A person’s legs and a skateboard that they’re holding. The skateboard says BLM on the bottom.
About
UChicago United (UCU) was comprised of students of color committed to racial justice at The University of Chicago and the surrounding Chicago area.
The group was established in spring of 2017 as a way to address a number of racist incidents that had been occuring at UChicago --including but not limited to racist Alpha Delt and DU parties, the leak of racist, Islamophobic, and misogynistic AEPi emails, Nazi flyering at the Center for Identity + Inclusion, various violent threats and harassment faced by students, and lastly, a racist party held by fraternity Phi Delta Gamma on Cinco de Mayo.
We have worked to structurally transform the University of Chicago’s campus into a truly inclusive space that fits the needs of and empowers students of color. There are three campaigns that fell under the UCU umbrella: #CareNotCops, #EthnicStudiesNow, and #CommunityCentersNow.
UChicago United (UCU) has since disbanded and #CareNotCops is the only active UCU campaign remaining. This website is now run by current student organizers in current campaigns. It serves both as an archive for the UCU campaigns that preceded us and a digital resource guide for our annual Dis-Orientation event. For more information about getting involved in current organizing campaigns, click here.
Timeline
May 2017 | UChicago United is Founded
In collaboration with multiple cultural organizations, a group of undergraduate students of color launched UCU with a series of demands calling for UChicago to hire more faculty of color, modify the Core Curriculum to be less Euro-centric, build cultural centers, and create a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department. The release of these demands marked the beginning of the #EthnicStudiesNow and #CulturalCentersNow campaigns.
April 2018 | #CareNotCops Campaign Launches
CNC’s first rally was in response to the UCPD shooting of a black undergraduate student who was undergoing a mental health crisis, Charles Soji Thomas. In addition to the rally, CNC circulated a petition that demanded funding for University mental health resources, greater transparency within UCPD (specifically that UCPD fall under the Freedom of Information Act), and a commitment to disarm, reduce the jurisdiction of, and eventually defund the department. 2,400 people signed onto this petition.
June 2018 | #CareNotCops Occupies the Quad
CNC occupied UChicago’s quad for more than a day, calling on the University to invest in mental health resources and divest from UCPD.
June 2020 | #CareNotCops Occupies UCPD Headquarters
In tandem with dozens of protests occurring throughout Chicago after George Floyd’s murder, #CareNotCops members occupied UCPD’s headquarters for over 24 hours demanding that the University disarm, defund by 50%, and disclose the budget of the department. UCPD Chief Kenton Rainey gave lip service to the protestors, insisting that he “heard us,” but nothing was done.
July 2020 | #EthnicStudiesNow Campaign Wins Race Classes
After four years of fighting for a better structured & supported Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) program at UChicago, new introductory CRES courses were added to the major starting in Autumn Quarter, 2020. This was a big win in the fight for a fully-funded CRES department.
August 2020 | UCUnited Occupies Provost’s Street
After a cross-campus march that drew hundreds of students, university affiliates, and community members, UCU occupied Provost Ka Yee Lee’s street for seven days demanding that money from UCPD’s budget be redirected to funding cultural centers, an ethnic studies department, and reparations to the South Side. Ka Yee Lee not only refused these demands, but refused to hold a public meeting with organizers.
February 2021 | UCUnited Launches Mutual Aid Project
The University has continually displaced, policed, and failed to invest in the predominantly-black neighborhoods of Woodlawn, Kenwood, and others surrounding their Hyde Park campus. We continue to demand that the University cut funding to the UCPD and channel that money into supporting South Side community organizations. In the meantime, we are trying to redistribute some of the wealth ourselves by tabling biweekly outside of Jewel Osco on 61st and Cottage Grove.
May 2021 | Abolition May
As a member org of the Cops Off Campus Coalition (COCC), #CareNotCops is working alongside 60+ schools to abolish campus police across Turtle Island. On May 3rd we will be participating in the National Day of Refusal by not attending class or doing labor for the University; a number of other actions will unfold throughout the rest of the month.
May 2021 | USAN Relaunches
A rally was held on May 7th, 2021 to relaunch the UChicago Student Action Network (USAN), as well as to call broadly for a “People’s University." USAN includes all three UCU campaigns as well as UChicago Student Action and the UChicago chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, Students for Disability Justice, and Dissenters. Together, we demand that the University pay reparations to those they’ve harmed, to abolish all forms of policing, and to replace the board of trustees with a student-staff-community council.
February 2022 | #EthnicStudiesNow wins the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity
The University creates the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity (RDI). However, in official communications, the University solely credited faculty efforts in the creation of the department and completely disregarded years of #EthnicStudiesNow and Black Studies student organizing work. On the same day as the public announcement, #EthnicStudiesNow released a statement demanding acknowledgement for the five generations of students of color that pressured the University in the name of creating this department.