The Diversity Imperative

An Institution-Wide Organizational Framework to Increase Belonging in Universities and Graduate Schools

Abstract

At Acadia Divinity College, we are taking constructive steps in our classrooms in response to the Calls to Action from the TRC and our increased number of international students. We have partnered with NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community to practice Indigenous Appreciative Inquiry (IAI) as an asset-based approach to decolonization and indigenization. In a separate project, Jodi developed an evidence-based tool that helps departments and institutions identify the degree to which they are or would like to become more multicultural. This tool suggests how to enhance diversity efforts in four areas: education and scholarship, access and success, climate and intergroup relations, and institutional viability and vitality. Both resources, IAI and the multicultural tool, are easy to use for faculty who may be struggling to host conversations that can make a real difference for students from diverse backgrounds. The resources support diversity work in ways that are specific to a school’s unique context, and they aim not only for inclusion but for belonging for all. They do not suggest grandiose responses to increased diversity but rather small steps of iterative improvement over time.