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Carnegie Mellon University drew criticism last week for distributing a campus-area map that omitted predominantly black neighborhoods while naming and highlighting others, local CBS station KDKA reported. Pittsburgh is about 23 percent black.
The map had been handed out to new students, hung on the wall of a university building and posted on the university’s admissions website. Only recently did the map draw criticism from students.
Ebony Thomas, a local woman who is not associated with Carnegie Mellon, has made her own map highlighting the neighborhoods of Homewood, Larimer, the Hill District, Uptown, East Hills, Hazelwood and Garfield, the CBS station reported. She is selling shirts with her map design online.
The university said the issue was an “inadvertent error.”
“Carnegie Mellon University should have never used this map, as it fails to uphold our values of inclusion, equity and diversity,” the university said in a statement to KDKA. “We recognize the value, richness and history of these excluded neighborhoods, which makes our mistake especially painful.”
“While we can never fully rectify the harm done, we have removed all print and digital materials that feature the map,” the administration said. “We have set up meetings with campus community members who have reached out to us, in addition to others who are committed to engaging and advising the university on diversity and inclusion initiatives.”
