Diversity Program

Dr. Cephas Archie is the Diversity & Inclusion Program Coordinator for Houston Community College (HCC), where he assists in the implementation of the colleges 7 + campus Diversity & Inclusion Plan. Collaboratively working with all institutional stakeholders – both internal and external, Dr. Archie spearheads the institution’s diversity and inclusion efforts for the near 81,000 students, faculty and staff. As an employee of the Office of Institutional Equity at HCC, his efforts are accompanied by the college’s Diversity & Inclusion Council.

In 1989, the AICPA recognized a need for not only ethnic diversity but also gender diversity. Stemming from the Upward Mobility of Women Task Force, the AICPA’s Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee (WEIC) was formed in order to promote opportunities within the accounting profession for women. The WEIC serves to raise awareness of the gap in progress of women in becoming leaders throughout the profession by providing

Three ways of gaining executive commitment to diversity are to gather data and to assess the organizations current commitment to diversity to show where and why there is a need for change. The development of diversity council can also garner executive support because it offers a way for executive members of an organization to have a dialog with other members of an organization about diversity. Systematic changes are also necessary such as hiring from a diverse roster of candidates when filling a position. (Moodian, 2009,

The College embraces human diversity and is committed to affirmative action and equal opportunity. These commitments are moral imperatives consistent with an intellectual community that celebrates individual differences, diversity and meaningful individual freedom to pursue professional and educational goals.

This opportunity welcomed me into a community fondly referred to as “Black NCSU.” At the African American Cultural Center, I was surrounded by love and support from both students and staff who wanted to see me succeed on campus. Having a community of intelligent and successful black staff members was an escape from the daily exhaustion of being black in a predominately white institution. Each microaggression was fuel for my intense fire to see a change on campus, which was representation. Representation is important because it gives those who come after us the motivation to strive for more: “I am because you are, you are therefore I am.” With this new motto in mind, I applied to be an Orientation Leader with New Student Programs. Fortunately, I was granted a position as one of six other African American students. Knowing how fortunate I was to have this opportunity I used my position as an Orientation Leader to welcome the class of 2020 to the university. However, I will acknowledge my own bias. I paid special attention to students and families of color as I wanted to be a familiar face to inform them of spaces for black students. I was further able to reinforce this familiarity as a Multicultural Symposium Counselor through Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA). MSA gave me a platform, a voice, to reach younger students of color and pass on the message of

Lyon College fosters mutual respect and understanding among and for all people of different cultures, ethnicities, races, religions, sexual orientations, genders, ages, national origins, socio-economic backgrounds, and physical abilities. It does so by promoting a definition of diversity and acceptance dynamic enough to grow in the future. To ensure such growth, the SGA has created a standing Diversity Committee with a charge that includes the following:

Companies and educational institutions greatly benefit from the guidelines of affirmative action because they profit from the different ideas, work styles, and contributions unique to each diverse individual. As quoted in Paul Connors’s compilation, Affirmative Action, President of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, addresses the importance of a diverse educational system by stating, “The experience of arriving on a campus to live and study with classmates from a diverse range of backgrounds is essential to students' training for this new world, nurturing in them an instinct to reach out instead of clinging to the comforts of what seems natural or familiar” (12-13). A statement by Southeastern Oklahoma State University further supports the idea that success in modern day society stems from diversity saying, “Our country is strong because of the rich diversity of our culture, not in spite of it” (Affirmative Action).

The primary need on our campus is a diversity program. With the opening of another middle school campus this year, our campus has gone from being one of the largest and more diverse campuses in the district to being one the smallest and least diverse in the district. A diversity program will allow the minorities on campus to share their culture in order to build a community that understands we are all more alike than different. Currently this need is not impacting the achievement of students on campus, however, if not address I feel that ultimately this could become an issue that may allow students to feel uncomfortable and create dissention. By partnering with parents and members of the community, I think a program could be developed that allows every culture the opportunity to shine.

I immersed myself into Northwestern’s current state of diversity. I interviewed various employees and received valuable feedback regarding diversity in the organization’s culture. Additionally, I gained greater insight from a human resource representative. This person has acknowledged the organization has failed to implement a successful plan in the past. During my experience, I gathered three (3) key influencers that make diversity work: 1. train and hold managers accountable with the expectation that prevention and adherence to the policy is their responsibility. 2. implement and integrate a zero tolerance policy. 3. Requiring mandatory diversity training for all employees. The bottom line, be proactive in creating and implementing diversity initiatives and policies. It will have a great return on Northwestern’s investment. With this being said, the immersion experience changed my perspectives for the better. Initially, my personal views of the organization were multifaceted. I fought hard to instill a more diverse workplace within the organizational culture. Northwestern Medicine is the second largest healthcare corporation in the Chicagoland area with no minorities in executive leadership; I find this disturbing. In the final analysis, my thoughts regarding this organization has changed some but not significantly. However, after much scrutiny and employee persistence, CultureVision diversity initiatives will be reestablished. I learned how to incorporate my objectives for affective and personal development. In essence, diversity surrounds us every day. We as individuals, can make small changes in our behaviors to fully realize the advantages of diversity, so whether at work or in the community we can better learn from and innovate to make the world a better

Since its inception in 1987, the diversity program that was aiming to “link” academic excellence and social diversity at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus has shown some improvement in the number of their minority faculty members of tenured and

This conference will allow me to network with other professionals and vendors in the private, non-profit industry and in academia. We will be able to take the pulse of what is happening for tools, technologies, and processes, and hear ideas we weren’t even aware of. This conference covers wide array of diversity discourse; for example, a window into a few of the concurrent sessions:

With the institutions of higher education in America gaining diversity, there has been widespread uproar about the frequent occurrence of racial discrimination on college campuses. Minority students at various universities have

For many years, Americans have held certain opinions concerning gender, sex, women, and sexual orientation. A definition of both gender and sex will be provided. The roles of women throughout American history will be discussed. When people think about masculinity and femininity, they have certain preconceived ideas. How these ideas contribute to the understanding gender, sex, and sexual orientation will be examined. Finally, the status of GLBT individuals will be explored. An increased understanding will be gained concerning these issues.

In order to study the need of a racially and culturally diverse college campus, the journey and battles fought must be dicussed. While there is a lack of diversity on college campuses today, they are not completely devoid of people of color. However, there was a time when college campuses were one hundred percent Caucasian. Jonathan R. Alger, Jorge Chapa and a team of researchers conducted studies on various college classrooms. They then went on to publish their findings in a book titled Does Diversity make a Difference? The purpose of their paper was to discuss the importance of diversity and reveal the effects of non-diverse campus. They begin their book by taking a look into the history of diversity in America. The start of the Civil Rights movement along with President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty took place in the mid 1960s. These events forced the country to face the reality of the people of color in America. These Americans of color did not have equal access to education, jobs, housing, or other valued resources (Alger et al. 2000). College administrators and faculty were starting to understand the necessity of a diverse campus. The realized that people of color had just as much to offer to the United States as the Caucasian majority. During that time, “many higher education faculty members and administrators were deeply concerned that abandonment of race sensitive admissions and hiring, at a time when most minority groups continue to be unrepresented in higher education, will severely limit campus diversity and would undermine the learning environment for all students.” (Alger et al. 2000). Additionally, a lot of the traditionally white colleges and universities were provoked and questioned by the concerns of their students. The universities and colleges began to notice their inability to extend the same educational

Within the core of many educational institutions, diversity is a commercial tacit. While every institution cannot offer the same kind of diversity, the endorsement of such exists through various definitions. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges define diversity through the various classes: race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, disability, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and age (“Statement on Diversity”)