Diversity Council Mission

The Diversity Council’s mission is to lead and support initiatives that promote and sustain inclusive excellence across our campus community in support of DCC’s mission and core value to  “Embrace Diversity as an Integral Part of our Institutional Identity.” The Council seeks to bring about transformative change that results in a representative, inclusive and equitable college community.

Goals

1. Create access to meaningful information/ideas which will demand/hold our community accountable for inclusion and diversity in all the sectors of the community of DCC.

2. Facilitate the institutionalization of diversity by incorporating diverse voices in all departments and governing bodies of the college.

3. Demand engagement in the conversation and hold everyone accountable.

Objectives

1. In addition to creating access to meaningful information/ideas, the Diversity Council seeks to create an institutional process that will demand progress at DCC towards inclusion, equity, and access, and hold our community accountable for actions and achievement of stated goals.

2. Facilitate the institutionalization of diversity, equity and inclusion: The mission of equity for an institution is to help remove the structural barriers to resources for historically marginalized groups and thus provide access, but also to direct resources in such a way as to maximize the opportunities for these groups, and, when possible, to serve as an instrument of advocacy or as a means of empowering these voices at all levels of the institution and beyond in the larger community.

3. increasing diversity in our campus. In particular, aim to have a diverse faculty, staff and leadership that resembles the diversity of our student body and Infuse in all goals the core requirement that student diversity requires faculty staff and leadership diversity. Emphasize, in all related goals, the imperative that we must increase diversity among faculty and staff and leadership.

Diversity Council Members’ Roles and Responsibilities

1. Give representation to the voices of historically marginalized groups on campus among faculty staff and students.

2. Participate in the creation of guidelines for implementing campus functions around diversity, including guest speakers for students and staff.

3. Formulate and execute plans for a Diversity center and meet with campus administrative leadership to confirm resource/space allocation(s) needed to support an action based stance toward shaping this space on campus.

4. Participate in the creation of guidelines for search committees highlighting issue of diversity.

5. Serve on search committees as DC representatives.

6. Create professional development activities for educating the campus on Diversity.

7. Represent the DC on governance bodies on the campus.

8. Present or suggest workshops at the SUNY Diversity Conference highlighting departmental work at DCC that supports diversity and access/disability efforts, teaching, campus innovation or direct plans of action implemented to support the mission of diversity (as defined by the DC).

9. Collaborate openly and systematically with department chairs & faculty to create courses that center gender, racial, sexual, immigrant and ability/disability diversity in order to shape more inclusive learning/scholarship/programming in our community.

10. Participate in the creation of a Diversity Manual for administration, faculty and staff populations and suggest training/professional development opportunities in SUNY, locally in Dutchess county or nationally that center diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) concerns.

12. Collaborate on a biannual basis with DCC Grants writing officer to disseminate information on grant opportunities at the county, state and federal level which can be applied to support diversity related initiatives and the success & enrichment of students from historically underrepresented populations.

13. While Diversity is wide ranging, at this time in DCC’s history, students that identify as Black and/or of the African Diaspora experience continuous challenges to their success that are both structural and social in nature. Therefore, the council will work with this community in order to build stronger social and institutional structural supports that promote belonging and opportunity.

14. Advocate for programming, models of institutional student/faculty support, events and excursions that support URM student populations and bring attention to the intersectionality of socially oppressed populations.

15. Suggest to administration and Institutional research deep campus studies of specific diversity populations to inform resource allocations to remove barriers to success and foster a culture of belonging for students, staff and faculty.

16. Actively research, identify and develop solutions to address structural equity gaps that don’t serve the needs of racial/ethnic minoritized communities in collaboration with departments & administrative leadership.

17. Promote a culture of belonging by holding a yearly, open to the campus community, joint meeting of the Diversity Council, Student Governance and Student Activities designed to center diversity related student experiences, identify concerns and dialogue toward actionable solutions.

18. Generate and maintain regional SUNY 2 year to SUNY 4 year dialogue and collaborative efforts for DEI concerns with sister SUNY campuses around D.E.I concerns and programming.

19. Foster broader community engagement that promotes the causes of diversity.