Diversity and Inclusion

Once again, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion will recognize the extraordinary individuals who serve as role models for our efforts to create a more inclusive Lawrence. These individuals use their personal power, talents, position, and influence to help the University achieve inclusive excellence in the execution of its mission. Annually four awards are given: one to a student, faculty, staff member, and a community partner.

Criteria

Each award recipient has demonstrated exemplary achievement in one or more of the following areas:

• Promoting intergroup, cross-cultural understanding
• Fostering the academic and personal success of groups that have been underserved and underrepresented in higher education   
• Creating a campus climate that encourages and supports the expression of diverse perspectives and ways of being
• Helping to prevent harassment, bullying and illegal discrimination
• Contributing to efforts that foster greater diversity among Lawrence students, faculty and staff

Nominations

All Lawrence students and employees are eligible for the award and can make nominations. Community partner award nominees can be from any location or sector. Nominees can be groups or individuals in any of the categories (i.e., student, faculty, staff member and community partner).

Nominations should include:

• a letter of nomination not to exceed 2 pages addressing the aforementioned criteria,
• an additional letter of support from someone other than the person making the nomination, and
• the nominee’s resume or curriculum vitae.

In the case of a group nominee, provide the official mission/purpose and history of the group along with a description of its membership.

To submit a nomination, please send the above-mentioned items to div-inclusion@lawrence.edu.

Selection

An ad hoc committee made up of a subgroup of the President’s Committee on Diversity Affairs (PCDA) will choose the award recipients.

Deadline

Please submit nominations by Friday, April 3, 2020. 

The Cultural Competency Lecture Series provides faculty, staff, students, and community members the opportunity to learn about topics that will increase their ability to live and work well with people they perceive to be different in some significant way.

For 2020-2021, the Office of Diversity & Inclusion is soliciting proposals from faculty and staff that address issues relevant to our campus and community.  Although the title of the series refers to “lectures,” we prefer interactive presentations that engage participants.  Recent topics have included accessibility as inclusion; social class, silence, and solutions; non-binary gender and bathrooms; environmental justice; cultural appropriation; and controversial art. 

If you would like to facilitate or co-facilitate a lecture during the 2020-2021 academic year, please send a title, brief abstract, and a description of your related work on the topic to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion by Friday, March 13 by emailing div-inclusion@lawrence.edu.

Cecile Despres-Berry will deliver the first cultural competency lecture of 2020 on Tuesday, 1/28 at 11:15 in the Warch Campus Center’s Hurvis Room: “ELF: English as a Lingua Franca at Lawrence.”

“Lawrence University is a diverse community comprised of English speakers from many different first languages and dialects of English,” explained Cecile. “English is our lingua franca, but these variations in language background affect how an individual participates in a conversation.”

Learn more about how conversational culture varies, and investigate your own unconscious conversational preferences and biases so that you can use this knowledge to become a more effective communicator in English.

A Cultural Competency Lecture by Helen Boyd Kramer

Tuesday, 11/19 at 11:15 in the Warch Campus Center’s Hurvis Room

Bathrooms are often unsafe spaces for trans and non-binary people, including students, faculty, and staff. This lecture will illustrate some of the basic issues and the ways we can change our culture to make sure everyone can use the facilities safely.

Learn about the Cultural Competency Lecture Series here, where you can also RSVP for the lecture.

To find out more about Lawrence’s commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion, see the recently updated list of gender inclusive restrooms on campus.

A message from the Committee on Diversity Affairs:

Happy Halloween! Let’s keep this Halloween spooky and fun for everyone! Here are some things that you should consider when picking your costume:

• A costume should NOT come at the expense of the identity of your fellow Lawrentians.

• A costume is NOT another person’s race or ethnicity, gender identity or expression, health condition, socioeconomic status, etc.

If you have to question it, then you probably shouldn’t do it. Be well and do well.

LU is celebrating its 8th Annual Queer Thanksgiving, an event which gives LGBTQ+ students who may not be able to be their true selves at home a chance to celebrate the holiday with the LU community. Join us on Friday, November 15 at 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM in the Diversity and Intercultural Center.

All LGBTQ+ and allied students, faculty and staff are welcome.

Feel free to join the Facebook event and/or sign up to bring a dish.