UTSA Equity Advocacy Initiative

Through the Equity Advocacy Initiative, UTSA will develop an overarching framework for implementing the recommendations put forth by the 21st Century Learning Environments Task Group to foster healthy and inclusive learning environments. The initiative will formally connect those efforts to the work of tactical teams on degree pathways and higher education access as a part of our fundamental commitment to diversity, inclusion and the success of UTSA students.

In support of the initiative, UTSA’s colleges and academic support divisions will develop new and enhance existing activities to advance diversity, inclusion and justice.

Courses

• Piloting new suite of courses that emphasize legacies of structural inequality on the city of San Antonio, using an assets-based approach within a city as text pedagogy. These courses will be virtual or located at the Downtown Campus
• Partnering with Demography to offer a COVID-19 demography course on how patterns of COVID-19 map onto historical legacies of racism in San Antonio
• Partnering with Prospera, the largest non-profit housing organization in South Texas, on a narrative change project around affordable housing. The partnership includes a course and two course-length Honors Experiences
• Continuing our Tutorial I course (required for all Honors College students) that is an exploration of public intellectual work around United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which are predicated on reducing inequities in justice, wellbeing, economy, and environment

Staff

At the annual Honors College staff retreat, we began a structured dialogue about social justice, its actual and potential role in our work in the college, and our individual and college goals for implementing change as detailed in our public statement against bigotry, violence, and racism. We will continue the dialogue at planned points throughout the semester.

Programs

Top Scholars

• 3 sessions at Top Scholar annual orientation and retreat, including the topic of our common reading book discussion.
• 3 guest speakers that have some form of social justice topic for our Top Scholar Program 1000 weekly meetings in Fall.
• Co-sponsoring UTSA’s Social Justice Film Series

Citymester

• Citymester was cancelled because of COVID-19. However, we took Citymester’s “place as text” pedagogy, which emphasizes equity issues across the physical, social, and economic landscapes of our city, and developed a new course that focuses on COVID-19, our city, and equity.