Champlain College
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The Division of Student Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion as well as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion; the Staff Council’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee and the Faculty Senate’s Campus, Climate, Culture are four different opportunities that work to coordinate and implement a college-wide diversity and inclusion strategy across the institution. These offices/committees are committed to working in partnership with all members of our college and external partners to build a welcoming and inclusive community where students, faculty and staff engage in continuous learning and growth.

We strategically organize our diversity and inclusion work within an institutional framework that is comprehensive and includes all areas of the organization.

To advance Diversity & Inclusion, the College is working to recruit and hire a Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Belonging in the next several months. This position has undergone a search which failed in the Fall of 2021. A search committee is working to have that position filled in the coming months (summer/fall 2022). This position bring together partners from Academic Affairs and Academic Divisions, Enrollment Management, People Center/Human Resources, and students and will serve in an advisory capacity to the President and the President Cabinet.
https://www.champlain.edu/about-champlain/diversity-and-inclusion

Also see Champlain's Diversity Statement: https://www.champlain.edu/about-champlain/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-statement

The Vice President of Student Affairs oversees the following programs and offices:

Champlain's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which focuses mainly on students. Its mission is to create a welcoming, accepting, and affirming environment for all students, while providing support to underrepresented student populations.
https://www.champlain.edu/student-affairs-diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/intercultural-and-affinity-communities/office-of-diversity-and-inclusion

Women's & Gender Center - provides a comfortable, inclusive, and fun place for students to hang out, meet new friends, and have good conversation. Students of all gender identities and sexual orientations are welcome to call this place home, and we hope you will! We also facilitate educational and supportive programming around our three major themes: Empowerment and Leadership Development, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation, Sexual Violence Prevention
https://www.champlain.edu/student-life/student-services/womens-and-gender-center

Intercultural & Affinity Communities
Affinity groups provide a means for support, resources, and socializing within institutions of higher education. They can increase morale, retention and innovation by providing supportive environments where diverse groups of people can gather and reflect on their experiences within an organization. https://www.champlain.edu/student-affairs-diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/intercultural-and-affinity-communities

Students - All students are required in their first year to participate in the EverFi DEI on line 45 minute self guided course. This is then discussed in their Orientation Groups at the start of the semester. Incoming first year and transfer students are also required to participate in a Diversity and Inclusion and Community Standards Sessions at Orientation.

Student Leaders - All student leaders undergo diversity education before beginning their role. This includes training for all student leaders (SGA, RA, OL, SA, Eco Rep). Trainings are typically held by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Women’s and Gender Center, Housing and Residential Life, and with various Faculty and Staff. Other groups that are included in critical conversations are different affinity groups and student work study positions such as the ODI Advisory Board and WGC Advisory Board as well as several clubs and organizations across the College.

The student body as a whole are also required to undergo DEI, Title IX, Alcohol, Wellbeing trainings that are all administered by a third party software system called EverFi/Vector Solutions prior to the start of the semester. Upon arrival all new students are required to attend sessions that connect these online programs to the in person experience at Champlain. Currently the sessions that students participate in person are DEI/Community Standards, Title IX, Alcohol Education and Wellbeing. There are several points in each of these sessions where DEI intersects the main topic and becomes reinforcement for Champlain’s overall community standards.

Staff - professional development workshops regularly offered through DareU
https://www.champlain.edu/faculty-and-staff/people-center/dare-u; workshops at annual Staff Professional Development Day; leadership training for specific leaders.

Faculty - Faculty Senate’s Campus, Climate, Culture Committee; Divisional Programs; a D,E, & I Toolkit and a DEI Faculty Training offered in Canvas. On the welcome page for this Faculty Training course, developed in 2020 it states: “The training elements included in this foundational course will not, by themselves, shift the culture of Champlain College. Rather, this training focuses on elements of our current climate, with the goal of establishing a baseline of shared concepts and vocabulary. If we can successfully achieve this common ground, our climate will change in ways that will help us begin to change the culture.

With a shared understanding of, and common language for, the issues facing our campus, we can begin the hard work of changing the culture. This will require more direct and difficult conversations about the ways in which deeply embedded values, beliefs, attitudes, perspectives, and assumptions shape our policies and procedures, our curriculum, our spaces, our classroom practices, our patterns of communication and decision-making, and other dimensions of our campus culture.”