Students and officials at the University of Kentucky gathered Monday to address the climate of rising racial tensions in the country with an event dubbed “We Belong UK.”
"As members of the University of Kentucky community, we must look inward in this moment to do our part to combat the hatred, violence, and killing unfolding across this nation," UK President Eli Capilouto implored in his introductory remarks.
Minutes before, Capilouto delivered a full-throated denunciation of all unlawful acts of violence at home and abroad that are “perpetrated too often against people simply because of who they are.”
Over 100 people attended the event in the Gatton College of Business and Economics, which was billed as a time for “healing and action.”
To that end, audience members did not remain idle but were split up into discussion groups depending on their identities and experiences with racism. Organizing the conversations was Carol Taylor-Shim, the bias incident response coordinator with the school’s Violence Intervention and Prevention, or VIP, Center. She said new initiatives – like UK’s goal of training everyone on campus in unconscious bias awareness – mark a new chapter for the university.
"This is not a one-time conversation," Taylor-Shim told reporters. "There is a lot of things we'll be doing here at the University of Kentucky that are new, that are innovative, that people have never seen UK do before. But the time is now. There's nothing else to wait for. People need this now."
The gathering was hosted by the school's Martin Luther King, VIP, and Graduate and Professional Diversity Centers.
