Antiracism and Social Justice Task Force

Mission

The Anti-Racism and Social Justice Task Force is committed to defending the academic freedom and the social responsibility of higher education professionals. Central to this freedom and responsibility is the promotion of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice at Northern Illinois University and in our wider communities. Among the several dimensions of social justice activism, we stand committed to dismantling racism in our institutional practices and structures.

In Response to Federal Action against Universities

Beginning in January 2025, the Anti-Racism and Social Justice Task Force initiated work to foster academic freedom and responsibility on NIU's campus and in our community. This work responded directly to federal actions undermining both freedom of expression and the responsibility of higher education to defend democracy.

Early results of this work include two statements posted to UFA Action on Academic Freedom and Responsibility and on the Detention of Mahmoud Khalil. These statements were approved unanimously by the UFA Executive Committee, then presented as Resolutions to the University Professionals of Illinois 4100 House of Delegates general assembly on March 29, where they were also approved by unanimous acclamation.

To Effect Change in Tenure and Promotion Policies

In 2022-2023, the Anti-Racism and Social Justice Task Force coordinated workshops across NIU’s campus to assess and revise policies on tenure, promotion, and annual review in light of best practices for supporting and recognizing the contributions of BIPOC faculty at NIU.

The Task Force outlined its work on internal practices as follows.

Why We Do What We Do

First and foremost, despite the efforts, and despite the diversity in students at NIU - there is still work to be done. BIPOC faculty are bearing disproportionate share of service burden, what Amado Padilla terms “cultural taxation,” and the faculty remains overwhelmingly white. This infographic shares some statistics.

  • Equity work is not for the few, but for all. Our campus, our academic fields, and our world is more dynamic, innovative, and productive when we embrace and promote diverse perspectives.

  • Those who want to build anti-racist organizations and foster social justice often don’t know how to begin their journey. We want to empower our colleagues and work together to create a roadmap to equity by increasing awareness of the structures that promote and perpetuate institutional racism and implicit bias.

  • We aim to complement the top-down initiatives that come from university administration by supporting faculty-led efforts to identify diversity, equity, and inclusion goals and ensure accountability and transparency within their units on campus.

  • Real change can happen and happen immediately. We want to help NIU’s faculty to be agents of change.

The Impact of Our Work
Colleagues who have participated in the workshop have rated it the best workshop they have attended; they appreciate the effectiveness of the hands-on activities that easily translate into immediate improvements to the policies in their university units. A formal assessment, a survey distributed to past workshop attendees several months following the workshop, points to multiple concrete intra- and interdepartmental outcomes:

  1. Impact on policy. The majority of participants indicated that they had brought up DEI issues in relevant committee work in their units since their participation, and that their units had commenced the work of updating their policies to be DEI friendlier. Specific changes reflect issues raised in the workshops, such as the range of journals listed as acceptable as high-ranking publication outlets, removing vague language and criteria, and a more inclusive conceptualization of scholarly activity.

  2. The value of interdepartmental review. Respondents expressed strong interest in further interdepartmental conversation to aid the revision process. One respondent emphasized the value of having external review of their own unit’s promotion procedure in terms of things that can be improved and how. Likewise, many found it helpful to look at other units’ criteria and procedure for their own awareness of concerns, but also to see models of how to be more DEI friendly.

  3. Improving transparency and accountability. One concrete suggestion to have originated in the workshop was the creation of a document repository, where the promotion by-laws of different university units are posted. This facilitates the consideration of different ways to address specific criteria, and also holds individual units accountable with respect to their stated goals of diversifying the faculty. Work on the document repository is ongoing.

Diversity Advocates. Another idea discussed in the workshops was the use of diversity advocates that can attend promotion discussions on behalf of a candidate when the evaluating faculty lacks diversity representation, to help ensure fair process. This position is currently in discussion; the idea has generally been received positively, and a good number of respondents expressed being comfortable to serve in such a role, if needed.

Workshop

The Task Force hosted eight workshops with 42 faculty completing the two-part program. Workshops detail how implicit bias shapes personnel policies and actions, followed by discussion led by nine facilitators trained by the Illinois Federation of Teachers’ Dr. Monique Redeaux-Smith, who has led antiracist efforts with other teachers’ unions across the state. During the workshop, participants share their personnel policies, analyzing them with an antiracist lens and identifying changes.

Resources

Here are some resources that the Task Force has developed that might be useful:

last updated April 29, 2025