The office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion holds open house
The smell of homemade chicken wings, mac and cheese and other comfort foods flooded the third floor of Warriner Hall on Feb. 17.
The office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion held an open house for students and faculty to see where the office is located and to answer any questions that they might have.
“Being on the third floor of Warriner in 319 and 306, we know that we can kind get lost or there could be a lower awareness for where we are,” Assistant Director of Diversity Education Kevin Wilson said. “We feel like we impact the entire campus so if there are questions, concerns, things that you would like to understand, not knowing where we are could be a major issue.”
Faculty from different departments mingled and ate the home-cooked food in the relaxed atmosphere. Everyone was welcome; even students who just happened to be walking by were offered a plate.
Director for Diversity Education Dr. Nikita Murry said the original intent of the open house was to raise awareness for where the office is located. However, after a week of trauma and grief across the state, the office wanted to have a space for people to have food and have conversations.
“We were connecting it with Black History Month, but even the Black experience in America is so much about being resilient and taking difficult situations and managing the best we can,” Dr. Murry said. “We just felt like this was a good way to cap off the week.”
The office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion focuses a lot on diversity education from an institutional standpoint. According to Dr. Murry, the office ensures that the campus community captures the vision of Central Michigan University and aims to fix the issues when the community is not living up to those standards.
Dr. Murry said the goal is to create a community where everyone can feel welcome no matter who you are or where you came from. Dr. Murry's focus is on big-picture problems that affect the entirety of CMU.
Even though it does not always deal with students directly, the office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion still has an effect on the lives of everyone in the community.
“Even if we’re not directly engaging with students, we’re directly impacting the student experience because we’re making sure the classroom experience is what it needs to be for students and the work environment is what it needs to be for staff.” Dr. Murry said. “We’re institutional, so what we do is not just for students or a group of people but for CMU as an institution.”
In the next couple of months, the office for Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be hosting Conversations that Matter: Is Womanhood a Right? on March 23 and the Eighth Annual Central Michigan University Diversity Symposium on April 26 and 27. Both of these events are located in the Bovee University Center Rotunda.
The office is in the midst of completing its strategic plan for diversity, which will help guide the overall plan for the university. If students find issues that they wish to see fixed on campus, they can go to Warriner 306 or reach out through email at diversity@cmich.edu.
