Letter to the editor: USD officials support LGBTQ+ community

To the USD Community:

The South Dakota state legislature has considered legislation in the past few months that further marginalizes our lesbian, gay, bisexual and especially the transgender community. The Student Services division in cooperation with the President’s Council on Diversity & Inclusiveness would like to reach out to these important members of our USD community and reaffirm our commitment to the ideals of the university’s strategic initiative of Inclusive Excellence.

Three years ago, President Abbott and the Executive Council adopted the strategic initiative called Inclusive Excellence to incorporate diversity, inclusiveness and equity into all aspects of the university. Administrators, faculty, staff and students have united under Inclusive Excellence to work to make our university an inclusive community. We continue to work with a variety of student groups, individual students and programs across campus to show our commitment to further educate, support and celebrate.

As we support our LGBTQ+ community members, we are committed to hearing about your experiences and responding with all that we have here at USD and around the area to address acts of insensitivity, inequity, hate crimes, abuse and other issues.

Go Yotes!

James W. Abbott

President, USD

Lamont A. Sellers

Director, Center for Diversity & Community

Dr. Kimberly Grieve

Dean of Students & VP, Student Services

Dr. Beth Boyd & Dr. Gerald Yutrzenka

Co-Chairs, President’s Council for Diversity & Inclusiveness

Dr. Jesús Treviño

Associate Vice President for Diversity