Celebrating our Diversity

The School of Integrative Studies, an intentionally inclusive community, promotes and maintains an equitable and just work and learning environment. We welcome and value individuals and their differences including race, economic status, gender expression and identity, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, first language, religion, age, and disability.

  • We value our diverse student body and desire to increase the diversity of our faculty and staff.
  • We commit to supporting students, faculty and staff who have been the victims of bias and discrimination.
  • We promote continuous learning and improvement to create an environment that values diverse points of view and life experiences.
  • We believe that faculty, staff and students play a role in creating an environment that engages diverse points of view.
  • We believe that by fostering their willingness to hear and learn from a variety of sources and viewpoints, our students will gain competence in communication, critical thinking and global understanding, aware of their biases and how they affect their interactions with others and the world.

Using the Statement on Course Syllabi

The statement alone is not sufficient to ensure that students, faculty and staff will recognize, accept and affirm their differences in respectful ways. In order to move forward in reducing marginalization and fostering knowledge of the diverse nature of our community of learners, the statement should be used to prompt conversation about how the class will manage dialogue generally and particularly around difficult issues.

We acknowledge that the diversity statement does not name all possible areas of discrimination and bias that are a part of our community members’ experiences. This statement names the areas of most egregious prejudice in our society. There are courses which may address directly some areas of potential prejudice that are not named in this statement. For example, “political affiliation” is not on this statement, but if a course is likely to provoke discussion of politics and reveal personal views, the instructor may wish to write an addendum to this asserting that respect for diverse political views is essential.