Greetings from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), and welcome to our inaugural newsletter, the Beloved Community, which will be published quarterly.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. popularized the term “Beloved Community”, a part of the King Philosophy of non-violence. At Sonoma State, Beloved Community is the ultimate vision for making our campus equitable, inclusive, and just. It requires working collaboratively across differences to eradicate racism, all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice. It imagines the possibility of creating a community where equitable practices are commonplace and a sense of belonging is palpable.
There is so much important work happening at SSU that deserves to be acknowledged and highlighted. In the Fall of 2020, as we were still processing the COVID-19 pandemic and being confronted with incidents of racial hatred across the country, we felt it was time to refocus our efforts toward realizing a beloved community at Sonoma State. While our ambition for this work is constrained by minimal staffing, (the Office currently includes one full-time employee, Tramaine Austin-Dillon, and thanks to the generous support of alumni donors, we recently hired two Student Ambassadors) our commitment and dedication to this work is unmatched.
Representation, support, and advocacy are all important priorities for our office. This newsletter is an important part of that mission. Here you will learn about the work being done here and across the campus, starting with the framework for our Office, which we have adapted from the research of former HUB Director Mark Rako Fabionar. We have an update on the President’s Advisory Council on Diversity, Equity, Campus Climate, and Inclusion (PAC) and the Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Task Force, which was charged with defining and describing what an HSI should look like at SSU; assess how SSU is meeting that definition; develop goals and objectives that will ensure we can make claim to being an HSI; provide other recommendations that will enrich the campus climate for Latinx students, staff, and faculty at SSU; and develop a list of "promising practices" from model institutions across the nation.
The Task Force recently evolved into a President’s Advisory Council on HSI, Chaired by Dean Laura Alamillo and Professor Robert Train, which will create an HSI success framework based on Servingness; review SSU’s current campus climate data on Hispanic/Latinx students, staff, faculty, and administrators in order to create a summary report; collect additional data on the SSU Hispanic/Latinx community; determine the requirements and advise on Sonoma State’s achievement of the Seal of Excelencia; and track and discuss the progress of the HSI Task Force Recommendations.
We spotlight the School of Business and Economics. We also highlight distinguished SSU alumni and host a Q&A with Professor Matthew Paolucci from Faculty Affairs.
The President and I believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion work is central to the university’s educational mission. Learning, by its very nature, is accomplished through engagement with unfamiliar ideas, issues, and experiences – through a diversity of people, thinkers, facts, and opinions. Critical thinking is fundamental to being an informed global citizen and Truth does not have a political affiliation. Our aim is not to promote tolerance but to foster an ethos of open inclusiveness for all Seawolves.
As James Baldwin notes, "The paradox of education is precisely this; that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which [they are] being educated.
We are living in very dynamic times, where the conditions for positive change are always present, if we will just step forward. I hope you find in this newsletter something engaging, interesting, and inspiring.
Onward.