represent only the very beginning. Our department is committed to consistent long-term actions. We are in solidarity with all Black people, Indigenous people, and other People of Color, as well as others who have been marginalized for far too long. We commit to doing the work to dismantle and eradicate racism, bigotry, and hatred of all kinds.