Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility
We are a supportive community committed to individual and artistic integrity and inclusion. We promote and respect self-expression, a wide range of ideas and diversity in all its forms.
Inclusion and Diversity Statement
We believe the work of inclusion, accessibility, and equity is never complete, always in progress, and constantly evolving. We commit to continually revisit this text alongside our ongoing assessment of the values, practices and policies that shape our university, as our charge as a creative community mandates that we embrace and initiate change.
Guided by our mission of advancing human creativity, the University of the Arts activates a culture where each person is valued within a community that recognizes, seeks and celebrates differences. We make space for multiple ways of learning, being, and creating both within and beyond traditional learning environments. UArts recognizes the diverse challenges faced in building sustainable lives as artists, and we commit to creating pathways toward increased accessibility to vital, relevant, adaptive, affordable and resilient creative study.
We are committed to focusing on inclusion as central to the development of curriculum, pedagogy, and in our hiring practices. Creating an environment where all community members can thrive necessitates acknowledging our institution’s past, its relationship to structures of inequality, while also facing the possibilities of the future with a sense of accountability, optimism and resolve.
We embrace our role as an incubator and hub for the creative life of the city of Philadelphia, and our growing national and international collaborations. The responsibilities of our involvement in both local and global movements of creative world-building include equipping students with the tools needed to confidently navigate art making in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Accessibility (DEIAC) Executive Board
Stephen Cirino
Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; DEIAC chair
Jesse Zaritt
DEIAC Vice Chair
Melanie Romay
DEIAC Communications Officer
Committee Members
Projects
Every year, the DEIAC initiates and executes two to four projects that center on the continued enhancement of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within the UArts community.
Areas of Focus
The confirmed areas of focus are central to the DEIAC. These areas will be continuous annually, with two to four interchangeable goals.
Office & Department Representation
Representatives from offices and departments across the university support DEIA-specific projects and goals and ensure diversity is embedded across the university.
Student Ambassadors
Student ambassadors provide direct communication between our seven school student bodies and the DEIAC.
Faculty Ambassadors
Faculty ambassadors provide direct communication between school faculty members and the DEIAC.
UARTS LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We recognize and acknowledge the land on which the University of the Arts stands as the ancestral homeland of the Lenape, a territory known as Lenapehokink. We take this opportunity together to honor the Lenape as the indigenous stewards of this land, and to be mindful of the legacy of colonization, erasure and oppression that informs the history of our nation, our city and our institution. The presence and resilience of the Lenape continues to this day in Lenape nations spread across the country and continent through forcible displacement, as well as through individuals and communities representing the Lenape who remained in Lenapehokink.
The University of the Arts is committed to continuing and nurturing our relationship with the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania through friendship and collaboration that honors this land and the communities that it supports.
We are a supportive community committed to individual and artistic integrity and inclusion. We promote and respect self-expression, a wide range of ideas and diversity in all its forms.
