Dear UD Community,

Following months of listening and collaboration, the Campus Culture and Engagement (CCE) Initiative is moving into its next phase. With the guidance of the CCE Steering Committee, we have synthesized your feedback into a proposed framework—and now we seek your input on our ideas. Through the fall, members of the CCE Task Force received comments from over 100 community members through our website feedback form, and we met with a large number of groups and individuals, in addition to holding special sessions for all faculty, students, and staff. We have compiled a summary of this feedback, which is now posted on the CCE website. Thank you for taking the time to engage with us.

On the basis of the summary, we have designed a proposed framework to address these key areas: Representation and Belonging, Equitable Access, Inclusive Communication and Transparency, Respect and Recognition Across Roles, and Academic Freedom and Open Inquiry. The draft framework is also now posted on the CCE website.

We are interested in hearing your thoughts on the proposed areas of focus, on what we should prioritize in terms of implementation, and what success will look like. Please take a look at the Framework document, and give us your feedback, either through participating in an open workshop or structured session (see here for a schedule) or through this anonymous survey.

The goal is to integrate this framework into the developing strategic plan for the university, so that the methods for ensuring a comprehensive sense of belonging will be built into who we are, how we do our work, what we do, and when we measure progress at UD.

Thank you for all that you have shared with us, and for any additional feedback you wish to offer. We look forward to working with you to make UD a truly inclusive and distinctive community.

Sincerely,
John Ernest and José-Luis Riera