The July 2014 draft of Vanderbilt University’s academic strategic plan states that, as a part of our broader goal of being a world-class university, we “commit to ensuring diversity of all forms in the pursuit of excellence in learning and discovery.” The strategic plan further states that

[d]iversity, in the broadest sense of the term, is absolutely critical to ensuring excellence in our core missions of discovery and learning. The human condition is fundamentally shaped by the context in which we have lived, learned, and now reside…The human condition, and human lives, is shaped by these different experiences, and they give rise to very different prisms by which each individual thinks about problems and opportunities and then approaches solutions…This commitment to diversity and equality is fundamental to the University’s future.

Peabody College has many strengths. The perspectives that we have gathered from students, faculty, and administration, however, indicate that we have much work to do in order to ensure that we are meeting our goals of diversity and equality. To add to what is stated in the academic plan, we also emphasize that the responsible treatment of people’s identities is a goal in and of itself, consistent with the ideals of social justice and equity. What we do now shapes the ways that inequity and power are structured later. We as a community have a responsibility not just to create diverse centers of knowledge and discovery, but also to consciously promote and live respectful, dynamic, and just lives that recognize what it means to be a person of inherent dignity. It is this mantle that the Crucial Conversations initiative has adopted, with the purpose of distributing this work to all stakeholders across campus: students, faculty, and administration alike.

Our mission is to shape Peabody into a place for open dialogue and respectful discussion about race, culture, and the identity of every person as a valued member of our scholarly community. A full narrative outlining our motivation and vision for an ideal Peabody can be found here, while our current goal priorities can be found here.

Overall, there are four broad goals for this initiative:

1. Integrate issues of diversity, power, equity, and inclusion into curricula and classroom experiences across departments and disciplines.
2. Establish sustainable system of formalized administrative support specifically to facilitate diversity initiatives and keep all stakeholders accountable.
3. Increase the racial diversity of faculty and students on Peabody’s campus and demonstrate a consistent commitment to making strides in this area.
4. Create extracurricular structures to support ongoing dialogue about diversity and student experiences.