The pursuit of the ACS grant began in June in response to the civil unrest caused by the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor<\/a>, numerous painful stories of explicit and implicit racism experienced by current and former Furman students, and a petition by a group of Black alumni requesting the university make a series of commitments to racial justice.<\/p>\n Both the petition and Furman\u2019s response can be read here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Diane Boyd<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cWe knew we needed to do something about this. We didn\u2019t know what, but the civic unrest and the protests – there was a collective interest in trying to create anti-racist environments,\u201d Diane Boyd, Furman\u2019s associate dean of faculty development and executive director of the Faculty Development Center<\/a>, said. \u201cI’m pleased that we’re leading the charge in this particular grant. Our colleagues are keen on doing something meaningful with long-term positive effects on our campuses.\u201d<\/p>\n Boyd was the principal investigator on the grant and primary grant writer. The award totals $36,500 with the option of securing additional funding. Beginning this fall, schools will recruit experts to train campus facilitator teams, which will then develop campus-specific curriculums to address racial inequity with actionable steps.<\/p>\n \u201cOne thing I have recognized for a while at Furman is a need for training around diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Our faculty and staff have requested and pushed us to provide training around this issue,\u201d Michael Jennings, Furman\u2019s chief diversity officer, said. \u201cIt connects with some of the things that went on this summer \u2026 We wanted to have some of that training available to everyone, and this is a really powerful step in that direction. So I\u2019m excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Once Furman\u2019s campus facilitator teams are created, they will begin offering voluntary training to faculty and staff that Boyd hopes will begin in the spring.<\/p>\n Michael Jennings<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m of the belief that we will be somewhat overwhelmed by the number of people who want to participate in the training,\u201d Jennings said, noting 18 faculty and staff\u00a0members expressed interest in becoming campus facilitators. \u201cThese issues are important to us as a campus community, and they’re important to the broader community beyond the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, Furman launched a website commemorating 50 years of desegregation<\/a>, and in 2017 the Task Force on Slavery and Justice<\/a> was formed to examine the university\u2019s historical connections to slavery. In recent weeks, the university has also been awarded a $1 million S-STEM grant<\/a> focused on increasing socioeconomic and underrepresented minority group diversity among students seeking degrees in chemistry, biology, neuroscience or the geosciences and announced an expansion<\/a> of its Entrepreneur-In-Residence program to better reflect the diversity of students mentored by Furman Innovation and Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n![\"Diane](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Diane-Boyd.jpg\")
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Michael-Jennings.jpg\")