Est. 1802 ·

Want To Know How Much UConn's College Of Liberal Arts Has Awarded In DEI Grants Since 2020?

By CT Centinal Staff
May 14, 2025
0
Screenshot, UConn CLAS

Please Follow us on GabMindsTelegramRumble, Gettr, Truth SocialTwitter

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) is the largest and most academically diverse college at the University of Connecticut.

The College embarked on a strategic planning process during the 2019-2020 academic year which resulted in the development of the CLAS Strategic Plan -- a plan that listed "Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" as the first goal.

To support its commitment to DEI, CLAS provides funding for "scholarship, programming, and/or other initiatives that support ongoing struggles against injustice and oppression."

"The funds can be used to develop a range of work, such as anti-racist research, social justice-focused programming, relationships with minority-serving institutions to facilitate recruitment of graduate students, collaborations that build intersectional perspectives on the academy, and/or initiatives to advance a positive workplace climate. "

The grants started getting doled out during the first academic year of the strategic plan (2020-2021), when CLAS awarded four grants, totaling $34,100, for Anti-Racist Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Workplace Climate Initiatives.

By the second year, the number of grants awarded had tripled to 12, for a total of $85,453, and the title of the grant category changed to "Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion." Projects focused on things like identifying when black lives "really do" matter, developing anti-racist policies and strategies, and creating an anti-racist committee at UConn.

In the 2022-2023 academic year, CLAS awarded $80,580 for 11 grants, including for the first time a project specifically focused on the trans community to help measure and understand alleged "academic social injustices" experienced by transgender and "gender expressive" youth. Another project focused on creating more inclusive "histories" of "slavery, freedom and healing."

The most generous year for CLAS grants was 2023-2024 when 14 grants were awarded for a total of $89,832, including a JEDI (Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion) workshop so that faculty, staff, students, and clinical educators could learn how to better handle their microaggressions.

The current academic year, 2024-2025, included 11 grants for a total of $76,125. One of the grants was for something called a "Theatre of the Oppressed" at UConn. Another grant was aimed at making marine sciences "a more diverse and welcoming workplace." And another was to establish a "Queer Collaborative" at the UConn campus in Stamford.

Over a five-year period, CLAS awarded a total of $366k in grants for DEI initiatives -- and remember, that is just one of the 14 different schools and colleges at UConn.

It's worth mentioning that UConn issued a statement in March after the U.S. Department of Education released a “Dear Colleague letter” to educational institutions with guidance regarding federal laws that prohibit discrimination. 

In the statement, UConn said it believes the University is "compliant with the law" and that it "does not encourage segregation."

The University added that while there are "numerous affinity groups on campus and related programming, events, activities, and housing, none are in violation of Title VI provided that, regardless of the affinity group who may be the organizers or audience, the programming, events, activities, and housing are open to anyone — meaning no one is excluded on the basis of race or any other aspect of identity."

Additionally, the University plans on keeping its Office of Diversity and Inclusion open, and argues that the Office's "existence and programming are compliant with the law and consistent with UConn’s overall mission."

You can find the full list of DEI initiatives funded through CLAS grants below, by year.


Academic Year 2024-2025

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Total awarded: $76,125.00

Projects Awarded:

  • “UConn STARs (Science, Technology, and Astronomy Recruits) Supplemental Funding”
  • “Fostering Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Staff Education for Lasting Change”
  • “Bridge to Regional Campuses: The Urban Scholars Peer-Mentoring Program”
  • “Proposal for Expanding High School STEM Outreach Program to Underserved Communities”
  • “Forum Theatre/Theatre of the Oppressed at UConn”
  • “Promoting Equity in Education: Enhancing the Teaching Matters Lab to Foster Student Success and Engagement”
  • “Making Marine Sciences a More Diverse and Welcoming Workplace: Advancing the Bridge Program, Developing a Code of Conduct, and Supporting DEI Travel”
  • “Queer Collaborative @ UConn-Stamford”
  • “Mathematics Department Proposal Re Funding for Field of Dreams Conference/Graduate School Fair”
  • “Advancing Mathematics Teaching Through Equity-Minded Inquiry and Transformative Teaching (EMITT)”
  • “A Student-Centered Approach to Fostering the Inclusive Classroom: Gathering Perspectives Across the Liberal Arts and Sciences”

Academic Year 2023-2024

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Total Awarded: $89,832.00

Projects Awarded:

