We demand that the University of Denver offer a mandatory educational opportunity for its students to take an interdisciplinary approach to issues of inequity regarding race. This mandatory course must apply to ALL STUDENTS. No matter the students’ backgrounds all students must develop a strong understanding of these systemic power dynamics that are taking place both on and off campus.

This course must be vetted, maintained, and overseen by a board of students, staff, and faculty of color. It should be required within every educational field DU has to offer. DU is educating future business leaders, doctors, educators, and they aren’t doing enough if our future leaders don’t understand what systematic oppression is, what systematic oppression looks like, and how to eliminate it. 

DU was founded on discrimination. In 1864, the University of Denver was founded the same year as one of the most tragic acts of discrimination in Colorado history. The Sandcreek Massacre. Not one, but two congregational committees and a military commission looked into the Sand Creek Massacre and deemed it an unprovoked massacre that mostly carried an impact upon women, children and babies, as well as the elderly. DU’s founding history has left a scar of racial discrimination to its community. This course will provide an opportunity for the university to start on a clean slate and truly begin their journey of fostering a true community.