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Building and maintaining a more diverse and inclusive institution is a key element in ºÚÁϳԹÏ's strategic plan. The following statement, developed from the work of faculty/staff and student strategic action teams, was approved by the ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï Board of Trustees at its November 2014 meeting and was revised in July of 2018.

At ºÚÁϳԹÏ, we commit to creating a fruitful climate for intellectual and scholarly growth, meaningful interaction, and common endeavors. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are key to a liberal arts education of the highest caliber.

As we celebrate the expanding diversity of students, faculty, and staff at ºÚÁϳԹÏ, we recognize that vigorous living, learning, and teaching require more than a campus of variety and difference. Our mission to engage the college in a vibrant exchange of ideas thrives on a plurality of backgrounds, experiences, viewpoints, and positionalities. We recognize that power imbalances, institutional bias, and systems of oppression can stand in the way of students, staff, and faculty achieving their potential. We are committed to cultivating mutual respect, empathy and understanding; and to building constructive and rewarding working and social relationships.

To these ends, we engage in the following practices and pursuits:

• Create a campus community that is broadly accessible and welcoming to individuals of diverse identities, experiences, and aspirations. We will identify and draw on the talents and promise of local, national and global populations in our admission of students and our hiring of faculty and staff.
• Foster an equitable intellectual and social climate that is inclusive and respectful of human dignity. We acknowledge that categories of difference are fluid and not necessarily fixed. We respect individual rights to self-identification and expression; we encourage activities, gatherings, and conversations in which individuals from all walks of life are able to fully participate.
• Promote full engagement in courses, curricula, co-curricular programs, and projects. We will provide resources and space for distinctive projects that further our diversity goals and our shared interests and ideals.
• Encourage ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï community members to be conscientious and critical thinkers, and considerate and responsible leaders.

In order to hold ourselves accountable we commit to the ongoing evaluation of our policies, practices, and programs to assess our progress in fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion.

ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï is an equal opportunity employer committed to increasing the diversity of its community. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, age, religion, gender identity or expression, disability, or sexual orientation in our educational programs and activities or our employment practices.