EDITORIAL: CMU making good on inclusion promise with Diversity office budget increase
Central Michigan University’s student body is changing. With targeted recruiting and outreach, we are bringing more diverse students to campus. That includes students from different races, religions, sexuality and gender identities.
Some of those changes are organic — a positive caveat of Michigan’s changing demographics. In some cases, those changes are by design. CMU is taking steps to build a more diverse campus community, and that starts by recognizing these disparate groups’ individual needs.
The university is going all in on inclusion and diversity. Evidence of that is the finance department’s recent decision to increase the base budget of the Office for Institutional Diversity.
This year, OID is getting $75,000 to spend on diversity programs, guest speakers and cultural awareness events. It’s the largest OID budget increase since 2010.
We commend CMU officials for taking immediate, monetary action to increase inclusion on campus. The OID is undoubtedly the strongest mechanism to fight intolerance on campus.
Funding them to this capacity is a clear example of CMU upholding their commitment to diversity, a stated goal for the 2016-17 academic year.
CMU has sometimes struggled with the notion that it is a primarily white — and primarily straight — campus. Carolyn Dunn, associate vice president of OID, acknowledged these struggles last year in an examination of race relations on campus.
Dunn understands the roadblocks in place for CMU. Being a woman of color makes her appropriately aware of CMU’s diversity goals. Her office works primarily with students and faculty to bridge cultural gaps on campus.
Under OID facilitation, the university offers Soup and Substance panels, the Central Michigan University Pow wow, faculty workshops and month-long cultural heritage celebrations.
OID’s stated mission is to use these activities as bolsters of cultural awareness within our existing student population — which is now also the stated mission of CMU’s top brass.
Dunn’s office is making a difference, helping students understand the world is more black, brown and yellow than it is white. For her and University President George Ross, making sure students are used to a competitive, diverse workplace is of the utmost importance.
Aside from programming and workshops, OID staff encourage opportunities for students to grapple with issues of race, gender and sexuality.
It should come as no surprise that gender and LGBTQ services are among OID’s top individual priorities this year. Dunn allocated $25,000 of her budget specifically to the Office of LGBTQ Services.
The move should be heartening news to LGBTQ students — a group who may feel shut out of institutional diversity talks when race often dominates the conversation. Acknowledging our LGTBQ students means acknowledging a group that transcends all racial, religious and national lines.
In that regard, LGBTQ students are at the forefront of the diversity equation. We must create a campus that allows them, and all of our students, to flourish without barriers.
When we see the lines that connect us more clearly than those that divide us, we can accurately access our shortcomings as a multicultural country that takes pride in its differences.
CMU made two major steps toward that type of inclusion in relatively a short period of time. Let’s continue the momentum throughout the rest of the year.
