Dear Stanford Athletics Community:
I wrote to you in early June following the death of George Floyd, and sadly, our country has witnessed additional acts of injustice in the months since.
The agony and unrest, however, has inspired a powerful and positive movement among our student-athletes, coaches, and staff, many of whom have taken action and lent their voices and energy to social justice activities in our community and throughout the nation.
I am extremely proud of the individuals who represent our university and have been moved to engage with these pressing issues through service, activism, education, and difficult conversations. Their courage and leadership are an inspiration to myself and others, and both the university and athletics department will stand behind them as they employ their voices and take action in the fight for social justice.
To that end, Stanford Athletics is introducing a unifying theme to support these efforts. This theme will help link our teams and student-athletes by giving them a common social justice symbol with which to engage. As importantly, though, this emblem represents our department's full commitment to engaging with the diverse social justice issues that are important to our respective teams and student-athletes.
Now more than ever, we must UNITE in the fight for social justice to create impactful and lasting change. The supporting words – Equity, Justice, and Love – were carefully selected to represent the many issues that our incredible student-athletes are passionate about and are directly inspired by the honest conversations that have taken place in recent months.
Our student-athletes hope to effect meaningful change in many areas and on behalf of many marginalized communities. To that end, this emblem and the supporting words are broad and inclusive. The raised fist embedded within UNITE is deliberate and significant. The fist symbolizes Black pride and represents our commitment to peacefully combating anti-Black racism. It also serves as a reminder that our support for our Black student-athletes, coaches, staff, and supporters must not waver, even as we also strive to support and fight for other marginalized groups.
In addition to this department-wide emblem, student-athletes will have our support to share messages and highlight movements that are important to them. You may see words and phrases on warmup shirts, calls to action on social media, competitions dedicated to raising awareness, and more. In short, we will empower our student-athletes to use their platform to inspire the change they want to see.
Our entire department is ready to take action. We steadfastly support our student-athletes expressing themselves. That is our commitment to them and our promise to you.
I hope that you will UNITE with us and show your support for our student-athletes throughout the seasons ahead, as we do our part to create a world in which equity, justice, and love are universal.
Bernard Muir • The Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics