Our Guiding Purpose: We are guided by the academic success of all students. Ultimately, the measures of our success are improvements in students’ persistence, achievement, and graduation rates—particularly students who are the first in their families to go to college and those from groups historically under‐served in higher education.
Do you acknowledge stolen labor?
If you've attended an event or workshop hosted by the Washington Center, you may have heard me read our land and labor acknowledgements. We developed these in 2020 as we started to do more online activities. We use them to mark the beginning of a gathering by signaling our values through acknowledging our shared history.
Today, on the tails of the first two of a four part webinar series, Operationalizing DEI - A Deep Dive, I am reflecting on this practice. These conversations have been deep, honest, meaningful, and (for me) healing. Learning from our panelists has added depth and meaning to our practice of labor acknowledgements, so I thought I'd share ours with you.
I'd love to know if and how you acknowledge labor in your practice. Send us a note at washcenter@evergreen.edu. I hope you will join us for the final two webinars in this series or the Collaborative workshop in December at which we will hear from colleagues at Reed College about their experience participating in a campus-based action planning institute last summer.
The Washington Center Collaborative is a space for higher education faculty, scholars, practitioners, and administrators to come together and discuss emergent issues of importance to our collective work educating and supporting students. The Collaborative consists of free virtual workshops, a newsletter, and a slack space.
This summer, our team at Reed had the good fortune of experiencing our own in-person Institute on our beautiful campus. While we were originally disappointed to miss out on the camaraderie of being in community with other like-minded change agents in higher education (and of course the super comfortable dorm beds), this version of the Institute was deeply transformative. As our facilitator, Dr. JuliA Metzker, gracefully held our team through a deep and full process of participatory decision-making to create our two year plan, we experienced deep learning while we worked. During this session, we will share highlights that are transferable to other institutions of higher education, including the gradients of agreement as an elegant and equitable alternative to Robert’s Rules when making decisions as a group.
Join us for the last half of our Four-part Webinar Series
Higher education professionals across the country are working to improve student outcomes through diversity, equity, and inclusion interventions, but there are often complex challenges to meaningful progress. The Washington Center is pleased to partner with Crucial Shift Consulting to bring you a series of virtual panel discussions with recognized leaders to delve into the practical implications of managing DEI change in the classroom and across the institution.
This year’s theme is “You Don’t Need to Re-Invent the Wheel...Paying it Forward: The Value of Collaboration When Starting or Growing Your LC Program.” The deadline for submissions is Feb. 10, 2024. For further details and the proposal form, please go to http://www.consortillc.org/symposium.
