BELONGING AT MANHATTAN

Diversity Council Champions DEI on All Fronts

By Cecilia Donohoe

IN KEEPING WITH MANHATTAN’S COMMITMENT TO ITS LASALLIAN CORE

PRINCIPLES, the College’s faculty, staff, administrators and students are joining in concerted efforts to amplify and support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on campus. A Diversity Council established in 2020 has taken significant steps to continue building a climate and culture in which all members of the Manhattan community feel a sense of belonging.

N N N BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS

Recent initiatives are a continuation of work that has been ongoing for many years, says Emmanuel Ago, Ed.D., assistant vice president for student life, noting that a diversity committee devoted to creating opportunities for faculty and staff to explore different aspects of diversity and identity was launched two decades ago. The committee organized lectures, performances and guest speakers in honor of Black History, Hispanic Heritage, Women’s History and Irish Heritage Months “to provide a sense of representation on campus,” Ago notes.

Another committee focused on student retention also had an impact, highlighting areas of student need and researching ways to address them. “One of the core pieces that we continually look at is our data from student success, whether it be retention, career outcomes, or graduation rate,” says Rani Roy, Ph.D., associate provost. “The retention committee, in looking at disaggregated data for retention, realized that there were ways to support our underserved, underrepresented minority students that maybe we weren’t doing.”

“Serendipitously,” Ago adds, “we were starting to think about what the student commons would look like, and redefine what Student Life would look like in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

That train of thought eventually led to the development of the Multicultural Center in the Raymond W. Kelly ’63 Commons, which opened in 2014. Hayden Greene, who joined the College in 2016 as director of multicultural affairs, collaborates with student life directors to run emerging student leadership training and retreats, along with diversity and wellness events that complement the College’s clubs and programs. He also coordinates the center’s programming, which includes opportunities for students, faculty and staff to share their experiences, projects and stories through 15-minute Tiny Talks (modeled on TED Talks) and the annual Story to Tell! event. (During the COVID-19 pandemic, many offerings continued to be available virtually.) N N N DIVERSITY COUNCIL

In September 2018, the office of Diversity and Equity was established with a mandate to combat discrimination and champion inclusion and belonging at the College. Sheetal Kale, J.D., who has a background in civil rights law, joined Manhattan as director of equity, diversity and chief Title IX coordinator. In addition to dealing with sexual misconduct complaints, Kale’s job was envisioned to handle complaints of discrimination and to foster diversity and equity throughout the College.

“Justice and equity, along with other protected classes, specifically race, has always been a huge part of my career, if not a driving force behind it,” she says.

When a pair of surveys conducted in spring 2019 highlighted areas of dissatisfaction on the part of students and faculty members of color, Kale and Roy helped organize a series of focus groups to learn more and discover how best to respond. The focus groups revealed more specific concerns.

“What we ended up finding out was that there were many similar themes running through the communities of color on campus,” Roy says. “That was a feeling of a lack of a sense of belonging, feelings that there were not people of color at every level of the institution and in decision-making positions. And for students, really seeing role models in our faculty who are in those positions.”

To address these issues, a Diversity Council — comprised of a steering committee and advisory committee with representation from students, faculty and administrators — was formed in the spring of 2020. Its mission took on new clarity and urgency in light of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disproportionate effects on people of color, and the nationwide conversation around race that was sparked after the murder of George Floyd in May of that year.

The Diversity Council was officially introduced to the College community in a June 2020 email to all students and employees by Diversity Council leaders and President Brennan O’Donnell, Ph.D.

“Black Lives Matter,” their announcement stated. “It is important to begin there.”

Calling for “hard work, deep reflection, and involvement” from the College community, the message continued, “We must gain insight from people of color, particularly members of African American and Black communities, who are the most frequent targets of discrimination and racism in our society, but not expect them to shoulder this burden on their own.”

The council’s goals centered on the recruitment and retention of students and employees of color; meaningful change to the campus climate; inclusion of race and ethnicity as a collegewide core competency; and fostering community engagement and partnerships. A series of concrete action steps provided a roadmap for implementing each goal.

During the year and a half since the Diversity Council’s founding, the Manhattan community has continued pursuing the work, reflection and involvement necessary to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive campus environment.

One of the first actions taken by the council was to convene a number of virtual panel discussions, starting with Repairing the Breach: Summit on Race at Manhattan College, which gave faculty and staff of color the opportunity to explore both the need for and the process for achieving systemic change.

“Most of us are familiar with what [How to be an Antiracist author Ibram X.] Kendi calls the ‘segregationist model,’ characterized by racial hostility and racial violence and animus towards Black and Brown people,” said Jawanza Clark, Ph.D., associate professor of religious studies. Extremists like the Klu Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi skinheads, and white supremacist groups typify this model.

