By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
The President of Brandeis University, Ron Liebowitz, made an announcement today to all students, faculty, and staff that the university will recognize caste-based discrimination in its non-discrimination and harassment policy. The announcement states, “Guided by our founding values, Brandeis is a leader in making this addition; we know of no other institutions of higher education in the United States that currently include caste in their non-discrimination policies.” Brandeis University elaborates on this inclusion in their policy as being in alignment with their “principles of equitable access and inclusion” and bases it on the directives from the US Civil Rights Act.
#Brandeis will now include caste, a system of inherited social class, in our non-discrimination policy. Discrimination based on caste will now be expressly prohibited at our university.
Read more from President Liebowitz: https://t.co/Wm3toBnYxn pic.twitter.com/0M1ujhzPeE
— Brandeis University (@BrandeisU) 17 December 2019
The tweet by Brandeis University making the announcement
Incidentally, a recent report by US based non-profit organization Equality Labs documented the prevalence of caste discrimination in the US and recommended updating university policies with caste as an axis of discrimination.
Caste has been already included in anti-discrimination laws in the UK and government research found the prevalence of caste discrimination in the UK.
Brandeis University earlier publicly stated that they plan to address the issue of caste discrimination “head-on”. The university has previously hosted international conferences on Dr. Ambedkar’s Unfinished Legacy collaborating with a Boston based non-profit the Boston Study Group, and recently inaugurated a peer-reviewed academic journal on caste, called J-Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion.
A bust of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was inaugurated at the Goldfarb Library in Brandeis University in May 2017. Source: BSG Gallery
The policy is in immediate effect, prohibiting caste discrimination at the university which is home to students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds. The President’s letter said, “Going forward, the Office of Equal Opportunity will oversee issues and complaints of discrimination related to caste brought forward by members of the Brandeis community, just as it does for other types of discrimination.”