FALL/WINTER 2021
Defining and Cultivating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
It was an important year for diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, both in the wake of the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests and emergence of black@GS, and because of the unusual segmentation of the student body necessitated by COVID. Instead of all learning and living together on campus, our diverse students—divided into boarding, day, and remote cohorts—remained apart. Maintaining a sense of inclusiveness was challenging. Rachel Williams returned to George School in fall 2020 as its new DEI director. In her first year in the role, Rachel organized a wide range of events that brought the community together to learn more about diversity, equity, and inclusion. (See calendar on next page.) In December, Rachel and the Faculty/Staff Inclusion Committee solicited feedback through the George School Inclusion Survey: Celebrating Our Diverse Traditions. Its purpose was to probe how community members celebrate cultural traditions and holidays as well as to “take the temperature with regards to community health in relation to inclusion efforts amidst COVID realities.” The questionnaire asked for qualitative responses, and the open-ended nature elicited a variety of answers. Of the 278 respondents, 84.5% were students (fairly evenly distributed between freshmen, sophomores, and juniors with somewhat fewer seniors) and 15.5% faculty/ staff. When asked how they self-identify—culturally, ethnically, and/or racially—participants gave 100 unique responses. When asked to self-identify religiously and/ or spiritually, they gave 60 different answers, and when asked what holidays and traditions were important to them, they listed 40. The George School community is well known to be diverse, but perhaps not that diverse.
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Holidays and Traditions When it came to how George School could better support, celebrate, and honor students’ copious traditions, answers were similarly varied. Though many students felt that the school already does a great job and did not know what more could be done, these respondents were not themselves religiously diverse. By contrast, those who suggested a day off to celebrate holidays (including a dozen who suggested a break for the Lunar New Year) represented a broader religious range. As a result of the survey, George School is making some changes. Upon request, students can be excused from class for the Lunar New Year, and dorm celebrations were held. All holidays mentioned will appear in the community calendar, and the library is providing educational resources about those events celebrated by community members. Accepted students will also be asked to share what cultural traditions are important to them. Inclusive Community Most student respondents felt that George School has done a great job of creating an inclusive community this year. They specifically cited DEI emails and outreach, Meeting for Worship (especially remote learners), weekend activities (especially boarders and students of color), assemblies, inclusive online classes, a time-zone-friendly schedule, clubs and organizations, collections and gatherings, a variety of holiday celebrations, attention to pronoun usage, responsiveness to BLM and black@gs, dorm bonding, and teachers. That is not to say that there were not plenty of suggestions for improvement, including greater diversity in the curriculum and more all-school online gatherings (the two most cited). To make the latter possible, the school now has a Zoom account that can connect 1,000 people at a time. Still, overwhelmingly, survey respondents articulated an appreciation for how George School has kept the community as united as possible during the pandemic.
