Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
![Picture](/uploads/2/7/9/9/27991481/1398561069.jpg)
“The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) competency area includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to create learning environments that are enriched with diverse views and people. It is also designed to create an institutional ethos that accepts and celebrates differences among people, helping to free them of any misconceptions and prejudices” (ACPA & NASPA, 2010).
Competency Growth:
Valuing respect and having a passion for inclusion, the equity, diversity, and inclusion competency is one I work hard to incorporate in all that I do. Through coursework, both of the internships I held during my graduate career, and my practicum experience with the Center for Leadership, I have developed this competency to a proficient level.
During the first few weeks in my role as a graduate hall director, there were a multiple biased-related instances in the hall around race, gender, religion, and sexuality. For example, there were residents saying homophobic slurs to other residents, who openly identified as gay. The resident who was on the receiving end of the comment declined to report who was saying the slurs to him, afraid that only more trouble would ensue. In order to help make the building a safe and inclusive environment for all residents, I worked with the hall director to do various activities during our weekly staff meetings with the resident advisors to educate and impact them so they, in turn, could educate and impact their residents and our community. This helped empower our staff to feel that they could address these instances when they occurred and put on many successful programs that taught residents various aspects of diversity and different identities.
Coming into my role of Assistant to the Chair for the College Student Personnel program, I worked with a few faculty members and the Assistant to the Chair for the Higher Education Administration program to plan the first annual department-wide retreat this summer leading into my second year of graduate course work. Titled “Engaging Diversity as Higher Education Professionals,” the goals of the retreat were: to provide all students in the department with common language that could be used to discuss issues around various identities; create a level of comfort for all students to be willing to ask questions around issues of identities they may not know or understand; and, to start the conversation about various inequities and misunderstandings of various identities and experiences.
The Falcon Leadership Institute, the program I built in the Center for Leadership, was loosely structured using the social change model, especially in regard to students first gaining an understanding of themselves before they can gain a better understanding of others (Dugan & Komives, 2007). There were various cohort meetings that helped cohort members learn more about the identities that are salient to them and then meetings that explored diversity in leadership. Specifically, we looked at the differences in leadership amongst various cultures and the disparities in leadership that emerge due to privileged and marginalized binaries. One cohort meeting was dedicated to “Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood,” (Gonyea & Tanaka, 2002) a powerful activity that shows participants the vast differences in experiences of group of people with different social identities.
CSP 6035: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs is a course that has taught me a lot about my own identities, the disparities in education for underrepresented groups of people, and what privilege and marginalization truly mean (Johnson, 2005). As a part of this course, I worked with a peer to facilitate a diversity workshop, titled “Say What?! A Social Media Workshop,” that introduced participants to the ways in which you could respond to posts and comments on social media that stems from the various isms (Helms & Misseri, 2013).
Competency Growth:
Valuing respect and having a passion for inclusion, the equity, diversity, and inclusion competency is one I work hard to incorporate in all that I do. Through coursework, both of the internships I held during my graduate career, and my practicum experience with the Center for Leadership, I have developed this competency to a proficient level.
During the first few weeks in my role as a graduate hall director, there were a multiple biased-related instances in the hall around race, gender, religion, and sexuality. For example, there were residents saying homophobic slurs to other residents, who openly identified as gay. The resident who was on the receiving end of the comment declined to report who was saying the slurs to him, afraid that only more trouble would ensue. In order to help make the building a safe and inclusive environment for all residents, I worked with the hall director to do various activities during our weekly staff meetings with the resident advisors to educate and impact them so they, in turn, could educate and impact their residents and our community. This helped empower our staff to feel that they could address these instances when they occurred and put on many successful programs that taught residents various aspects of diversity and different identities.
Coming into my role of Assistant to the Chair for the College Student Personnel program, I worked with a few faculty members and the Assistant to the Chair for the Higher Education Administration program to plan the first annual department-wide retreat this summer leading into my second year of graduate course work. Titled “Engaging Diversity as Higher Education Professionals,” the goals of the retreat were: to provide all students in the department with common language that could be used to discuss issues around various identities; create a level of comfort for all students to be willing to ask questions around issues of identities they may not know or understand; and, to start the conversation about various inequities and misunderstandings of various identities and experiences.
The Falcon Leadership Institute, the program I built in the Center for Leadership, was loosely structured using the social change model, especially in regard to students first gaining an understanding of themselves before they can gain a better understanding of others (Dugan & Komives, 2007). There were various cohort meetings that helped cohort members learn more about the identities that are salient to them and then meetings that explored diversity in leadership. Specifically, we looked at the differences in leadership amongst various cultures and the disparities in leadership that emerge due to privileged and marginalized binaries. One cohort meeting was dedicated to “Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood,” (Gonyea & Tanaka, 2002) a powerful activity that shows participants the vast differences in experiences of group of people with different social identities.
CSP 6035: Multicultural Competence in Student Affairs is a course that has taught me a lot about my own identities, the disparities in education for underrepresented groups of people, and what privilege and marginalization truly mean (Johnson, 2005). As a part of this course, I worked with a peer to facilitate a diversity workshop, titled “Say What?! A Social Media Workshop,” that introduced participants to the ways in which you could respond to posts and comments on social media that stems from the various isms (Helms & Misseri, 2013).
References:
ACPA & NASPA (2010). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: Authors.
Dugan, J. P., & Komives, S. R. (2007). Developing leadership capacity in college students: Findings from a national study. A Report from the Milti-Institutional Student of Leadership. College Park, MD: National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs.
Gonyea, R. M. & Tanaka, M. (2002). Archie bunker’s neighborhood (Unpublished workshop). University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Helms, K. & Misseri, M. (2013). Say what?! A social media presentation (Unpublished workshop). Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.
Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
ACPA & NASPA (2010). Professional competency areas for student affairs practitioners. Washington, DC: Authors.
Dugan, J. P., & Komives, S. R. (2007). Developing leadership capacity in college students: Findings from a national study. A Report from the Milti-Institutional Student of Leadership. College Park, MD: National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs.
Gonyea, R. M. & Tanaka, M. (2002). Archie bunker’s neighborhood (Unpublished workshop). University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Helms, K. & Misseri, M. (2013). Say what?! A social media presentation (Unpublished workshop). Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH.
Johnson, A. G. (2006). Privilege, power, and difference (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.