The Department of Urban Planning at Ball State University is committed to a learning environment of diversity and inclusion, while promoting values of equity and social justice.

We mourn the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many other African Americans killed by the police. We believe that Black lives matter, and that by recognizing this, we support the value and dignity of all. We also mourn more than 110,000 Americans who died due to Covid-19 and the disproportionate impact this has had on vulnerable populations, workers who could not quarantine, and especially historically marginalized groups. These deaths exposed violence, injustice and inequity in America.

We recognize that planners have a role in creating or allowing systemic racism, violence, injustice and inequity. It is manifest in designs for the built environment, in development practice, in transportation access, in infrastructure siting, in housing policy, in finance, and in the location of polluting industry. We recognize our duty and responsibility to do better by revealing and challenging the inequities and injustices that exist. We must use our agency and position to support historically marginalized groups. In doing so, we defend the public interest.

Our faculty, staff, students and alumni engage, as advocates, as technical assistants, and as scholars working in communities across state of Indiana and beyond. As such, we share responsibility for these problems. As a department we pledge to do better.

Signed by faculty and staff in the Department of Urban Planning, Ball State University, June 11, 2020.