Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity.

We are committed to diversity and inclusivity in higher education. We find it essential to have all humans engaged in building our future. We believe it takes a multitude of voices to solve the complex problems we face in our future of learning and work. Our approach to developing new initiatives aims to consider the needs of an entire campus community, including past and future members.

Our experience with inclusivity is rooted in designing centralized resources for our respective organizations. These resources, whether they be administrative facilities and/or systems of academic support, strive to be physically and intellectually accessible to anyone at our institutions. 

We acknowledge the wide variety of approaches to more inclusive academic environments. Distinct communities have distinct needs. Our work seeks to align with statements developed by each of our institutions. When partnering with outside organizations, we are dedicated to supporting statements such as these and incorporating their goals into our projects and proposals: 

https://www.wellesley.edu/about/missionandvalues

https://www.brandeis.edu/diversity/updates-statements/index.html

Much of our work has centered around developing innovation labs and “makerspaces”. As stated above, these spaces not only need to be physically accessible, but should also enable more diverse approaches to education. We are always looking for evidence that certain methods for building and using these spaces can create a broader set of learning processes and outcomes in academia. 

We recognize that this work is constantly evolving and updates are required with the shifting goals of our communities. We resolve to be conversant with other diversity initiatives on our campuses and at other institutions with whom we engage professionally.