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President Creates Task Force on Bias and Hate Issues

The task force has been charged with a broad review of Duke’s policies, practices and culture as they pertain to bias and hate in the Duke student experience

In an email to all students, faculty and staff, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Thursday the creation of a Task Force on Bias and Hate Issues. The task force will be co-chaired by Kelly Brownell, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy and Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy, and Linda Burton, dean of social sciences and James B. Duke Professor of Sociology. They will be joined by faculty, staff and students from across the university. The president and Provost Sally Kornbluth have charged the task force with a broad review of Duke’s policies, practices and culture as they pertain to bias and hate in the Duke student experience. In its capacity as an advisory committee to the president and the provost, it will bring forward ideas, strategies and recommendations. In specific, the task force is asked to:-- Consider whether Duke’s institutional policies should have specific mention of bias and hate; -- Consider issues related to communications of incidents of intolerance; and-- Make recommendations for achieving greater transparency in the handling of issues of intolerance.In his message to the community, Brodhead wrote, “While administrative actions cannot solve all the problems we face, I believe that this task force will be a positive step in creating a productive dialogue about the ways we can change Duke for the better. I welcome your participation in this effort.”The task force will work in partnership with the Bias Response Advisory Committee in Student Affairs, which advises the vice president for student affairs and focuses on responses to specific instances of bias and hate. The Task Force on Bias and Hate Issues is asked to make an initial report to the president and the provost by mid-April 2016.