Earlier this week we celebrated the life and achievements of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I spent the day reflecting on how the role our athletics department has played in addressing the social injustices that continue to occur in our society. We continue to have regular discussions within our department, strategizing on how we can unite and build bridges in our community and, ultimately, across society. We have been intentional in our actions to promote change in our athletic department and in our community, and while we have made significant progress, we know the journey will continue.
In addition to our involvement within our department at CSUB, we have also taken a leadership role within the Big West Conference. I am proud to serve, alongside women’s basketball student-athlete Vanessa Austin, on the Big West’s Undivided Committee, which focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We operate under four actionable pillars: education, empowerment, accountability and change.
Additionally, we have overseen a number of initiatives to educate and include our student-athletes’ voices in social causes.
With the assistance of university personnel, we registered our entire student-athlete population to vote and worked to educate them on their electoral choices.
We organized and developed a number of social justice workshops and training sessions, to give athletic staff and our student-athletes an opportunity to learn, grow and express themselves, and we created a resource library for anyone looking for further information.
The Marathon, our new student-athlete newsletter, provides a new platform for our student-athletes to express their opinions on social justice and their experiences at CSUB.
We enhanced and revamped our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion committee within our athletics department to help us stay informed and involved in understanding our changing society and leading our response. The committee also gives athletics staff and student-athletes another chance to tell their story as it relates to social justice and unity within our community.
As a department, as a university and as a community we are determined in the continued self-evaluation necessary to live up to our commitment to social justice and equality. We have taken some strong steps to that end, but we will only achieve true equality by remaining vigilant and intentional in our actions moving forward.
Visit the newly-redesigned gorunners.com.