Encouraging Cultural Humility and Inclusion on Campus

For the past 20 months, a special assistant to the University President and the 15-member President’s Advisory Council on Diversity (PACD) have been working to build programs, complete agreements and organize initiatives across campus that provide an environment of inclusion and support for students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.

Just before President Livingstone’s arrival in June, Special Assistant to the University President Liz Palacios and PACD Chair Lori Baker provided Baylor’s Interim President David Garland a report of their progress. In addition to other substantive activities, the groups have established official affinity groups for black students, Latino students and Asian students on Baylor’s campus, and worked to implement a domestic exchange program with Xavier University of Louisiana, an historically black university. Megan Washington, a senior biology major, was the first Baylor student to participate, spending the Spring 2017 semester in New Orleans attending Xavier.

“Our work on diversity initiatives has been informed and impacted by our interactions with students. Without their ideas and input into events, speakers and activities that are meaningful to them, we could not have been successful in moving so many initiatives forward,” Palacios explained. “Our work is just getting started, and we have a tremendous group of students, faculty and staff who will help us continue our momentum.”

During the 2016-17 academic year, speakers, artists and musicians from diverse backgrounds and cultures have been a part of student life. Dr. Lester Newman joined students, faculty, staff and community leaders for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Luncheon, and Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of civil rights leader Malcolm X, headlined the 30th Annual Black Heritage Banquet. Recording artist Aloe Blacc entertained the crowd as the finale of this year’s Traditions Rally. The University supported celebrations of Black History Month, Gateway to India (a showcase presented by the Indian Subcontinent Student Association), Women’s History Month and monthly cross-cultural engagement events.

The diversity of faculty and staff is equally important to this progress. In addition to establishing a Faculty of Color Alliance and incorporating a Bias-Motivated Incident Support Team more thoroughly into the diversity initiatives, a successful opportunity hiring program has launched, bringing diverse academic leaders to our faculty ranks. The University has submitted an application for the McNair Scholars program and a comprehensive campus-wide Academic and Work Environment Survey was fielded during the Spring 2017 semester.

“We were thrilled with the response to the Academic and Work Environment Survey,” said Baker. “Our participation numbers far surpassed those of other benchmark universities. We look forward to receiving the results from the third-party research group this fall to help us set new goals for important initiatives.”

To learn more about diversity, inclusion and cultural humility at Baylor or to read the full summary of initiatives launched, visit baylor.edu/diversity.