Vassar College
PA-6: Support for Underrepresented Groups

Campus Life/ALANA Programs
The ALANA Center provides a myriad of resources and programs to support students of color, and fosters cultural, social, academic and creative expressions. The center offers opportunities for leadership development, intra-cultural and cross-cultural dialogues, lectures, big sister/big brother and alumnae/i mentoring programs. Also, a comfortable and affirming gathering space is provided for student organizations with similar goals in supporting students of color. As an extension of cultural/social and academic concerns, resources for interacting with various communities in Poughkeepsie and surrounding areas are provided. Other resources include culturally specific journals/newsletters, educational videos, career development, scholarship and fellowship information and a computer lab. TheALANA Center staff includes the Assistant Director for Campus Life/ALANA Programs and a student staff consisting of a manager, program interns and program assistants who are available to assist in all aspects of the Center's services.
The administrator of the ALANA Center meets with students for personal, academic, and general advising and works with students of color on educational, social and cultural programming. The director also provides support to several student organizations including the ASA, ASU, BSU, CBS, CSA, MEChA, Poder Latino and SASA, and is available to meet with student leaders. To schedule an appointment, to learn more about the ALANA Center and its resources or to talk about an advisement matter, students are encouraged to visit the administrative office located in the ALANA Center or call (845) 437-5954.
The ALANA Center is one of several campus resources on student development, diversity issues, cultural programming and general college life matters.

Campus Life/LGBTQ Programs
The Campus Life LGBTQ Center is the Campus Life Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Communities and Social Justice Education. The Center hosts social and cultural programs, collaborates with student organizations, and provides leadership opportunities to enhance the campus life experiences of LGBTQ students – all while addressing greater issues of social justice and creating an inclusive and educational campus environment. The LGBTQ Center is located in the College Center, Room 235. As part of the Campus Life Office, the center works with all students to promote cultural pluralism and positive intergroup experiences.

Religious and Spiritual Life
The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (RSL) at Vassar College is difficult to pigeonhole. Yes, it has to do with religions - all of them. Yes, it has to do with spirituality and the many ways people experience and express the wonder of everyday life. But it's more than that. What makes it difficult, and at the same time wonderfully characteristic of Vassar, is the extraordinary range of practices and beliefs the office seeks to support and embrace - from mindfulness practitioners to Roman Catholics, from Reform Jews to evangelical Christians, from Muslims, secularists to mainline Protestants, from Hindus to environmentalists, RSL is here to help you make what matters most to you part of your learning.

The Learning, Teaching and Research Center (LTRC)

The LTRC addresses the academic needs of students across the curriculum. Three well-developed programs provide guidance and support to students in areas as diverse as writing, math and natural science. The LTRC also provides one-on-one help to students with time management, study practices, note taking and stress/ anxiety reduction techniques.

While the LTRC does not target or specifically serve underrepresented students, its programs are particularly helpful to first-generation students, students from high-schools without advanced academic courses or programs, international students, and students whose first language is not English.

The LTRC also offers faculty development workshops on teaching issues, and early career faculty support in the form of a mentoring program.

Diving into Research

Diving into Research (DIR) is a program which brings prematriculation freshmen to campus for a month of research in the laboratory of a faculty member. Students are drawn from minority and disadvantaged groups. The program is meant to not only encourage the students’ interests in science, but to ease their transition to college life in the Fall. Diving into Research (DIR) is funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant and is run concurrently with the Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI)

The Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT) may be convened to ensure that affected student(s) have access to appropriate resources, to assist the division in its response, and to facilitate a coordinated campus response to crisis incidents or to threats or potential threats to the well being of our students or campus community as a whole.

Coordinated responses may include, but are not limited to, identification of and referral to appropriate support services and resources on­ or off­campus, adjudication for violations of College Regulations, informal resolution measures such as mediation, facilitated dialogue between parties, facilitated discussions in residence halls or other campus locations, recommendations for campus notices for fact sharing, and efforts towards wider educational awareness, prevention, and outreach. In the case of a potential violation of College Regulations, the Bias Incident Response Team does not play a role in the investigation of alleged incidents or render any decision concerning guilt or innocence in the parties involved.