{"id":21844,"date":"2017-09-11T12:18:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T16:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=21844"},"modified":"2021-05-21T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:36:08","slug":"stony-brook-university-diversity-inclusion-initiatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/stony-brook-university-diversity-inclusion-initiatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Stony Brook University Goes All-Out with Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diversity in higher education is crucial for the development of young adults. It enables young adults to enter the global workforce with a pre-instilled understanding of people and all of their differences. The ability to work with, conversate, respect and relate to people of every cultural, sexual, or ethnic background is essential to the growth of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stony Brook University (SBU) welcomes diversity and hopes to serve as a pioneer in this regard. The university has recently taken many steps to implement diversity as one of its key pillars, and is confident that it will be able to set the standard for inclusive excellence in higher education across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

SBU has made great strides since it first introduced the <\/span>SBU Plan for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity<\/span><\/a> in May 2016. In a short span of time, it has successfully brought many initiatives into being, including: creation of <\/span>gender-inclusive housing<\/span><\/a> options; implementation of the necessary processes and software changes to allow faculty, staff, and students to use their <\/span>preferred name, pronoun and gender identities<\/span><\/a>; introduction of \u200b24 locations with all-gender and single-stall restrooms; unveiling of its <\/span>UNITI Cultural Center<\/span><\/a> in the Student Activities Center\u2014a multicultural center promoting diversity and inclusion within the SBU community<\/span>; <\/span>and hiring of <\/span>Lee Bits\u00f3\u00ed<\/span><\/a> as its Chief Diversity Officer. SBU is currently in the midst of creating an LGBTQ Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

SBU\u2019s <\/span>2017 Implementation Work Plan<\/span><\/a>, which is available on the university website, shows the all-encompassing nature of the university\u2019s diversity and inclusion plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the new position, Bits\u00f3\u00ed is eager to make SBU even more diverse, inclusive and welcoming. He has made it a priority to give voice to those who are underserved, underrepresented and unmentioned in society and the higher-education setting. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy overarching goal is to expand the understanding of diversity and inclusion beyond the commonly accepted two-dimensional construct focused on race and biological sex,\u201d Bits\u00f3\u00ed told the University Network (TUN). <\/span><\/p>\n

Each of us brings an intersectionality to Stony Brook, and society, so we need to be aware of visible and invisible forms of diversity.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bits\u00f3\u00ed was just sworn in on July 28, 2017, so he has had little time to implement his initiatives. But he makes it clear that his first and foremost goal is to increase the level of cultural dexterity in the SBU community. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCultural competency, humility and respect are important components of cultural dexterity, and our students need to learn about this as we prepare them to become leaders in our society<\/strong>,\u201d Bits\u00f3\u00ed said. <\/span><\/p>\n

In an effort to achieve this goal, Bits\u00f3\u00ed is currently conducting an audit to understand the current diversity programming in place for members of the SBU community. After he gathers sufficient information, Bits\u00f3\u00ed plans to offer a diversity summit for all of SBU to discuss and uncover strengths and weaknesses, ultimately making SBU even more diverse and inclusive. <\/span><\/p>\n

The campus culture at SBU makes it the perfect place to pioneer an influential diversity and inclusion plan. Historically, SBU has been able to open doors to financial sustainability for students from low-income homes. Built on this model of success, Bits\u00f3\u00ed is confident that SBU will be able to create an environment that can foster success for all students. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bits\u00f3\u00ed makes it clear that this transformational period is about giving voice to those who historically have not had one.<\/span><\/p>\n

In giving voice, we must be ever cognizant that diversity is not a person, program or destination, and is never fully achieved because it is an evolving, interdependent ecosystem that requires everyone\u2019s participation<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to Bits\u00f3\u00ed, the diversity and inclusion plan is to serve as a framework to inspire everyone in higher education to move beyond a heteronormative mindset and in turn help the country take a diverse shift towards a minority-majority nation. <\/span><\/p>\n

SBU\u2019s diversity and inclusion plan should inspire education institutions across the country to help change pre-existing views. After all, colleges and universities exist as platforms for catapulting young adults into society. While all educational institutions take great pride in their ability to mold, teach, and educate students, the terms \u201ceducation\u201d and \u201cknowledge\u201d in a higher-education setting should mean more than academic learning. A college degree should represent a young adult who is keen on diversity and is comfortable with people from unfamiliar communities and historical backgrounds.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diversity in higher education is crucial for the development of young adults. It enables young adults to enter the global workforce with a pre-instilled understanding of people and all of their differences. The ability to work with, conversate, respect and relate to people of every cultural, sexual, or ethnic background is essential to the growth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":21823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,6,646,446,230,229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-student-advocacy","category-making-a-difference","category-stony-brook-university","category-news","category-lead-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion-224x144.jpeg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion-300x193.jpeg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Jackson Schroeder","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/jackson-schroeder\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Diversity in higher education is crucial for the development of young adults. It enables young adults to enter the global workforce with a pre-instilled understanding of people and all of their differences. The ability to work with, conversate, respect and relate to people of every cultural, sexual, or ethnic background is essential to the growth…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/diversity_inclusion.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}