Detroit Metro Communities of Color Protest Anti-Diversity Measures at WSU

Unified Communities of color will assemble on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 2:30-3:30 pm at Wayne State University Police Station in Detroit to protest on the issue of anti-diversity measures at the University.

There have been numerous complaints emerging from the African-American, Arab-American and Latino communities citing discrimination which has taken place under the current Wayne State University administration.

Complaints include unfair employment practices leading to racial disparities during last year’s budget cuts, removal and reallocation of scholarships and financial aid away from communities of color, and proposed changes in admissions standards which would disproportionally affect communities of color.

On November 20, the Detroit Free Press reported that UM President Mary Sue Coleman believes performance-based state aid would “harm the state’s public universities” and would “jeopardize diversity” on college campuses.

Yet, it appears that WSU President Allan Gilmour is set on approving changes to the current admissions standards at WSU which would damage diversity on campus, even before performance-based funding had been formally proposed.

Numerous WSU faculty, staff and students have cited an increasingly anti-minority sentiment growing recently on campus, creating an environment where incidents like hate-speech vandalism at the WSU Law School is becoming a more common occurrence at WSU.

As a result, a united group of communities of color demand that WSU:

· Creates an Office of Diversity & Inclusion at the cabinet level

· Investigates racial disparities in the firing of administrators, faculty and staff of color during the most recent budget cuts

· Reinstates and reallocates any and all funds meant for increasing and supporting diversity communities on campus

· Stops any proposed changes to the admissions standards