Roosevelt remained committed to its tenets of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with its annual DEI Day at RU. Hosted by the University’s DEI Advisory Council, the day was focused on expanding educational accessibility by inviting outside speakers and highlighting the successes of Roosevelt’s many DEI initiatives and student organizations.
Hosted in the Auditorium Building’s Sullivan Room, the Matthew Freeman lecture welcomed Mia Henry, the CEO of Freedom Lifted. Her organization offers training and facilitation for groups seeking to grow as leaders committed to advancing justice, and Henry’s other prior experiences include the Chicago Freedom School and Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College. Henry’s lecture focused on power and how it can create and divide marginalized groups, and how discovering connective priorities through communication is key to making material and cultural resources available for all.
“I believe we are working towards an ongoing, intentional and concentrated effort to ensure that everyone in our community regardless of identity has the needed resources to be recognized as inherently valuable and able to contribute to our society,” said Henry. “We need to think beyond limitations of DEI itself and work towards a word where this language is not even necessary due to the shared access to resources."
The DEI day also included a DEI Open House that spotlighted the work of DEI Climate Survey Subcommittee and the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice and Transformation. A panel moderated by Director of Social Justice Studies Jeannine Love also discussed how students and staff are working to increase representation among Roosevelt’s Black, queer and first-generation communities.