Spreading the Word

Challenge

Our campus is becoming an increasing diverse community of students, faculty and staff, with unique backgrounds, skills and values. Increasing the breadth of our cultural competency will help to ensure that individuals feel respected and supported as they learn, live and work at Binghamton University.

Actions

The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offers training sessions designed to stimulate conversation and promote professional development among our students, faculty and staff. The DEI workshop, Building Bridges to Cultural Competency is designed to increase awareness of, and appreciation for, cultural differences, while highlighting ways in which we can increase our professionalism in academia by being culturally proficient. Participants explore concepts including stereotyping, invisible privilege, and confronting bigotry.

Additional workshops offered by DEI include, What Kind of Leader are You? A Leadership Forum for students, and Building an Exceptional Team: A Team Builders Workshop for Professionals targeting faculty and staff.

Outcomes

In 2015-16, DEI led 22 cultural-competency workshops engaging 331 faculty and staff, and 838 students. In 2016-17, DEI expanded Building Bridges to Cultural Competency for faculty and staff to include a phase II, which utilizes dialogue to foster deep reflection about personal socialization, explore both privilege and oppression, and help participants develop mechanisms to become change agents. Additionally, DEI has also started working with students so they can train their colleagues on cultural competency.

Contact

Harvey Stenger

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