Petition to Reverse Cancellations of DEI Programs at OSU
President Jayathi Murthy, Provost Roy Haggerty, and the HR Senior Leadership Team Bonny Ray, Carolyn Warfield, Michael Mandzuk, and Emily Farrell
From the Coalition of Graduate Employees Executive Council,
ASOSU President Kayla Ramirez, and
ASOSU Vice President Masha Mogylevsky:
Higher education institutions are under pressure from the federal administration to remove DEI programs and services. In the face of these threats, it is the responsibility of the Oregon State University community to hold our university accountable to its commitments of supporting diversity and creating equitable outcomes for marginalized communities.
Petition by
To:
President Jayathi Murthy, Provost Roy Haggerty, and the HR Senior Leadership Team Bonny Ray, Carolyn Warfield, Michael Mandzuk, and Emily Farrell
From:
[Your Name]
We, the undersigned students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members, call on Oregon
State University leadership to reverse the harmful rollbacks of critical Diversity, Equity, and
Inclusion (DEI) programs. These decisions undermine decades of progress toward building a
truly inclusive university. They also threaten the safety, belonging, and success of marginalized students, faculty, and staff.
Recently, OSU has:
● Replaced the university’s Chief Diversity Officer with a “Vice President for Mission and
Vision,” weakening the role’s visibility and emphasis on diversity.
● “Sunsetted” (terminated) the Search Advocate Program, which for years trained hiring
managers and search committees to ensure fairness and equity in hiring.
● “Sunsetted” (terminated) the Social Justice Education Initiative (SJEI), a program that
provided learning opportunities for a more inclusive campus community.
● Pushed directors and staff of these initiatives out of their positions, creating instability
and sending a chilling message to those working for equity on campus.
On July 23rd, OSU Human Resources held a forum originally intended to discuss ways of
applying Search Advocate principles within HR practices, without addressing the termination of the Social Justice Education Initiative (SJEI) or its Director at this event. Community members nonetheless came forward on their own initiative to express concern and support. The “sunsetting” of these programs and their directors has been framed as voluntary, despite the fact that it was not. By keeping these terminations quiet, while simultaneously restructuring DEI leadership roles, OSU has attempted to minimize both the visibility and impact of its actions.
It is hard to believe, as claimed at this forum, that preemptive compliance with the federal
government’s attacks on DEI and higher education broadly was not a factor in these decisions. In previous years, university leadership, including former President Ed Ray, have spoken out against unfair executive orders and attacks on students and universities. By contrast, OSU’s more recent actions fail to rise to the occasion. History will judge our actions for the courage we showed — or did not show — in the face of these attacks.
OSU’s own mission statement pledges to “promote social justice and equity” and “foster a
culture of belonging.” Rolling back these programs is a direct violation of that commitment. As a public university, the care we show for our community (including students, faculty, staff, and alumni) should take priority above increasingly conservative institutional risk assessments. Our community is worth the risk.
We call on OSU leadership to:
1. Commit to keeping the Search Advocate and Social Justice Education Initiative programs and their Directors
2. Rebuild trust with the communities these programs serve
3. Actively speak out as a university in support of marginalized communities, including immigrants, undocumented students and staff, LGBTQ+ community members, people of color, and all other affected community members