June at the University of Iowa is about planning and celebrating. We are deep into preparations for the total return of our students, faculty, and staff to campus this fall. There is a renewed energy of acceptance, where our university community is eager to grow our understanding of free speech, diversity, equity, and inclusion to accept all.

We celebrate #Pride2021 in the community and online. Watch our social media channels @DiversityUI on Twitter, @uiowadei on Instagram, @DiversityUI on Facebook, and our LinkedIn page. We are telling the stories of our community's LGBTQ+ history. While we will focus on our LGBTQ+ history this month and highlight UI Pride Week this October.

We will also celebrate and honor Juneteenth later this month. Stay tuned to diversity.uiowa.edu for some unique stories looking at the significance of this day in our nation's history.

We are only 90 short days until the start of a new academic year. We have begun the year-long process to develop a new strategic plan for the university. DEI will be embedded in every aspect of our programming, process, and structure over the next five years. The DEI Action Plan for Iowa is also being revamped to align with the universities' strategic plan.

As a friendly reminder, if you have questions about State House File 802 on DEI teaching in public institutions, we have put together this information page to refer to. As a reminder, we will continue our voluntary DEI training programs, including the BUILD and Implicit Bias Training, as the legislation applies to mandatory training. Over the last three years, we are proud of the over 15,000 faculty and staff members who have voluntarily participated in our programs. We look forward to continuing this service as we grow together.

This month, take a little time to recharge and remind ourselves of what our campus is like when we are all together. Our collaboration and ability to learn from each other is amazing. The anticipation for the Fall of 2021 will be unlike anything we have experienced, and I cannot wait.

Go Hawks!

Liz Tovar, Ph.D.
Executive officer and associate vice president
Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion