I Just Wanted Someone to Say I See You

I have been attending Champlain College for four years, and throughout those four years, I have been working to make this institution a more inclusive, welcoming, and diverse place. Inclusive, welcoming, and diverse are three words that are used throughout this action plan, the reason why is because this institution lacks all three of these things. For my capstone project, I wanted to examine people of color’s sense of belonging at a predominantly white institution. I did this by interviewing 9 individuals, 6 students, and 3 alumni. Throughout the interview I asked 13 questions, but the three main questions I focused on were (1) what stressors do you experience on a daily basis?, (2) How would you describe belonging somewhere?, and (3) Do you feel like this institution will actively strive to achieve its diversity goals for the year 2030?

I started the interview process on March 30th and ended on April 13th, and provided BIPOC students, faculty, and alumni the opportunity to share their experiences with me and ways they can be better supported on campus. The interview process lasted from 30min — 1hour for participants, and I, unfortunately, wasn’t able to find any BIPOC faculty on campus that was willing to take my interview. The interview process with students and alumni was very engaging, I can tell this is a topic that crosses their minds continuously. There was no hesitation in regards to responding to questions, and it seemed that they had ways they wanted to be supported readily available. I didnt give a time frame for the interview process, because I wanted to give participants the space to express themselves and share their experiences without feeling restricted.

My hope for this project is that the experience of BIPOC students and faculty improve, the stressors they experience on campus alleviates, and this campus becomes more supportive and just. I acknowledge that my hopes for this college are very broad but the slogan of this institution is “Let us Dare”, and I dare Champlain to successfully achieve the goals they created and the goals enlisted in this action plan to make this college culturally aware, and a supportive learning community for BIPOC individuals on campus.

Goal #1: Addressing Institutionalized Racism

Objectives: Addressing and discussing biases as soon as it occurs, productively addressing biases in the hiring process, increasing retention, and prosperity of students and faculty of color. Institutional racism must be addressed for it to be resolved, to do this effectively it must be through training and communal work with the BIPOC community.

Action Steps

1. By the year 2030 have full-time BIPOC faculty members in each division of the college and be closer to this goal by 10% each year. It will be beneficial to have a third-party consulting service to provide supervision over this initiative as well as an assessment being done by people on this campus.
2. Have an effective retention program for BIPOC students and faculty. ( ex. Mentorship program, partnering with outside organizations, a research program that focuses on DEI, etc)
3. Beginning and end of the year DEI training for faculty and staff. It will be beneficial to have a consultant provide expert opinions and analysis during these training sessions to keep track of progress.
4. A review process of faculty and staff that caused some type of harm to BIPOC students and faculty that has been reported.
5. The campus creates a motivation/incentive to hire faculty and staff of color. ( ex. new courses, etc)
6. Increase the support for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, as well as other resources on campus (ex. The counseling center, Women and Gender Center, etc)
7. Open communication about issues that occur on campus. The president should make a remark when an issue occurs, as well as provide questions after for students and faculty.
8. The president will give a statement when an issue regarding BIPOC students’ well-being occurs. It will be beneficial to hear a response from the president in-person to help de-escalate situations and provide solutions.

Goal # 2: Encouraging Language and Practice on race and equity with Faculty and staff to increase racial awareness and understanding of white privilege, stereotypes, alienation, etc that may occur within and outside of the classroom.

Objectives: Open discussion created at workshops, events, and meetings with students about race and other concerns that are causing them stress and uneasiness. Addressing issues and encouraging open discussion can create trust between BIPOC students and their white counterparts.

Action Steps

1. Town Hall Meeting for Students- open forums can allow students to express their concerns, share experiences, and ask questions. Forums have many advantages such as creating community and a sense of belonging, this is especially useful to students who feel unheard and seen.
2. Interactive Office Hours: Faculty being willing to listen, increasing office hours, forming connections with students. Also, being willing to follow up with students so they feel supported.
3. Bringing in outside facilitators bi-monthly to lead an open discussion about race and equity.
4. Create a reporting committee on campus for students and faculty to utilize when issues of microaggression, racism, and discrimination, occur on campus.

