Quinnipiac leaders hosted “A Community Update on Our Journey to Inclusive Excellence” on Wednesday afternoon, April 28. With the last session in November, the meeting provided the community with progress reports on the 10 Point Plan and beyond that have taken place in the last six months.
The session was led by Dr. Don C. Sawyer III, vice president of diversity and inclusion, and Khalilah Brown-Dean, senior director for inclusive excellence. Quinnipiac president Judy Olian also served as a panelist.
“Inclusive excellence is not necessarily a destination. Inclusive excellence is a habit,” said Sawyer. “It’s a practice, something that we have to commit to do on a daily basis to improve our institution.”
Sawyer opened with a statement addressing the impact the events of the last year have had on the world, and emphasized that despite student body unrest on social media, the university has made significant changes to its diversity and inclusion efforts.
“We are not the same institution that I walked in to in the summer of 2012,” said Sawyer. “We’re not perfect, but we are better. I truly believe we are better, and I focus on ‘we’ because this is a collective and collaborative effort.”
He also mentioned that the updates, data and more will be provided in Quinnipiac’s inaugural Inclusive Excellence report coming before the end of this month.
Outside of the 10 Point Plan, the Diversity & Inclusion office has made strides in areas titled as belonging, empowering, partnering, and educating. These efforts include funding for LLC’s, added resources specifically for underrepresented minorities, bias and diversity training for students and faculty, and partnerships with local high schools and community colleges.
Powerpoint used at the event:
The focus then shifted towards the direct progress of the 10 Point Plan, also known as “Quinnipiac’s Actions to Advance Racial Justice.” After being introduced in June 2020, each of the ten focuses have made tangible progress. One main point of emphasis was the “Pipeline,” or the active diversifying of Quinnipiac’s faculty and students.
“When we think about inclusive pipelines, we also have to be direct and determined about making sure that people across faculty lines and categories have those opportunities to engage and to be in conversation,” said Brown-Dean. “It’s not enough just to get people here. We also have to all collectively address the experiences that people have when they are here.”
The webinar concluded with a discussion, where attendees could send their questions to the panelists. One person asked about how the university prevents minority students from feeling tokenized amid the heavy emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
“Part of the way of addressing that is that we create multiple opportunities for students to be able to pursue their interests and to participate as they choose,” said Brown-Dean. “[That is] how we create a campus community that is leader full and not feeling like it only has to rely on the same few voices for that.”
“We have to do some of our own work to ease the burden that’s placed on these students that have been historically marginalized in higher education,” followed Sawyer.
The panelists also addressed questions regarding bias-related incident reporting, explaining the process of reporting and disciplining, as well as educating.
“I believe our role is to bring students in and to use these as teachable moments to allow them to grow and change,” said Sawyer. “Education is going to be key, because it’s not about telling what you can’t or shouldn’t do, but it’s about getting you to a place where you understand why these things are happening, the context of what you did and how it impacts and harms the community.”
An extended Inclusive Excellence report is expected by the end of April, which will include statistical data on how effective the 10 Point Plan and more has been within the past year at Quinnipiac.
