April 16th Session: Creating an Inclusive Community

 

 

Photo by Belle Co on Pexels.com  

“There is only one way to look at things until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes”

-Pablo Picasso

 

For our final session of the year we will be looking at building and sustaining an inclusive college community. According to Ferris State University, inclusion is

“… involvement and empowerment, where the inherent worth and dignity of all people are recognized. An inclusive university promotes and sustains a sense of belonging; it values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of its members”

In addition to students across college campuses becoming more diverse, universities are opening doors for a more diverse faculty as well. Being apart of a community of diverse students and scholars creates a unique opportunity to learn from each other in and out of the classroom.

The University of Arizona has established a best practice guideline for making college campuses more inclusive

• Faculty
  • Create experience to break students away from homogenous groups
  • Encourage students to think critically about their beliefs and to seek out knowledge from others
• Department
  • Create a strong faculty through active recruitment practices to entice a diverse applicant pool
  • Encourage other department members to include diversity materials in their teaching
• Administration
  • Evaluate the messages of diversity the college is sending, is it effective?
  • Encourage students to create groups on campus that support inclusion and diversity
  • Plan residential, dining, and social events that are open to all students and will encourage diverse interactions

 

While these changes cannot be implemented within a single day, educators can set goals to reach them by the end of an academic year or improve over the course of a few years. If one person can stand up and implement change in their classroom, then they can inspire the larger population of their department and administration to do the same.

 

Please join us for our final session of the semester on Tuesday April 16th at 12 O’Clock in the President’s dining room where we will continue the discussion. We hope to see you there!