Student Government legislature discussed diversity in the College of Veterinary Medicine and provided other updates during the meeting Tuesday night.  

Dan Grooms, dean of Vet Med, also provided updates on diversity, equity and inclusion in their college. 

“On Feb. 12, 2020, the ISU Student Senate passed a resolution censuring the College of Veterinary Medicine’s administration for failing to respond to offense of bigotry and racism within our college,” Grooms said. “This is a censure that we, as an administration in the College of Veterinary Medicine, certainly took very seriously. As part of that censure, there were several resolutions that were brought forward.”

Grooms said students in their college brought these things to their attention and told them they needed to work harder in their efforts. 

He said their focuses on combating these problems include focus on recruitment and admissions from diverse backgrounds and uplifting diversity, equity and inclusion with faculty, staff and the student body.

Vet Med students looked through thousands of applications to the college from the past two years to see where applicants are applying from. This information is leading members of the college to recruit and target students from those areas. 

Grooms is also making efforts to provide more scholarship money to students in diverse backgrounds. One of his goals is to double the amount of money provided in the Frederick Douglass Patterson scholarship.

The college has also provided training for staff and students. Faculty members have completed training programs in diversity, equity and inclusion, and the admissions committee has gone through training on unconscious bias.

The legislature also touched on Iowa State’s blood drive, a budget update for Ethos magazine and an effort to help carbon emissions from the university. 

“There’s also an announcement that President [Wendy] Wintersteen endorsed a five-year strategic plan for sustainability in operations, which plans to reduce Iowa State’s carbon emissions by 50 percent with the long-term goal of carbon neutrality,” Student Government President Morgan Fritz said. “That is a really really big deal for our university, and I’m really glad that we’re heading in the right direction with that.”