Hello from campus, Bronco friends and family! I am so excited to be addressing you. There was a time when we really were not sure that this would be possible in the current circumstance. To put it mildly, we are thrilled to have students back on campus and to be using all of our creative energy to help your students intentionally begin to shape the path of what their lives will become. My name is Francisco Salinas and I serve the division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management as the Assistant to the Vice President for Equity Initiatives. Previous to this new role I have served as the Director for Student Diversity and Inclusion at Boise State University for the previous twelve years.
Although I will be undertaking different activities in this role, it is with the same aim as before, to help the population of historically under-represented students at Boise State University grow and succeed. It is a sensitive time to be engaged in this work as it seems that the issues of both racial justice, (in particular) and the issues of equity and inclusion more broadly, are being revisited in the public square through the media and the actions of demonstrators across the nation. I want you to know that these are issues that matter to us at Boise State University and we see it as a sacred trust to help your students find their community to connect with here and to learn to critically assess the most important questions in their own lives. Student voices in the United States have held a historically vital place in social movements and we are seeing this on our campus these days as well.
As you can see in our approach to the coronavirus, safety is our first priority. This applies to the way that we want students to be engaged in social issues as well. When students explore their standing, or express their views with respect to current issues we expect that differences will arise. When these differences reveal themselves, we will be working with all relevant parties to make sure that we are modeling a standard of adherence to treating all the members of our community as indispensable that holds the key for deepening our collective understanding of one another’s perspectives and is the delicate but inexorable path towards our collective ambition of becoming a more perfect union.
– Francisco Salinas
Assistant to the Vice President for Equity Initiatives