  • “UConn Stars (Science, Technology, and Astronomy Recruits) Supplemental Funding”
  • “The Enduring Impacts of Structural Discrimination on Neighborhood Deterioration”
  • “The History and Legacies of Disability Institutionalization in the U.S.”
  • “The Use of Computer Algorithms in the Policing and Criminal Justice System: Exploring Cognitive and Emotional Responses Among Members of the Black Community”
  • “Fostering Diversity Through a Competitive Multidimensional Diversity Ranking Website”
  • “'I Left So I Could Fee Whole Again'; Investigating Anti-Black Racism and Misogynoir Through Black Women’s Expatriation and the Implications on Economic Well Being, Physical Health, and Mental Health”
  • “Transgender Identity: Policy Implications for Lived Experiences”
  • “An SLHS JEDI Workshop for Faculty, Staff, Students, and Clinical Educators on Managing Microaggressions”
  • “MCB DEI Event: Dr. B Chad Starks, ‘Be the Messenger’”
  • “Birthing Black Women’s HIV Stories on the Colombian Pacific Coast Though the Craft of Ancestral Afro-Midwifery”
  • “Edmundo Desnoes: In and Out of the Cuban Revolution”
  • “Africana Studies Summer Institute to Advance Equity through Research on Women and Girls of Color”
  • “Reading in Talking Books: Theories of Race and Reading from Nineteenth-Century America”
  • “The UConn/Spelman Early Identification Mentorship Program”

Academic Year 2022-2023

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Total awarded: $80,580.00

Projects Awarded:

  • “The Trans and Non-binary School-based Discrimination Scale – Validating a Community-derived Measure To Understand Academic Social Injustices of Gender Expressive Youth”
  • “Supporting Underrepresented Groups in Geographic Information Science”
  • “Inclusive Histories of Slavery, Freedom, and Healing”
  • “Investigating Experiences of Marginalized Physics Students in Group Work Settings”
  • “Educators’ Perceptions of Challenges and Competence in Working With Students of Color”
  • “Resilience: A Workshop for Women Doing Philosophy”
  • “Making Marine Sciences a More Diverse and Welcoming Workplace: Advancing the Bridge Program and Improving Departmental Climate Through ADVANCEGeo Workshops”
  • “Chemical Bonds: Building Partnerships To Foster Diversity in the Grad Community in Chemistry”
  • “Mental Health and Wellness Workshop for Women of Color (WOC) Faculty in CLAS”
  • “Research and Academic Experiences for Women’s College Students in Physics and Quantum Sciences”
  • “Research MASTER (Mentoring and Scholarship Training for Emerging Researchers) Program: A Pilot”

Academic Year 2021-2022

Climate, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Total awarded: $85,453.00

Projects Awarded:

  • “UConnSTARs (Science, Technology, and Astronomy Recruits)”
  • “PNB Undergraduate Intersectional Peer Mentoring Program (PUMP)”
  • “When Black Lives Really Do Matter: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Race, Gender, and Health Disparities”
  • “Developing Anti-Racist Policies and Strategies to Support Accessibility, Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Geosciences"
  • “Supporting Minorities in Physics Through Seminars, Peer Groups, and Outreach”
  • “Broadening the Participation of Underrepresented Minorities in Physics”
  • “Addressing the Degree Gap for Under-Represented Minorities in Connecticut: A Proposal to Partner with the AGU Bridge Program”
  • “Building a CLAS BIPoC Graduate Recruitment/Retention Knowledge Base”
  • “Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Education and Research at UConn”
  • “Avery Point STEM Faculty Learning Community about Disability”
  • “Anti-Racism Committee”
  • “Equity and Social Justice in Secondary English Education Reading Group: Connecticut Writing Project Grant Proposal”
  • “Training of Physics Undergraduate Students from Underrepresented Minority Groups”

Academic Year 2020-2021

Anti-Racist Scholarship, Pedagogy, and Workplace Climate

Total awarded: $34,100.00

Projects Awarded:

  • “Racism in the Margins”
  • “Language and Racism, A collaboration between the Africana Studies and the Cognitive Sciences Program”
  • “Decolonizing Area Studies: Towards Intercultural Citizenship and Social Justice”
  • “Activist in Residence”

‘NO AD’ subscription for CDM!  Sign up here and support real investigative journalism and help save the republic!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
  • magnifiercrossmenu