Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

At Taft, we are committed to the work of becoming more inclusive as an institution and as individuals. This work requires effort, thought and care, courage, humility and time. It is never ending, with space for new ideas and understanding, growth, and improvement. This work helps us prepare our students to be informed, moral, and just global citizens.

DEI Statement

Taft is an intentionally diverse institution whose members work to acknowledge, respect, and empathize with people of all different identifiers, such as race, socioeconomic status, gender identity and expression, education, age, ability, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, language, nationality, and religion. We foster these habits and dispositions in accordance with Taft’s mission to educate the whole student, thus preparing individuals morally and pragmatically to become global citizens. As such, community members commit to participate in and support ongoing equity and inclusion programming through curricular and co-curricular offerings, professional development, residential life, and local and global partnerships. Moreover, members of the Taft community strive to understand and combat the symptoms and causes of systematic oppression — ranging from implicit biases to microaggressions to discriminatory policies, practices and traditions — that benefit privileged groups and disadvantage marginalized groups. While at Taft and beyond, community members commit to affirm and honor the lived experiences of others, to willingly challenge inherited beliefs and ideologies, and consequently learn, grow, and serve.

Statement on Freedom of Expression

The various forms of dialogue that we enter into as a part of our everyday existence while at Taft are key ways that we learn and grow. This dialogue takes place in the classrooms, hallways, dorms, co-curricular spaces, and any place that two or more Tafties congregate. This dialogue happens in the words we speak to each other, the music we listen to, and the decorations that adorn our persons and our individual and collective spaces. Because of the diversity of experience, background, and perspective inherent to the Taft community, we will not always agree with one another and indeed we shouldn’t. It is in the moments where we are confronted with new and divergent thoughts that we expand our world view the most. And while these conversations should always be respectful and in the spirit of learning, they may be difficult and at times cause offense. We embrace these challenging moments as key to the edification of individuals and the broader community. We also affirm the humanity of all members of the Taft community and dialogue that calls an individual’s humanity into question violates our communal norms. All members of the Taft community must feel as though they can be their full selves on campus in order to live out our mission of educating the whole student, to adhere to our DEI statement, and to ensure that all students exhibit the principles embodied in the Portrait of the Graduate. Language that demeans or degrades community members has no place on campus no matter where else it might be taking place.

These aims are not mutually exclusive; indeed, we balance freedom of expression with respect for members of our community on a regular basis. It is important that our community members have the freedom to learn, to contribute, and to participate in the life of the school. These reasonable expectations, grounded in our constitutional documents, lead us to identify a narrow range of situations in which the school might restrict expression. Expression will be limited when it:

• violates state or federal law;
• constitutes slander, threats, or harassment;
• unreasonably invades individual privacy or violates confidentiality interests; or,
• is directly incompatible with the functioning of the school. 

Included in this policy are all manners of expression including but not limited to, verbal, written, and electronic communication; decorations or adornments such as flags or posters; clothing items; etc. We believe that the Taft community will continue to be a place where intellectual inquiry and discourse reflect our goals of being our best selves for the common good.