Unity Walk
All events taking place October 20, 2021
Post your selfies: #UCUnityWalk2021
Look for live updates on Instagram: @dei_collaborative
Throughout the 1990’s, a coalition of Utica University students, faculty, and staff walked in the streets of Utica in a demonstration of unity against those people and institutions determined to sow division. With a strength of solidarity and conviction, they spoke up for equality, justice, and change.
In 2016, Utica University instituted the Walk A Mile For Unity, or Unity Walk, as an annual academic year-opening tradition celebrating the University’s values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We acknowledge in a very public way our belief that diverse experiences and points of view help create a vibrant educational community, and that there is power in coming together in a spirit of unity. This year, in this watershed moment for social justice in America, the Walk A Mile For Unity carries an even greater purpose and urgency.
With a series of events throughout the day, Utica University students, faculty, staff, and administrators come together to affirm our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will walk to reject all forms of hate and dehumanization. We will walk for all lives lost or forever altered at the hands of racism. We will walk to affirm our responsibility to creating and sustaining an environment that values individuals regardless of identity. We will walk to hold feet to the fire for the promise of change.
This year during the Annual Unity Walk, we encourage all participants to walk for their cause. In the last two years, the world has been shaken by the coronavirus epidemic, forcing communities to reckon with devastating loss, racism, and economic inequity. The United States also experienced what some have called a racial "pandemic," brought on by the outcry over citizen George Floyd's murder at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin. For many, this was a new realization of racial tension; for others, this moment had been long delayed. Because of xenophobia and racism, six Asian-Americans lost their lives in Atlanta as the result of a senseless act of violence. Americans and Afghan citizens fell to a deadly bombing in Kabul at the hands of the Taliban. Political turmoil and natural disaster led Haitian migrants on a journey that would prove fatal to so many.
It would be hard to enumerate the many devastating events of the last few years, but we want to take this day - the day of the Annual Unity Walk - and every day after to commemorate those lost, honor the bravery of all the citizens of our country, especially those police, firefighters, and EMT personnel who neglected their personal safety in an effort to save others on 9/11, continuing twenty years later in wildfires and other catastrophes. We want to celebrate joy and healing and come together as a community to once again commit to UNITY in the struggle for justice for all citizens and non-citizens.
Walk for you.
Walk for me.
Walk for us.
Walk for your cause.
Schedule of Events
- 12:00 p.m. - Bells toll for 8:46
- A campus wide period of reflection to recognize the pain and suffering George Floyd experienced for 8 minutes, 46 seconds.
- 12:15 p.m. - Speaker, President Laura Casamento
- Join President Laura Casamento and representatives from the Utica University community as they invite us to Walk A Mile For Unity and reflect on what this Walk means for all of us at this time – as individuals, as a University community, and members of our broader local and national communities.
- 1:00 p.m. - First group begins walking to the Academic Quad
- 1:30 p.m. - First group walks through displays
- 2:00 p.m. - Second group begins walking
- 2:30 p.m. Second group walks through displays
- 3:00 p.m. - All move toward the Wilcox Center
- 3:30 p.m. Pledge and refreshments
Contact Us
Anthony Baird
Anthony Baird
Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion & Student Transitions
(315) 792-3310
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