As indicated in the Student Affairs Strategic Plan and Western Michigan University’s Diversity and Multiculturalism Action Plan (DMAP), we are committed to the values of diversity, equity and inclusion. These values are central to achievement, success and a welcoming campus. In order to build intercultural capacity, staff within Student Affairs are expected to actively demonstrate and commit to training and professional development focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Student Affairs Common Read Library
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
This fall, the Division of Student Affairs will be participating in their second Common Read, White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo, presented by the Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Contact Mike Smith to get a copy of the book today.
White Fragility is a vital, necessary and beautiful book, a bracing call to white folk everywhere to see their whiteness for what it is and to seize the opportunity to make things better now. DiAngelo joins the front ranks of white anti-racist thinkers with a stirring call to conscience, and most important, consciousness, in her white brothers. White fragility is a truly generative idea… an idea whose time has come. – Michael Eric Dyson
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
This book is available to any Student Affairs staff member to check out of the Student Affairs Diversity Library. Contact Mike Smith for more information. Sponsored by the Student Affairs Committee for Diversity and Inclusion.
"One of the most frank and searing discussions on race ... a deeply serious, urgent book, which should take its place in the tradition of Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and King's Why We Can't Wait." ―The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice
For further reading
Dr. Dyson's reading list from "Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America", pages 199-203
Self-Reflection
Per the Human Resources Performance Management Program, each employee will work with their supervisor to determine a performance objective around diversity, equity and inclusion that specifies participation in a minimum of two professional development activities and a corresponding self-reflection.
Possible activities include:
- Diversity training
- Workshop participation
- Attendance at programs focused on intercultural competence
- Multicultural networking opportunities
- Community engagement to enhance intercultural knowledge and skills
- Programs offered by the Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee
- Other related activities
Self-reflection will be in response to the following: As a result of your participation, how do you feel you have grown in your knowledge, skills, or awareness related to diversity, equity and/or inclusion?