Durham Tech President Buxton, Trustees Chair Burness provide year-one update to the College’s commitments on equity and inclusion.

Today, Durham Technical Community College Board Chair John Burness and President J.B. Buxton released a joint letter to provide an update on the College’s commitments as part of its Equity and Inclusion Action Plan. In the fall of 2020, Durham Tech outlined a series of commitments related to its goals for equitable student success, employee recruitment and development, institutional climate and policies, and community partnerships.  

The plan was developed through engagement of Durham Tech’s faculty, staff, students and community partners and was endorsed unanimously by the Board of Trustees. As Buxton and Burness write, the Fall 2020 plan “reflects the College’s ongoing dedication to being a just and equitable institution, desire to make visible and durable our commitments, and effort to hold ourselves accountable for the work.” 

Burness and Buxton reported on action taken in the past year and reaffirmed the College’s on-going commitment to achieve the results outlined in the Plan and provide leadership on these critical challenges facing our community. “The work is hard, but it is critical to who we are at Durham Tech and we will not flag in our commitment.” 

In the last year, the College launched more than 15 strategies, including creating the Men of Color Scholars Institute, creating an Equity Scorecard and embedding equity goals into its new 2021-26 strategic plan, implementing Racial Equity Institute training for staff, establishing a SafeZone Committee for the LGBTQ+ community, launching a salary equity audit, and establishing an Equity and Inclusion Fund with the Durham Tech Foundation.  

“The College has made progress through initiatives and will continue to introduce change to ensure equitable student success. This work is on-going and requires each of us to play a role in transforming change at Durham Tech,” said Angela Davis, Vice President and Chief of Talent and Equity at Durham Tech. 

Christine Link, the Durham Tech Student Government Association President, released a statement noting the priority on this work for students and the importance of the College’s commitment to transparency and student engagement. 

“As a student and the Student Government President, I am incredibly grateful and proud to see the release of this report. In the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, the administration at Durham Tech announced this Equity and Inclusion action plan. Not only did I feel relief that my school was doing more than just writing a letter of condolences, but it inspired me and gave me hope. These detailed and actionable steps showed me how social justice can and should work at the collegiate level. In this report, we can see that our administration is not just talking the talk, but making definite steps into walking the walk on the journey towards a more equitable and inclusive campus. I applaud them in the transparency they show by releasing this report. It truly does allow us as students to hold them accountable, as well as be a part of the process. I thank each person involved in this movement, and I look forward to seeing how this ripples through transforming our college and community,” Link said.

View the full letter to the community in the Equity and Inclusion Update (PDF).

For more information, contact Desiree Towson, M.S. Communications and Public Relations Coordinator, at allisontowsond@durhamtech.edu