Diversity and Inclusion

Please join us for good food, great music, and marvelous conversation during the third annual Diversity and Inclusion Champions Award Ceremony on Thursday, May 30, from 4 until 6 p.m. in the Warch Campus Center’s Somerset Room (324).  

Help us honor the impressive ways in which nominees and award recipients utilized their personal power and talents to assist the university’s efforts to achieve inclusive excellence.

We will be honoring the following individuals during the ceremony:

• Community partner: Carolyn Armstrong Desrosiers 
• Faculty: Helen Boyd Kramer
• Staff: Ariela Rosa
• Student: Quentin Washington

You will also hear about the ways that, as a community, we have moved closer to becoming the inclusive campus we strive to be. Be prepared to leave inspired, encouraged, and motivated to build on this important work. 

We hope you will make time to celebrate with us! 

Help us recognize the people who strive to create inclusive excellence at Lawrence – nominate someone today! The nomination deadline has been extended to Monday, April 29.

The Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award was created to honor a select group of 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 will be 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: (1) a letter of nomination not to exceed 2 pages addressing the aforementioned criteria; (2) an additional letter of support from someone other than the person making the nomination; and (3) the nominee’s resume or curriculum vita. 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 complete a nomination, please submit these three 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.

Help us recognize the people who strive to create inclusive excellence at Lawrence – nominate someone today!

The Diversity & Inclusion Champion Award was created to honor a select group of 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 will be 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: (1) a letter of nomination not to exceed 2 pages addressing the aforementioned criteria; (2) an additional letter of support from someone other than the person making the nomination; and (3) the nominee’s resume or curriculum vita. 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 complete a nomination, please submit these three 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 your nominations by April 24, 2019. 

Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30pm |Warch Campus Center Cinema (204)

Join us for a panel examining the origins and lasting impact of the practice of blackface in America. Panelists include: Erin Dix , University Archivist and Assistant Professor, Erica Scheinberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, and Shaun Brown, Student.

The recent controversy regarding the Governor of Virginia’s 1984 medical school yearbook page that contained photographs of a person in blackface with others dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan has caused many college communities to investigate the history of this practice at their institutions and its implications for campus climate today. The panel will examine the history of minstrelsy, archival information regarding this practice at universities across the country including Lawrence, and current student reaction to these recent events. Brief opening remarks by each panelist will be followed by Q & A from the audience. This panel is an opportunity to better understand a practice that ensconced many of the stereotypes we know today regarding African Americans in our national collective consciousness.     

Please let us know you are coming >  go.lawrence.edu/13276

Sharing Circles are a process we are using to further understand the ways various groups on campus experience Lawrence. They are one of several activities being implemented in response to 2018 campus climate survey results and as part of our Truth and Reconciliation at Lawrence campaign. Sharing Circles provide an opportunity for a particular group of people (students, faculty, and staff) to discuss personal experiences, challenges, insights and strategies they have developed to thrive at Lawrence. This process is grounded in the concept of talking circles used by many Indigenous Peoples.

If you come from a background that you consider low income or are a student who is eligible for a Pell Grant, we invite you to join us and share your experiences on April 10, 2019 from 4:30pm to 6pm in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Room (325). Contact the Office of Diversity and Inclusion with any questions.

Please let us know you are coming, click here: go.lawrence.edu/13276