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Everyone Counts

Faculty & Professional Learning Communities on Diversity & Inclusion

Application Instructions

How do you engage with students of diverse backgrounds without offending them?

How can you recruit and retain additional staff and faculty of color?

How do we help all students become culturally competent in order to succeed in life and career upon graduation?

Affirming diversity takes work, knowledge, and skills. Western Michigan University is committed to doing what it takes to become a truly diverse and inclusive university where all students, faculty, and staff of all backgrounds, nationalities, and identities feel welcomed, included, and have equal access to the resources they need.

The Office of Faculty Development and the Office of Diversity & Inclusion have joined forces to offer Everyone Counts. This program began in February 2010 as a way of engaging faculty, graduate student instructors, and staff on diversity through the Southwest Michigan RACE Exhibit Initiative. As such, the inaugural program focused on race and ethnicity and empowered participants to explore this topic in a supportive community. These learning communities serve to equip faculty, graduate student instructors, and staff with the skills needed to implement course objectives and campus programming centered on diversity.

Each year participants will focus on a topic area of diversity. In this year-long experience, participants will engage in regular meetings within a diverse group of 8-12 people who discuss literature on their diversity topic area, share best practices, listen to guest speakers, attend workshops and conferences, and dialogue around challenges and opportunities. The learning communities are designed for both personal and institutional transformation. Participants will be able to:

Acquire tools to facilitate dialog between and within diverse groups
Learn and practice ways of responding to intercultural conflict
Work and lead more effectively to create a campus climate which is affirming and validating of diverse experiences and perspectives

Each participant will select an individual “focus course” or program to work on, or a group may work together on a collective program. Participants will be supported in the development of learning outcomes by their facilitators and their community. Participants are also encouraged to engage in action research in their courses or programs, and present project results at local, regional and national conferences.

Participant Expectations

Each participant will be expected to:

Be an integral and active participant in your learning community
Attend bi-weekly meetings
Attend larger group meetings
Consider new ways of thinking about what you do, who you are, your beliefs about others and your vision of diversity and race
Develop an “outcome”—a project or course that integrates your
experience into your work on campus

Program Feedback

Past participants found the Everyone Counts program to be both engaging and beneficial. They offered the following feedback:

“The learning communities gave me a chance to voice my questions and thoughts on diversity which I think, in turn, has helped me get over any shyness of being a voice for diversity in a larger context.”

“[The learning communities] changed the way I look at the culture at WMU, and has encouraged me to try to find ways to facilitate discussions about those things that make us unique, as well as those things we have in common.”

“I shared with our community members and facilitators that our bi-weekly gatherings were, at times, the most meaningful, difficult, and rewarding blocks of time I would have in a two week span while at work.”

“Everyone Counts has been an extraordinary journey for me and I will always be grateful that I was a part of this very important work on our campus.”

Participant Projects

Participants in the inaugural Everyone Counts program not only engaged in personal and professional development, but they also created projects where they could apply new skills and ideas. Below are just a few of the projects started by the participants.

A Mental Health Perspective of the Race Exhibit

Building an Understanding of the Effects of Power and Privilege on Human Development

Race and the Society for Historical Archaeology: Steps Toward Claiming an Anti-Racist Institutional Identity

Fireflies: a performance addressing racism, sexism, and other forms of dehumanization

Feast of Nations Dinner

Everyone Counts! Campus Project: Online Learning Modules

Welcome to Western Michigan University

WMU Bronco Night at the Museum

Enhancing Diversity in FYE 2100 and Beyond

Partnering with Organizations within the Community to Build Awareness and Understanding

WMU Campus Climate Survey Committee: Accomplishments and Goals

The Diversity Book Club

Everyone Counts 2012 - 2013

The 2012-2013 Everyone Counts Learning Community experience will begin in September 2012. Participants in the 2012-2013 learning community will focus on race as a topic area. In addition to regular sessions with your learning community, this learning community experience will also be supported by larger sessions where participants will have the opportunity to engage with invited speakers who offer different perspectives on race. Through this approach participants will have the opportunity to learn about and freely select a model that works best for them. To ensure a meaningful experience, participants are required to attend the following sessions throughout the year:

Friday, September 21, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: Faculty & Professional Learning Community Kick-off
Saturday, September 22, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm: Everyone Counts Learning Community Retreat
Friday, November 30, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm: Large Group Lunch and Seminar
Friday, January 25, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm: Large Group Lunch and Seminar
Friday, March 29, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm: Large Group Lunch and Seminar

All staff and faculty (part-time and full-time) as well as graduate teaching assistants are encouraged to apply. If you are interested in participating in EVERYONE COUNTS, please fill out the application packet, consisting of:

on-line application
Letter of interest (including name, position tile, department or unit, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address)
Resume or curriculum vitae
Letter of support from chair or supervisor

The May 15 deadline has been extended. Application packets are now due by Tuesday, June 15 to the Office of Diversity & Inclusion at Mail Stop 5372.

For additional information feel free to contact the Program Directors:

Andrea Beach (269) 387-0731, Diana Hernandez (269) 387-4429, or Tierra L. Marshall (269) 387-6324

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