SU President Unveils Initiatives to Address Campus Communication, Safety and Inclusiveness

SALISBURY, MD---Salisbury University President Charles Wight and other SU administrators recently met with students, faculty and staff to discuss concerns about bias, discrimination and safety on campus following racially and sexually charged graffiti discovered in Fulton Hall.

Following a campus-wide meeting on Tuesday evening, Wight outlined immediate steps to address some of the students’ concerns, including:

• Establishing new social media accounts to better communicate with students, faculty and staff;
• Setting a goal of 100 percent faculty and staff compliance on required diversity and sensitivity training and exploring new ways to administer training;
• Working with faculty to evaluate the curriculum and ways to continue to be attentive to the growing diversity of the student population; and
• Working with the SU Police Department to deploy additional resources and maintain contact with allied law enforcement agencies to maintain a safe campus.

During a meeting with campus leaders on Friday, he unveiled longer-term initiatives to address campus communication, security and inclusiveness:

• Encouraging increased participation in SU’s text message-based notification system (in addition to the campus’ emergency alert systems);
• Adding more security cameras to the 900-plus already on campus and upgrading some existing cameras;
• Increasing the number of emergency preparation trainings on campus and encouraging more students, faculty and staff to attend;
• Holding regularly scheduled campus community meetings, providing faculty, staff and students with more opportunities to express their concerns face-to-face with the President;
• Scheduling regular community office hours with SU’s administration;
• Updating imagery in SU buildings to better reflect the campus’ current population; and
• Establishing a task force to address these issues.

“I am encouraged that students, alumni, faculty and staff have reached out to assist me in understanding their frustrations,” said Wight. “Their collective voice is helping us create a roadmap to what I hope will be a new SU. This week’s meetings have been productive and informative. While we still have a long way to go, my administration and I have heard our community’s concerns loud and clear, and we are moving forward together to ensure SU is a campus where all of our students, faculty and staff feel safe, welcome and represented.”