Knox College
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

Last academic year (2016-2017) the Campus Diversity Committee (CDC) worked with the faculty, the President, and the Board of Trustees to revise the College’s mission statement; removing the word tolerant and replacing with inclusive in the residential life portion of the statement. The committee also hosted an information gathering meeting/conversation with DV course instructors in order to gain information that would help us provide advice to the faculty on methods used to include discussion of diversity/inclusivity in the classroom. From the Knox College Faculty regulations regarding the Campus Diversity Committee: F 10.9 Campus Diversity Committee: To provide advice and counsel to the President for ways in which Knox’s educational programs, institutional practices, and community of students, faculty and staff can fulfill the College’s commitment to diversity; to help maintain a community unified by common institutional values and enriched by diversity based on such factors as race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender, sexual orientation and disability. The committee or any subcommittee that it creates may choose to focus on such issues as support services, residential life, and recruitment and retention of students, faculty and staff. The Committee will provide initiative and leadership to ensure that the College’s programs and practices help all members of the Knox community to become more conscious, understanding, knowledgeable of and sensitive to different cultures and backgrounds, and to situate themselves within a diverse community. The Center for Intercultural Life (CIL) contributes to the College's goal of creating an inclusive campus community by acknowledging and celebrating the diverse experience of our students, faculty, and staff. The CIL strives to: a) Create a supportive campus environment for members of historically disadvantaged backgrounds; b) Facilitate programming and activities that celebrate and share the rich cultures of the students, staff, and faculty that make up our community; and c) Foster discourse designed to effect positive change by challenging injustice such as social inequities and other forms of oppression. The CIL is responsible for the diversity workshops during first-year orientation, completing ongoing conversations and workshops for the first-year experience and upperclassmen throughout the year, conducting/hosting professional development offerings for faculty and staff in regards to supporting our diverse student population, facilitating a co-curricular peer education program, and co-chairing the Multicultural Student Advisory Council.

Co-curricularly, over the past three years students have been introduced to concepts of social identity, power/privilege, and tools for participating in difficulty dialogues during their first-year fall orientation and beyond into their first-year. Students also have the opportunity to participate in courses modeled after University of Michigan's Intergroup Dialogue program (IGD) which has been part of the Knox curriculum since winter 2014. Faculty and staff had opportunities to participate in IGD trainings in the past (2014-2015). At that time 67% of our faculty had been able to attend. More recently, all new faculty hires attend a panel discussion to learn about our diverse student populations. Staff from the Center for Intercultural Life, Counseling Services, Disability Services, TRiO Student Support Services, and the Dean of Students share the resources that they have to offer faculty in support of our students. The CIL also hosts webinars and trainings throughout the year specific to this area, for example, “Supporting Undocumented, Immigrant and Refugee Status Students” and “Interrupting Racism”. Additionally, faculty have been attending conferences offered by our consortium, ACM, as well as the AAC&U regarding competency in classrooms and hiring practices.