This is an update to a story we’ve been following closely. Apparently, Cornell’s student assembly agrees with Black Students United.

The Cornell Review reports.

Cornell Student Assembly Calls for Mandatory Faculty Diversity Training

On Thursday Cornell’s undergraduate Student Assembly passed a resolution by a 22-1 margin calling for mandatory faculty diversity training.

The resolution, titled “Towards a More Inclusive Learning Experience,” was based on a letter Cornell Black Students United (BSU) delivered to University administrators late last year.

The letter read in part: “We want all employees of the university, academic and otherwise — including tenured professors — to have appropriate, ongoing training that deals with issues of identity, such as race, class, religion, ability status, sexual and romantic orientation, gender and citizenship status. We want this coursework to be explicitly focused on systems of power and privilege in the United States and centering the voices of oppressed people.” You can read it in full here.

The Student Assembly (SA) resolution quotes the above paragraph and recommends the Faculty Senate work with BSU and the SA to implement the mandatory diversity training. The resolution also recommends that reach undergraduate college tailor “best practices as they pertain to diversity and how they can be better implemented” and “employees and faculty collaborate to create a comprehensive diversity training program to that promotes the best teaching practices as they pertain to racial, gender, sexuality and ability identities in a teaching setting.”

The resolution was sponsored by BSU co-president and SA Minority Liaison At Large Samari Gilbert ’17, SA Executive Vice President Emma Johnston ’16, and incoming SA Minority Liaison At Large Traciann Celestin ’19.