RICHMOND, Va. – VCU Athletic Director Ed McLaughlin and the VCU Athletic Department are proud to announce the formation of the Athletics Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee. The DEI committee was started by McLaughlin following the death of George Floyd and protests across the nation and in the Richmond community.
 
McLaughlin charged the committee to conduct an honest assessment as to how African American and Black employees and student-athletes are valued within VCU Athletics. The committee is dedicated to creating a culture of inclusivity through courageous conversations on topics of social justice and human rights, continuous social justice training, education, awareness and advocacy and recruitment and retention of under-represented student-athletes, coaches and staff. In addition, the committee will work toward a goal of cultivating an environment where student-athletes and employees of every race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, nationality and disability are supported, embraced and celebrated. The committee consists of VCU coaches and athletic administrators well as student-athletes from several different sports.
 
The committee was formed in early June and has already planned several initiatives. These initiatives include partnering with the VCU Student Athlete Advisory Committee for the Rams Vote initiative and a Unity Walk that student-athletes and staff will participate in. The DEI committee will also hold sessions with African American and Black employees and recently started the VCU Athletics Diversity Reading and Discussion Series in which VCU student-athletes, coaches and staff will be encouraged to study books on a wide-variety of diversity topics.
 
VCU Athletics and the DEI committee will use the hashtag #Rams4Change to promote the committee's initiatives on social media.
 
"Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee has done excellent work in a short period of time. We strive to make VCU Athletics a model of inclusion for our campus and across college athletics," said McLaughlin. "I appreciate the committee's efforts thus far to listen to the feedback from the Black and African American members of our staff to create programming to educate all of our department. Having a diverse group of people on the committee, especially our student-athletes, has created a powerful force that will do even more important work in the future."