State University of New York at Oneonta
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The Office of Equity and Inclusion at SUNY Oneonta began in 2006, created as a recommendation to then-President Alan Donovan by the President’s Council on Diversity. Over the years it has adapted to the changing needs of the campus community and is now an umbrella unit for multiple institutional responsibilities that are dedicated to issues of diversity in their broadest sense. The Office of Equity and Inclusion is led by Chief Diversity Officer Terrence Mitchell, a member of the President’s Cabinet, who is responsible for supervision of the Affirmative Action/Title IX office, the Center for Multicultural Experiences, the Diversity Education and Community Outreach office, the Faculty Associate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Multicultural Student Initiatives. Our hope is to provide advisement, consistency and support for diverse constituents, the whole of the campus community and for our institutional aspirations. Our work supports institutional core values that provide the foundation for all that the college does, with a particular focus on student engagement and building an inclusive and welcoming community. We accomplish our goals by focusing on the needs of individual diverse community members, on the success of students from diverse communities, and on educating and supporting programming to build an inclusive community.

Students: Common Ground is a program through the Office of Equity and Inclusion that provides opportunities for diverse groups of students to come together to engage in peer-led dialogues about issues that have important implications for our multicultural society. A pilot session is being run this spring, with plans to replicate a more consistent dialogue in the fall of 2018. Diversity Orientation are sessions held during Orientation day sat SUNY Oneonta and led by a variety of faculty and staff. They offer a look into the values that SUNY Oneonta fosters around diversity and inclusion, how each session leader incorporates that into their work, and provides all of the resources to students who may need access to services on our campus in the future. Faculty and staff: Intergroup Dialogues for Faculty and Staff are face to face facilitated conversations between members of two or more social identity groups that strives to create new levels of understanding, relating, and action. The structure of IGD promotes conversation around controversial issues, specifically, in order to generate new collective visions that uphold the values and identities of all people.