California State University, Long Beach
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The Equity & Diversity Office and the President's Commission on Equity and Change provide leadership and direction to achieve a positive, continuing, and vigorous campus nondiscrimination and equal opportunity program that goes well beyond the fulfillment of basic regulatory and procedural requirements to one with emphasis on providing positive attention to serving the needs of the campus.

Students Talk About Race (STAR) is a signature project of the Multicultural Center (MCC) at California State University, Long Beach. STAR is a one day workshop designed to empower students with the ability to facilitate difficult conversations about racial issues. The topics covered range from workplace diversity to political and civil unrest. Since its inception in November 1992, with just 15 CSULB students, STAR has trained, at times, over 400 students per semester drawn from CSULB as well as other Los Angeles area campuses (including UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, and Loyola). STAR has recruited over 2,500 college volunteers, training them to become facilitators in cross-cultural communication and placing them into 76 middle school and high schools (serving some 18,000 students) and continues to serve in this capacity. The eight-week STAR experience has proven itself to be a compassionate and candid forum, addressing difficult issues of diversity with vulnerability and humor.

In addition to the STAR program, which is geared toward students, university departments may request cultural competency training from the MCC and/or the Office of Equity and Diversity at any time. The MCC offers training related to a range of topics including social identity, implicit bias, and recognizing privilege and microaggressions, to name a few. The office of Equity and Diversity coordinates with appropriate University offices to develop a training program appropriate for the audience. The majority of training requested has focused on effectively addressing and preventing discrimination, harassment, and retaliation complaints from students, faculty, and staff. The Office of Equity and Diversity reviews case scenarios, definitions, and court cases regarding protected class (i.e., race, disability, age, etc.), and best practices for responding sensitively to protected class issues or consents.