Honoring the past, celebrating the future

Brandon Wolfe
Monday, February 28, 2022

Editor’s Note: Read a statement from Chief Diversity Officer Brandon Wolfe regarding the recent wave of bomb threats made against Black institutions, including UNC System institution Elizabeth City State University on Friday, Feb. 25.

Dear Niner Nation,

Today marks the final day of Black History Month. We have spent the past 28 days honoring those who have shaped our nation by committing themselves to advancing human and civil rights — oftentimes in the face of unimaginable difficulty. Today we stand in their place as the beneficiaries of progress and as participants of a continued movement. Thanks to technology and social media, this movement is more globally inclusive than at any time in history. And we all have a role to play, especially as members of a University community.

A Community of Collaboration

At UNC Charlotte, we are fortunate to have a long-standing culture of collaboration. Long before I arrived in November, Niner Nation was taking the initiative to form committees, faculty and staff caucuses, and DEI working groups, and develop programs and initiatives to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. With Chancellor Gaber’s arrival and her appointment of Cheryl Waites Spellman as the interim chief diversity officer, our University’s prioritization of diversity, equity and inclusion only grew. I am grateful to both of them for paving the way for my arrival in this community. 

In my first few months with you, your commitment to partnership and amplification of the good work underway has been evident. It’s been positively overwhelming to receive phone calls, emails and invitations to see the work you all are doing. Your efforts for Niner Nation do not go unnoticed. It is my honor to now serve alongside you to leverage diversity and inclusion for the purpose of fostering equity, fueling innovation and driving excellence in our daily practice.

Creating Opportunities for Continued Excellence

The charge of cultivating an equitable, inclusive, safe and welcoming space for all students, employees, alumni and friends works only if it is highly collaborative. It requires the hands, minds and hearts of all of us as we share responsibility for championing human dignity and safeguarding community well-being for the entire UNC Charlotte family.  Here are just a few ways I invite you to partner and interact with my office in the coming weeks:

  • Faculty and Staff Ideas: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion recently launched the Innovation in Inclusive Excellence Grants (formally the Chancellor’s Diversity Challenge Fund) to continue empowering faculty and staff ideas and create avenues for the development of promising practices that are unique to our campus. Beyond the name change, you will also notice increased funding opportunities and an additional funding cycle. Proposals are now being accepted, and I look forward to supporting ideas that are on the verge of becoming best practices.
     
  • Student Feedback: Student Affairs and Diversity and Inclusion developed the Student Inclusion Advisory Group to enhance transparency between our offices, solicit student feedback and continue the process of equity-minded capacity building through the sharing of student-centered ideas. If you would like to join the advisory group, please contact the Dean of Student Office to share your interest in becoming involved.
     
  • Follow Our Shared Progress: In a few days, we will launch our first diversity and inclusion dashboard. Thanks to a collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support, we have produced a user-friendly, interactive and evolving dashboard that provides both a compositional snapshot and associated trend data of student and employee progress at UNC Charlotte. 

I am also still reaching out across campus for more listening and learning sessions while maintaining a standing Thursday lunch meeting in Crown with any student(s) open to conversation (Please join me at the table when you see me or send me an email to extend an invite!).  Additionally, work continues on growing our DEI Campus Inventory in an effort to centralize a listing of all DEI activity at UNC Charlotte. We are also creating a campus-wide diversity strategic plan alongside the Chancellor’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and other institution leaders. This plan will serve as our renewed guiding commitment and a comprehensive implementation of diversity, equity and inclusion within UNC Charlotte’s Shaping What’s Next strategic plan. I look forward to sharing that plan with you, and most importantly, collectively putting that plan into action.

Working and Striving Together

We are fortunate to be members of this University community. We can learn and leverage education to enlighten and lead — to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our colleagues, friends and neighbors. It just requires us to trust in our own power and ingenuity to continue being the change we wish to see in the world — much like those we celebrated during the past month. The journey will likely have uncomfortable and difficult moments, but we will learn and grow together.

As we move forward, I hope you will remember: Though challenges remain, progress has occurred and will continue to unfold. No matter the circumstance, open dialogue and collaboration will help us achieve our goals. We all have a role to play in our collective success, and my office is here to be a resource and campus partner for you. As you see opportunities for collaboration, please reach out. 

I leave you with a quote from Oscar, Tony and SAG Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, "Keep working. Keep striving. Never give up. Fall down seven times, get up eight. Without commitment, you’ll never start. But more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish…Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship, so keep moving, keep growing, keep learning. See you at work."

Go Niners!

Sincerely,
Brandon

Brandon L. Wolfe is UNC Charlotte’s inaugural associate vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer. He is responsible for providing vision, leadership and oversight for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in practice as part of the University’s guiding commitments.