Goal # 3: Mandatory DEI Training for Faculty and Staff

Objectives: Diversity, equity, and inclusion training is important to create an inclusive culture on campus. DEI training has many benefits such as making an institution a more supportive and inclusive environment.

Action Steps

1. Beginning and end of the semester training for staff and faculty. Each training session will be conducted by a third-party consultant and discusses a new topic that pertains to DEI such as unconscious bias and implicit bias, stereotyping, the general meaning of DEI training, cultural awareness, and understanding a sense of belonging with BIPOC students, etc.
2. Community engagement- applying what was learned during training will be beneficial to engrain the knowledge and establish support within the community.
3. Inclusive leadership- Leadership on campus actively strives to seek and consider other individuals’ perspectives to make more informed decisions and to be aware of their own biases when collaborating with others.

Goal #4: DEI Initiative for students

Objectives: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion should not only pertain to faculty on campus, It’s also important that white students on campus have an understanding of what stressors and experiences BIPOC individuals go through. Diversity helps students to improve awareness of others’ cultures and creates a safe and welcoming environment for BIPOC students.

Action Steps

1. Antiracist initiative for students- The antiracist initiative will help students to become aware of their biases, and privileges and help foster anti-racist choices throughout their daily lives. Racism can take form in different ways such as individual, institutional, and structural. The National Museum of African American History& Culture provides some valuable resources on how to be anti-racist and how to apply anti-racist education into the curriculum. Click here for more information.
2. Useful courses provided on campus on Race and Equity. ( Ex. race and racism in the US, sociology of race, etc). The University of Vermont has a great array of diverse courses that can be utilized.

Goal # 5 Evaluation of the experience of students and groups on campus, and the quality and degree of interaction between those students of diverse groups.

Objectives: Assessing clubs and their interactions with the campus community. Brief training on how to be inclusive will be provided to SGA-approved clubs and events. Collaboration between resources to provide maxim support, while also creating informative and entertaining events. Creating programming that helps students take care of themselves and how to effectively ask for help.

Action Steps

1. Assessment will be given at the end of the semester to evaluate the experience and effectiveness of interaction between students. It will be similar to the IDEA surveys but the topic will be on the inclusivity of Champlain. ( Ex. do they believe they have equal access to resources?)
2. Assessment will be created for events and clubs to keep track of the community and equity. This assessment will be given at the beginning and end of the semester.
3. Interaction between resources to better educate and inform students. It’s effective to have resources collaborate to create informative and entertaining events for students.
4. Effective measures to integrate self-care and self-awareness throughout the semester. This can be done by creating a program that occurs every month that teaches students different topics that relate to self-awareness. (Ex. identifying one’s emotions and how they can affect others)

Goal # 6: Effective metrics to track the progress of the 2030 strategic goal for Champlain College.

Objectives: Sharing progress with individuals on this campus, to keep oneself accountable. Make an effort to achieve the goals that were created for the year 2030. Also pivoting and proactively making Champlain College a welcoming, supportive, and just community.

Action Steps

1. Sharing progress with the student and faculty body every year to keep accountability with achieving the year 2030 goals.
2. Striving to reach the goals listed for DEI every year and actively aspiring to update said goals.
3. Creating effective climate metrics to measure a sense of belonging, alleviation of stressors, and if this school is effectively supporting the BIPOC community.

Statement

Recently Champlain came out with a 2030 strategic goal, In fostering a welcoming, supportive, and just community section they state “ Champlain College fosters a welcoming environment for our community of students, faculty, and staff. We proactively build bridges to create a culture of diversity, equity, integrity, and mutual respect for all, taking care to include historically marginalized groups. We work cooperatively to create an increasingly inclusive culture.”. Everything that’s mentioned in this section is what Champlain wants for the future and not what’s actually occurring at this institution. The students and alumni I met with either didn’t believe or hoped Champlain will achieve the goals they created, they also wanted more information on how these goals will be achieved and what this institution is trying to measure in regards to these goals. I decided to create an action plan for Champlain that has action steps to help guide this institution to the path they are striving to reach. The goals I created are very realistic and I believe attainable for the year 2030.