President Gottfredson represented the University of Oregon and the Equity and Community Consortium of Lane County at the community celebration and march honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sponsored by the Eugene-Springfield chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The president addressed a group of community members at the Shedd Institute in Eugene following the march. The following is the prepared text for those remarks.

I am honored to take part in this celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I am here today proudly representing the University of Oregon, and also the Equity and Community Consortium of Lane County, a group of 11 public agencies committed to equity and inclusion. I will speak first to the university’s goals of realizing inclusive excellence.

As I was marching here, shoulder to shoulder with community members and University of Oregon colleagues and students, I felt an incredible sense of gratitude.  As I walked, I was lifted by being in the presence of so many who have tirelessly volunteered your time, passion, and energy to insist that the University of Oregon and our community work continuously to improve equity, inclusion, and diversity.  Thank you for your dedication. This important work takes the focus, commitment, and sustained effort not only of the strong advocates here; it requires the work of everyone. 

Equity, inclusion, and diversity are central to the University of Oregon’s core values and aspirations. I believe this concept cannot simply be a policy, a statement, or a committee. Equity, inclusion, and diversity must permeate everything we do. It is not only the right thing and the just thing to do; these values make the entire university, our entire society, better. They improve the quality of our campus, education, research, and service, and in doing so, make our community and world better as a whole.

Quality higher education includes the recognition and influence of ways of thinking, seeing, feeling, and being in the world that differ from our own. A curriculum and campus environment in which equity, inclusion, and diversity are commonplace invites students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds to participate actively and purposefully in the life of the university, and prepares them for success in an increasingly multicultural, global society.

We know that education is the key to economic and social mobility, for individuals and for society. I, as president, am fully committed to growing a more diverse student body and faculty, providing a supportive and inclusive campus community, and working to nurture a culture that is welcoming, accessible, and enriching for people of all backgrounds.

We are making progress toward this goal. This year the UO has the largest number of underrepresented students enrolled on our campus in the university’s history. Students of color make up 27 percent of our freshman class. That is higher than the representation of ethnic and racial minorities in the general population of our state, which is 21 percent. This diverse class is thanks, in part, to targeted outreach and innovative scholarship programs that provide access to education to more qualified students. And as I said, access to quality higher education is the key to upward mobility.

At the same time we are setting records for diversity at the UO, we are setting records for academic achievement. This same incoming class was also the most academically prepared in our history, with the highest grade point average and test scores ever. They are living proof that access and excellence, the twin pillars upon which our university is built, go hand in hand.

We are working to increase the diversity of our campus in many other ways as well. In partnership with our new faculty union, we have built in equity incentives that reward faculty members who seek to embrace a multicultural, meaningful educational experience.

Also, in counsel with our Native American Advisory Board, I am working to build stronger connections with all of Oregon’s tribes. Last month, we approved the placing of the flags of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes in the center of campus.

The University of Oregon has more work to do, but we have taken steps in the right direction. With input from the campus and community, we are working on a strategic diversity plan. It will provide our faculty and staff training to better understand the cultural complexities of a diversified campus and the tools to help recruit and retain a larger number of students, staff, and faculty that represent our globalized world.  

With your help, and the help of all of our campus the community, we will continue to march in the right direction. We’ve had some bumps along the way, but in the words of Dr. King, let us remember that “the end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community.” The University of Oregon, in partnership with our community, stands committed to Dr. King’s dream of a better world. I stand before you with a promise to lead with that purpose and those values in mind, and with a commitment to equity and inclusive excellence.

I’d like now to speak briefly on behalf of the Equity and Community Consortium of Lane County, an effort that began with a pledge in 1991 and was reaffirmed in 2002.  The 11 largest public agencies in our area; Bethel School District, the City of Eugene, the City of Springfield, the Eugene School District, the Eugene Water and Electric Board, Lane Community College, Lane County, the Lane Education Service District, the Lane Transit District, Springfield Public Schools, and the University of Oregon all stand together, shoulder to shoulder, committed to equity and inclusion, and committed to creating agencies that better serve, reflect, and understand the communities we serve.

The organizations we represent stand united against racism and acts of hate that offend us as individuals, and damage us as a community. We also keep a careful watch over our own agencies to maintain the practices that benefit all people. We are actively engaged in supporting community-building efforts that work to bring social equity throughout Lane County and our state.

The Equity and Community Consortium, ECC, is heavily focused on maintaining a workforce that fully represents, in both culture and focus, the growing diversity of our community, and in providing our staffs equitable and inspiring work environments. We have learned to recognize the difference between intent and impact, to know that our vigilance is necessary to ensure our systems do not fall into inequitable practices. It is our job as leaders to make certain that does not ever happen.

The ECC represents an effort of your public agencies to heed the call that Dr. King echoed across the United States and around the world, reminding us that “the time is always right to do what is right.”

It has been a journey and we have been profoundly impacted by sharing it together, our missteps and our small successes. Today, as we celebrate the profound gift of Dr. King’s legacy, we say with unflinching authenticity that collectively the ECC agencies are dedicated to you and our community.  Thank you for standing shoulder to shoulder with us as we, together, continue his important work.