Equity & Inclusion
Equity and Inclusion Overview
The bond of pluralism is central to the University’s mission:
“Supporting engaged innovators from the creative economy to the halls of government, we develop knowledge to better understand our world and improve its conditions.“
Pluralism matters. Educational psychology teaches that diverse classrooms, where students from different backgrounds communicate their different experiences and perspectives, encourages students to think in more complex ways necessary for an informed and thoughtful community. Thinking in complex ways requires the skills and willingness not to be timid while we ensure academic freedom, inclusion, and experimentation as our mission statement requires.
There is no one way to achieve open and tolerant spaces that build on our diversity of background and experience. Questions and challenges about how best to support disagreement while protecting diversity and inclusion pre-date the period in which we find ourselves. Our current period in history has raised important questions about what we understand about one another across class, geography, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and religion. Many within and outside our community now fear for their physical safety, their ability to remain in the community, and their psychological well-being, now threatened by acts of physical violence, hate speech, bullying and intolerance in the classroom, on campus and in our communities.
We have an obligation to support an inclusive, open and safe community. What follows is a number of pages to aid in understanding pluralism:
