Augsburg is an intentionally diverse and inclusive campus community, located in the most diverse ZIP code between Chicago and Los Angeles. Nurturing that vibrant learning environment—reflective of our complex and interconnected world—takes passion, vigilance, and innovation, three qualities that define Joanne Reeck. Appointed chief diversity officer in January, the St. Paul native is digging into the issues and developing workshops and programs to strengthen intercultural understanding.
“Our most important job as an institution is to work toward a learning environment where all of our students are able to bring forward their full selves,” said Reeck, who has served as Augsburg’s director of campus activities and orientation since 2008. “As such, faculty and staff need to not only work effectively across the cultural commonalities they share with students, but also across the cultural differences they do not share. When faculty and staff are able to effectively do this, the environment will naturally become one that allows all students to show up as their authentic selves and to more fully engage as learners.”
Increasing the intercultural competency of faculty and staff has been among the top three concerns of students in the 2004, 2007, and 2014 Student Inclusion Assessments, Reeck said. As a result, she created and implemented Augsburg’s first Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program, which launched the first day of fall semester. Fifty-eight faculty and staff members have signed up for the Certificate Program to date, with an average of 22 attendees at each of the 12 workshops that have taken place to date.
Faculty and staff may sign up for any number of diversity and inclusion workshops offered through Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives, but each person must complete the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Process and six workshops to complete the certificate program. Of the required workshops, three are new: Creating Inclusive Spaces, All About Bias, and From Microinequities to Inclusion. Reeck redesigned the layout for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Process and the Intercultural Conflict Styles (ICS) Inventory Workshop. Michael Grewe ’12 MSW, director of LGBTQIA student services, designed Ally Training I and Kathy McGillivray, director of CLASS Disability Services, developed Disability as Diversity: Building Bridges to Full Inclusion.
“Once people attend one workshop, they seem to be hooked,” Reeck said. “It’s encouraging to see how many Augsburg faculty and staff members are pursuing these opportunities to grow their understanding of the many different communities around them. Most importantly however, is what we all do to help foster an understanding, supportive community of lifelong learners.”
Dimension 2, Goal 4, Strategy 4: Shape and strengthen our learning community.
—by Kate Elliott