Administrators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) signed an agreement with the Black Student Union (BSU) on March 4 to fund more diversity initiatives after an off-campus party to mock Black History Month incited a torrent of protest. A noose was later found hanging in the library on Feb. 25, and someone placed a Klu Klux Klan-style hood on a statue outside the Geisel library on March 1. UCSD Chancellor Marye Anne Fox agreed to fund a number of programs and staff positions to help increase the number of minority students. The university agreed to fund a BSU-initiated program to attract more minority students; a program coordinator position for the African-American Studies minor; reactivate six unfilled faculty positions dedicated to African Diaspora, Indigenous Studies or California Cultures, as funding becomes available; and create three new faculty positions over the next three years for diversity-related topics. The university will create a task force to promote the recruitment and retention of minority faculty as part of the agreement. Fox also agreed to dedicate more space to public art that represents minorities, as well as to make the Chicano Legacy mural permanent. Fox also agreed to establish a Campus Climate Commission to assess the campus climate that black students have called “hostile and toxic.” Daniel Widener, an assistant professor of history, is cautiously optimistic about the agreement. “If implemented fully, the agreement would constitute an important first step to rectify a longstanding problem on our campus,” Widener said. Creating a diverse campus is not only a moral imperative, it’s financially important to retain funding from state, federal and private sources, Widener added. “I also think there is a strong degree of faculty confusion about the importance of the accord,” Widener said. “I think many faculty will perceive the question of diversifying the campus as the property of a small group of people instead of as the responsibility of all of us. Too few people understand what is at stake.”