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More than 100 College of Engineering and Applied Science faculty, staff and researchers participated in the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge, sponsored by the college’s HR department. 

The challenge was , a professional association for college and university human resources professionals. It incorporated weekly readings with a weekly discussion group facilitated by Amy Moreno, the director of inclusive culture for the college. 

“When I got the email announcing the challenge, I signed up immediately,” said Rafael Frongillo, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science. He said he had been following incidents of police brutality the last several years, and the violent death of George Floyd while in police custody and the Black Lives Matter protests prompted him to do more.

“I started more actively seeking out resources to better educate myself on the history of systemic racism in this country and around the world, how the system operates today, and my role in it,” said Frongillo.

According to CUPA-HR, the challenge is meant to create a greater understanding of the intersections of race, power, privilege, supremacy, oppression and equity. The college’s challenge ran from Oct. 12 to Nov. 11.

Alisha Bennett Stewart, CEAS human resources director, said she was grateful to all who participated in the challenge.
“We had lots of great discussions, and I’m hopeful that participants walked away reflecting about racial equity and being better champions for diversity, equity and inclusion,” she said. 

The 108 participants cited varying motivations for joining.

“Having lived in different parts of the United States, I realized that each region has unique aspects of bias,” said Karen Crofton, entrepreneur in residence. “I was interested to learn what other colleagues were experiencing and to learn about up-to-date resources.”

Mary Rader, program coordinator for Engineering Honors, said she was initially skeptical that a month-long program could have a significant impact on an issue as deep as systemic racism, but found that it was a valuable complement to the readings and reflections her curiosity had already been leading her to. 

“The most valuable experiences I’ve had in my life of unlearning have been immersive, so to have that intense steady diet for that many days was really valuable,” said Rader. “The materials were structured so well. It would be cool to do this again in a group and discuss it and just keep doing the work over and over and deeper and deeper levels.” 

Moreno said the registration numbers, weekly discussion turnout and feedback from participants indicated that racial equity development is of great interest to faculty and staff.

“I appreciated experiencing a greater level of depth with this group through their curiosity, vulnerability and willingness to lean into discomfort and challenges as we met each week,” she said. “Our college HR team sponsoring and partnering on such a relevant and significant development opportunity for our community is an integral example of how we are all focusing our efforts toward greater diversity, equity and inclusion.”