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Diversity and Climate

The members of the UC Berkeley Department of Music-students, teachers, and staff-are committed to engaging freely in the scholarly and artistic conversations with respect for one another’s diverse views and experiences.

As a community, we emphatically stand up against comments or actions targeting anyone’s age, class, color, disability, gender identity, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or any other form of identity.

We celebrate our rich diversity as a source of innovative ideas and accomplishments and we strive to establish a climate that promotes respect for the contributions of all members of our community.

Faculty Statement in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

We write to share in the grief and anger that has moved protesters around the country and the world to protest against the Black racism and violence that is pervasive in our society. Together, we mourn the life of George Floyd, and the lives of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Tony Robinson, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Philando Castile, and so many others whose lives were wrongfully cut short. We demand justice. Black Lives Matter.

The Berkeley Music Department is fully aware that this critical moment in U.S. history demands more than words. Therefore, we pledge to examine the ways in which structural racism has shaped our own institution, informed our curriculum, and shaped our pedagogies, research, and labor practices. We will use the tools of the arts and education to teach antiracism, center and recognize the labor of people of color, and highlight the histories that have brought us to this point and the structures that have to be dismantled. As musicians, as scholars, and as educators, we can make sure that our creative work and our teaching explicates histories and structures of complicity (starting with our own), calls out systemic oppression, and promotes discourses of racial justice. We acknowledge that this is challenging work: it demands continuous care, time, and an enduring commitment to education on the part of faculty and students. The Music Department commits to working hard to dismantle these structures in order to make our campus and department community more inclusive and equitable for all people.

As a first step, we commit now to host a Town Hall in the Fall semester of 2020 where we will accept proposals from students and faculty on how to confront racial injustice within our Department. If you would like to get involved in the organization of this event, please contact the Department’s Equity Advisor, Mary Ann Smart masmart@berkeley.edu

Signed,
David Milnes, chair, on behalf of the Music Department

Statement on Diversity

These principles of community for the University of California, Berkeley, are rooted in a mission of teaching, research and public service and are fully upheld by the Music Department. They reflect our passion for critical inquiry, debate, discovery and innovation, and our deep commitment to contributing to a better world. Every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring and humane environment in which these values can thrive.

  • We place honesty and integrity in our teaching, learning, research and administration at the highest level.
  • We recognize the intrinsic relationship between diversity and excellence in all our endeavors.
  • We affirm the dignity of all individuals and strive to uphold a just community in which discrimination and hate are not tolerated.
  • We are committed to ensuring freedom of expression and dialogue that elicits the full spectrum of views held by our varied communities.
  • We respect the differences as well as the commonalities that bring us together and call for civility and respect in our personal interactions.
  • We believe that active participation and leadership in addressing the most pressing issues facing our local and global communities are central to our educational mission.
  • We embrace open and equitable access to opportunities for learning and development as our obligation and goal.

For more information, visit UC Berkeley’s Division of Equity, Inclusion & Diversity page.

Mental Health

Berkeley provides a comprehensive Mental Health Handbook plus a helpful “Gold Folder” guide for helping people in distress.

For more information please visit: https://uhs.berkeley.edu/counseling/prevention-education-outreach/mental-health-handbook

Reporting Harassment

The Department of Music is committed to providing support to anyone who has experienced any form of harassment or discrimination that impedes on one’s right to a safe work or learning environment. We have compiled a list of department and campus resources that are available to anyone looking for assistance with reporting any form of harassment.