UC News

President Pinto announces appointments to UC's Academic Task Force on Building Community for Democracy

The below message was shared with the campus community today:

headshot of John Bach By John Bach 513-556-2019
3 minute read January 29, 2024

Dear UC Community,

I am pleased to announce that I have appointed 16 members from our community to serve on a vitally important new group, the Academic Task Force on Building Community for Democracy.

Accessories, Accessory, Apparel, Clothing, Coat, Human, Overcoat, Person, Suit, Tie Office of the President staff and student employee portraits

UC President Neville G. Pinto

As you may have seen in my Dec. 6 announcement to campus, the charge for this group is to help our university navigate the divisive cultural, social and political issues we all are currently facing and face in the future.

Chaired by Provost Valerio Ferme, the Task Force will recommend curricular and co-curricular practices, based in reciprocal communication and empathy, that promote civic dialogue and civic understanding among members of our academic community.

Members will convene during the Spring semester to discuss pragmatic and practical ways to increase the awareness of our students, faculty and staff in handling difficult conversations and potentially polarizing topics. These recommendations will include executable actions that support critical thinking, mentoring and training for how to create a nuanced appreciation and understanding of differences in our communities.

Below are the Task Force members:

  • Valerio Ferme, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
  • Ari Finkelstein, Associate Professor, Judaic Studies
  • Haider Ala Hamoudi, Dean, UC College of Law
  • William Hawkins, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
  • Nora Honken, Associate Professor, Engineering
  • Elizabeth Kiscaden, Dean, University Libraries
  • Andrew Lewis, Associate Professor, School of Public & International Affairs, Executive Director, Portman Center for Policy Solutions
  • Marianne Lewis, Dean, Lindner College of Business
  • Keisha Love, Vice Provost, Academic Affairs
  • Bleuzette Marshall, Vice President, Equity, Inclusion & Community Impact
  • Nicole Mayo, Interim Vice President, Student Affairs
  • Taylor Morgan, Undergraduate Student Body President
  • Ardythe Morrow, Professor, College of Medicine
  • Vu Pham, Undergraduate Student Body Vice President
  • Mark Raider, Professor, History
  • Alex Thurston, Associate Professor, School of Public & International Affairs

Please join me in thanking this group for agreeing to serve and for volunteering their time for such an important endeavor.

Sincerely,

Neville G. Pinto 
President 

Tags

Related Stories

1

UC professor leads film students to the future

April 6, 2026

As a kid, at the age of 10, Marty Schiff’s dad gave him a Kodak Brownie movie camera, and that led to a lifetime of creating stories on film. He spent his summers with that camera, making eight-millimeter movies, with a camera that taught him how to thread a projector, change the film in a closet, and tell stories with the medium he loved. “I always wanted to go to Hollywood,” Schiff says. So later he did, with $200 in his pocket, and began a career that has spanned acting, directing, producing—pretty much everything with the exception of costumes (“I’m not really good with a sewing machine,” he says).