“The problem is that we don’t also recognize another mode of racism that’s much more benevolent, more accommodating, and often wellintentioned,” he continued. “That’s the assimilationist mode of being racist … which says Black and Brown people are not biologically inferior, but they are culturally inferior … Western liberal education is often rooted in the assimilationist educational model.”

Subsequent events included A Conversation on Race and Class, presented by Cory Blad, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Liberal Arts, and Gregory Cowart, project manager, physical plant administration. At a panel discussion entitled Go Back to Your Country: Reflections on Racism Against Asian Americans, speakers shared painful experiences of racism they had experienced firsthand.

“The reason why we invited personal stories … is that people don’t often think that Asians and Asian Americans are the targets of racism,” said Roy, who moderated. Pointing out the panel’s “provocative title,” she explained, “This is a comment a lot of us have heard as Asians and Asian Americans — and we want to call out some of the racism that individuals are faced with, and have been faced with for a long time.”

Opportunities for dialogue around DEI appeared in other forms, as well. A professional development workshop for senior administrators provided training on how to be a better ally toward colleagues of color.

“People stated that those conversations had an impact because they were able to break out in small groups and discuss amongst themselves different experiences they’d had with racism throughout their lives and on campus,” Kale says. “I think people really were happy about the fact that we were discussing race openly and not shying away from controversial topics.”

“Ongoing messaging is important in order to reinforce that these things are truly part of our value system here,” Ago agrees. “For example, providing a historical perspective as to why Juneteenth [now an official College holiday] is important to recognize really sets the tone and defines the culture of our DEI ecosystem.”

N N N CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY

In late 2020, the College community was asked to participate in a Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey. In the interest of transparency, survey results were presented at a DEI and Mission Campus Climate Town Hall the following October.

Brother Jack Curran, FSC, Ph.D., vice president for mission, opened the presentation by placing the survey and its results in the context of the recently published Declaration on the Lasallian Educational Mission.

“One of the belief statements is, ‘We believe that another world is possible than the world in which we live, and that education is a fundamental force for building it,’” he said. “That’s what our educational process is all about.”

Roy and public health major Alixandria James ’23 then shared an analysis of the data that was collected. Although 71% of respondents reported being satisfied with the College, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals and commuter students reported a higher incidence of inequity and exclusion. Other groups, including people with disabilities and women, also reported lower levels of satisfaction. Specific issues that were highlighted included campus imagery that does not reflect individuals’ lived experiences, microaggressions, and a lack of space dedicated to commuter students.

“We found that commuters, who are largely students of color, have a harder time finding consistent places to stay on campus,” James says.

Survey responses also illuminated areas where the College is successfully connecting with underrepresented groups. Community engaged learning courses, for example, positively affected respondents’ experiences. “So, while there are things we have to improve,” James says, “it is also important to acknowledge the things that we’re doing very well and use those same tactics to fix the issues.”

N N N THE ROAD AHEAD

Informed by insights gleaned from the survey, the Diversity Council is focusing on several areas of concern. A new task force will envision ways to better support the LGBTQ+ community, and a Bias Education and Response Team will create an avenue for reporting instances of microaggressions and bias. These can then be addressed from an educational stance, rather than a punitive one.

“What I often hear on the Title IX side and on the discrimination side is, ‘I don’t want this person to be necessarily expelled or fired, I just want them to know,’” says Kale, who recently left the College. “And I think it’s a really hard job as an educational institution to change the culture and to educate people around what they’re saying and why it’s hurtful. This is a first step hopefully in addressing a large part of the problem, which is that people who are marginalized here feel heard.”

Another aim is to apply to the U.S. Department of Education for designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). This would make the College eligible for grant funding that supports Hispanic students through graduation.

“We have begun conversations around becoming an HSI, and we think that it is important to take this step intentionally — thinking about how we support Hispanic student success and students of color holistically,” Roy says.

DEI efforts at Manhattan are an ever-evolving but ultimately rewarding undertaking, Kale notes. “I think that the work is never finished, but it’s something we’re constantly trying to better,” she says. “It’s important to be open around our issues to really address them.”

One thing is certain: The College’s Lasallian identity is intertwined with — and reflective of — diversity, equity and inclusion.

“Manhattan College is a place where our commitment to firstgeneration students and our commitment to underrepresented students of color were there way before establishing these offices, departments and institutional policies and practices,” Ago says. “It’s part of our Lasallian values. We’re just moving true to the promise we made in 1853, and now we’re delivering on that, big time.”