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Indiana-Purdue To Hire Diversity Officer In Response To Bias Claims

INDIANAPOLIS

Administrators plan to establish a new multicultural center and hire a full-time campus diversity officer at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in response to a Black student group’s claims of bias.

IUPUI Chancellor Charles Bantz said Wednesday the school also plans other steps to ease racial tension on the 30,000-student campus and ensure that all student groups were treated fairly.

“At IUPUI, we are committed to an environment of success and as a result of that, we will not tolerate discrimination,” Bantz said.

The IUPUI Black Student Union threatened this month to sue the school over its discrimination claims if officials did not meet demands for a new Black cultural center, more Black faculty and $78,000 for Black student groups.

The demands met with criticism from some other student groups who wondered why they had not been included in the complaint process.

Bantz said Wednesday that IUPUI would work with the Indianapolis Urban League to ease racial tension at the school. He also said IUPUI would review the distribution of money for student activities and study whether employees needed more training in diversity issues.

Black faculty and students who watched Bantz’s announcement said they wanted to consider it before commenting.

“Progress is being made, and at this point there is a level of communication between the administration and the students that has never existed before, so that we can definitely be proud of,” said IUPUI senior Dominic Dorsey, 24, who heads the Black Student Union. “We don’t look at anything as a step back right now, and nothing is a failure.”

–Associated Press



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