IU's United Council of Equity is working to improve IU's bias response and racial relationships on campus.
The UCE was started in the fall 2019 semester. Cedric Harris, director of bias response, said he is excited to try this new approach to help improve IU’s response to bias incidents.
“I wanted to start this council because I noticed different groups of identity-based students that were experiencing instances of bias,” Cedric said. "They were concerned about what was happening in response to them.”
The UCE's primary goal is to help provide a place where students of all backgrounds can come together and discuss their issues with each other.
“Every one of them is experiencing these instances of bias," Cedric said. "How can I bring them all together in solidarity and support each other when these things happen and realize we aren’t the only ones that these things are happening to."
The UCE is bringing student leaders from both identity-based and non-identity organizations from across campus in order to help bridge the gap between marginalized communities of students. Beyond the relationship building aspect of the council, Maiya Cook, founder of the UCE and director of equity and inclusion for IU Student Government, said she hopes to help improve IU for all minority students.
“We try to cultivate discussion, plan and use the great heads we have in the space to prevent biases and/or support diversity, equity and inclusion” Cook said.
UCE is made up of leadership members of student organizations such as Culture of Care and the Interfraternity Council. This allows the council to hear from students with a variety of experiences.
All of these groups of students are experiencing instances of bias and want them to come together in solidarity and support of one another. By being a part of the United Council of Equity, they are able to realize that they are not the only ones these instances of bias happen to, Harris said.
As a student-run organization, the UCE has a different type of voice than IU staff members and administrators, as students have perspectives of what it is like to exist on the IU campus on a day-to-day basis.
“From a university standpoint, you can focus on issues of diversity and inclusion, but you are speaking on behalf of somebody else,” Ayla Winegar, Culture of Care representative, said. “It's important for student voices to be included in the equation when discussing issues of bias.”
Cook said that IU's campus is understandably self-segregated at times due to the active use of safe-spaces.
“In times when biases do occur it feels like only your particular space and community has that support and it shouldn’t be like that,” Cook said. “It should be everyone’s problem, not just one group’s problem.”
