Caring and Inclusive Culture

“It is also the time to move beyond celebrating diversity as our sole goal. The quality of a public institution of higher learning will also be measured by how well we forge and sustain a truly pluralistic community on campus.”

—President Deborah F. Stanley, 1996 Better Than We Dared Believe

Walking in the annual ALANA Peace Walk. Cheering for Laker ice hockey teams during Whiteout Weekend. Dancing to Pharrell’s “Happy” in the worldwide #HappyDay Challenge. Chatting with the student groups who are tabling in the Marano Campus Center. Participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Watching a Del Sarte student dance recital or an Artswego performance. Catching up with alumni and friends at the annual “Come As You Were” BBQ at Fallbrook during Reunion Weekend. Donating to The Fund for Oswego during a 24-hour giving challenge. Coming together to share, mourn and comfort one another in times of civil unrest in the nation and after such disasters as the 9/11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, and other violence and natural disasters. Establishing and following new protocols to protect the health of every community member. Gathering for the Totally Teal Ovarian Cancer Awareness, It’s On Oz sexual and interpersonal violence prevention, Go Red for Women heart health awareness or annual Green and Gold Day campus photos. The list goes on, but these are some of the day-to-day activities that build a caring, inclusive community. In her 1996 remarks to faculty and staff, President Stanley said: “Our working network is also a living community of real people. Certainly, we leave our imprint as educators but also as human beings … We must lead our students by example. We know that the more productively engaged and affiliated the students are, the more dedicated they are to succeed at college. We also know that the more social interactions students have with faculty, the more motivated they are to learn.” One of President Stanley’s greatest accomplishments at SUNY Oswego was creating a culture of caring and inclusion that values diversity and differences and fosters communication and understanding among all Lakers.

“It is in our interest to be inclusive because we are so intertwined in everything we do,” she said in 1996. “Difference in our participants can serve to make us less brittle, more creative and more resilient as a whole.”

1998 Return to Oz, reunion for alumni of color, established

2005 Oswego Family Portrait taken

1995

2001 Last official “Dirt Day” celebration, which would become today’s campus-based, college-sanctioned OzFest 2001

2007 Men’s Ice Hockey wins NCAA Division III National Championship

2005 9/11 Memorial Garden dedicated

Today, the college has never been more diverse in student demographics, academic programs and extracurricular offerings. President Stanley eliminated walls between disciplines, and encouraged multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary courses and research. She incentivized research that involves faculty and students—and even industry partners—working together. She made sure that all stakeholders, most notably students, have a seat at the table to discuss goals, priorities and actions. Through shared governance, faculty, students, professional staff and administration work together in good faith to advance the college’s mission every day. A diverse group of employees, students and oftentimes alumni serve side-by-side on college committees, working groups and task forces to ensure that issues are addressed from a variety of perspectives. “An organization is the interplay of people, not the hierarchy of people,” President Stanley said. Particularly important to her was the inclusion of minority voices or those on the fringe of an issue. In fact, one of the key traits of any member of her leadership team was the ability to disagree with her or the prevailing thinking and defend their positions, even knowing that the decision could likely go the other way. President Stanley has continued, yearafter-year, to guide the college to its most culturally diverse student body in SUNY Oswego’s history. At the start of the fall 2020 semester, 31% of the total undergraduate and graduate population, including a record-setting 38% of the first-year class self-identified as culturally diverse. (See related information on pages 32-33.) During her tenure, the college hired our first-ever chief diversity and inclusion officer, and created the first-ever Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Plan. Launched in fall 2021, the Institute for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Transformative Practice will serve as the nexus of activity related to SUNY Oswego’s efforts to stand together to root out racism and enact positive change for our community. “I’m enormously proud of the diversity that we’ve instilled and honor at this institution,” President Stanley said. “I think we do it the right way and I’m very proud of that.” People on this campus go the extra mile to support each other and campus priorities. Whether it is organizing the longest conga line on ice or staffing eight separate commencement ceremonies to ensure our graduates can safely celebrate their graduation, President Stanley empowered people from across campus to work beyond their job descriptions or usual role to achieve more.

It is a culture that is tangible to those on campus. It has become known as The Oswego Way. Its roots trace back to President Stanley.

2008 Hart Global Living and Learning Center hosts its first Global Awareness Conference 2016 Earns Top 20 ranking in Open Doors study-abroad

2011 ALANA Peace Walk first held 2015

2017 Laker community breaks Guinness World Record for Longest Conga Line on Ice on live national broadcast of NBC’s Today show during Rokerthon 3 “Leaders who are genuinely dedicated to [changing a culture] understand they cannot limit their choices and actions to reflect just their own culture.

We must bring those most affected by these decisions to the table. And when they’re there, we must listen to them.

President Stanley is that kind of leader. SUNY Oswego is forever changed because [she] sat at its helm.”

— Christopher Collins-McNeil ’16, founder and principal consultant at Collins-McNeil Group LLC and former Oswego Student

Association president

2021 Institute for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Transformative Practice established

2021

2018 First Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer appointed