Photo by: Michael Furman
About 500 people attended the ninth annual Diversity Summit on Friday which focused on exploring ways to create inclusive environments. The attendance was the largest in event history.
The event was organized by the Center of Multicultural Excellence (CME) and held in the Driscoll Student Center.
Mia Elizardi, Chair of the Diversity Summit, described her goals for the event saying, “The business of inclusive excellence at DU is that people come to these events and learn something to take back to their organizations and apply them to their business practices and environment.”
The summit began with keynote speaker Dr. Shaun Harper, an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania and editor of the book “Creating Inclusive Campus Environments for Cross-Cultural Learning and Student Engagement and Student Engagement in Higher Education: Theoretical Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Diverse Populations.”
Harper talked about the responsibility that institutions of higher education have to make sure that they are graduating students that understand and are committed to inclusivity. He also explored the idea of global connectivity and emphasized that if we are looking at a more global diverse society it is irresponsible to not make inclusivity a priority.
“He was a very eye-opening and informative speaker,” said Hugo Loya, a student attendee.
“Harper moved the discussion about diversity and Inclusive Excellence beyond buzz words towards accomplishment and pushed the University of Denver to put action behind its mission and values,” said Joel Portman, the Assistant Coordinator for Intergroup Relations at CME who helped Elizardi plan the summit.
The issues Harper raised in his keynote address were discussed in the workshops that followed.
There were 18 workshops that ran concurrently in two hour-long sessions with topics that ranged from transcending stereotypes to breaking down us-them models to creating inclusive environments for the LGBT community.
Workshops were led by members of the staff, faculty, undergraduate and graduate students and community members. A mass e-mail was sent out by the summit workshop committee at the end of March calling for proposal submissions. Based on the received proposals and need projected from last year’s attendee numbers, the committee decided which workshops would run.
Lunch was provided by Sodexo and during the meal, Youth biz, one of the main sponsors was acknowledged for their contributions. Youth biz works to help kids grow into successful adults in the working world through peer tutoring and leadership workshops. Because of the thorough job training and academic support, Youth biz developed over the years into a staple of the Denver community.
Cards with thought-provoking questions like, “How can we avoid exclusion?” and “What have you done to further inclusive excellence?” were placed on tables to encourage conversation between guests.
Following lunch one more workshop session commenced with nine more workshops offered that were based around similar concepts.
According to Tracey Adams-Peters, Director of the Center for Multicultural Excellence, non-exclusivity still upholds the remnants of discrimination. She pointed out that non-exclusion indicated acceptance of different backgrounds and ideas, however, it did not engage those ideas or celebrate those backgrounds in a way that promotes participation like inclusiveness.
“Our purpose is to make sure that professors, the administration, faculty, staff and students have the tools necessary or know how to access those resources to help make their environment more inclusive,” said Adams-Peters.
However it is imperative that we become more proactive in our approach to inclusive excellence rather than reactive,” she said. “I think that DU is in a really unique position where we have a lot of energy and commitment to making DU more inclusive but we still have a long way to go,” said Adams-Peters.
