ODI Updates

We are excited to invite you to join in “Freedom Dreaming” at this year’s Racial Equity Summit, on April 13, from 8:00 am – 1:00 pm. Here is a snapshot of the journey we look forward to taking together.

The Office of Diversity & Inclusion is thrilled to announce that Dr. Imani Perry will serve as the Keynote Speaker for the 2023 Racial Equity Summit! 

We are proud to share two recent thought leadership highlights from SU’s Wismer Professor Dean Spade! 

Check out the four Seattle University faculty books included in the second installment of Good Reads.

In conjunction with the implementation of the Campus Climate Protocol, the ODI and OIE are partnering to support our campus community in fostering intentional re-engagement for a thriving campus community, including Educating for Justice and Professional Development, and Constructive Dialogue Series. 

Want to learn more about the Campus Climate Incident Reporting and Response Protocol? Watch the recording of the September 29, 2022 Open Forum here. 

Under Reigniting Our Strategic Directions Goal 4, the University is implementing a Campus Climate Incident Reporting and Response Protocol (“Campus Climate Protocol”). The adoption of the protocol is a key aspect of our work under LIFT SU Goal 2 to develop and implement a plan of a centralized and coordinated approach to campus climate (also known as bias-related) incidents.

Join us at one of two open forums to learn more about the Campus Climate Protocol. 

Dear Campus Community,

June marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that banned sex discrimination in education. Though the effects of Title IX have been far-reaching, one of the more visible areas of impact has been in the realm of sports. USA Today reports, Girls' participation in high school sports rose from 7% to 43% since the passage of Title IX in 1972. Still, opportunities for girls and women in sports at both the high school and collegiate levels remain highly unequal. Female coaches, for example, are underrepresented in female sports, and issues of pay inequities between female and male coaches persist.  

Dear Campus Community,

On Juneteenth, we remember the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans in 1865.  Ending 250 years of slavery in North America was a crucial first step in the unfinished journey towards freedom and equality for Black Americans, one that continues to the present day.  We celebrate the important milestone represented by Juneteenth as a reminder of how far we have come even as we acknowledge the continued impact of a century of Jim Crow, ongoing discrimination, and embedded structures of racism. 

We extend an invitation in honor of the memory of George Floyd whose murder two years ago today catapulted a national awakening to the legacy of racial injustice. In the spirit of truth and reconciliation, we invite you to --Remember... Resist... Recommit. 

On behalf of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Office of the Provost, we invite you to participate in listening sessions with our search consultants from Koya Partners. Our search consultants look forward to hearing your thoughts about this important search. 

I am an immigrant from India who arrived in the United States as a graduate student in 1986. Initially, I identified as an international student/scholar and only years later saw myself as a South Asian American. This was in part due to the nature of my visa status which left me in an in-between space—a sojourner rather than a citizen. For many people who trace their origins to South Asia and who have lived in the United States for many years and may even be citizens, the identification with Asian American/South Asian American is complex and often awkward. 

As I reflect on the meaning of an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I find myself thinking of my own history as an Asian in America and how often I have felt invisible and ignored. Far too often the struggles of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities are ignored in American history books and when race is discussed it is often painted with only two colors. AAPI Heritage Month celebrates over forty countries and more recently has been known as APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American) Heritage Month to help represent this diverse grouping.

I am pleased to share that Professor Brooke Coleman will serve as Special Assistant to the Vice President for Diversity & Inclusion, agreeing to lend her leadership to advancing these aims. In this role, Professor Coleman will co-lead the work of promoting inclusive excellence under the Reigniting Our Strategic Directions effort, working closely with me and the ODI Provost Fellows.

Dear Seattle University Community,

In recognition of International Women’s Day, we honor the numerous expressions of women’s leadership on our campus and acknowledge the ongoing challenges to full empowerment for women and girls worldwide. We salute the undeniable legacy of women in history whose contributions have laid the foundation for a more just and equitable society. And we celebrate the uncommon impact of women at Seattle University, including our students, staff, faculty, administrators, and alumnae. We are a stronger institution because of your leadership.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion wishes you a season filled with love, light, and the promise of a new beginning in 2022. 

Today, Seattle University marks the significance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a day to honor and celebrate Indigenous peoples and to acknowledge the toil of colonization as reflected by the land we occupy as a university. We recognize that Seattle University is located on the ancestral homelands of the Duwamish people. We pay respect to Coast Salish Elders past and present and extend that respect to their descendants and to all Indigenous people. 

I am writing to share with you an upcoming transition in the Office of Institutional Equity, as Andrea Katahira has decided to leave Seattle University to pursue other opportunities...

As we prepare for a full search and recruitment process, I am pleased to announce that Dr. Jill Moffitt will join Seattle University as Interim Assistant Vice President for Institutional Equity, Title IX Coordinator, and ADA/504 Coordinator, effective August 16, 2021.

I am pleased to announce that Fr. Steven Sundborg, S.J. appointed Dean Spade as the 2021-2023 recipient of the Patricia Wismer Professorship for Gender and Diversity Studies. Professor Spade’s research resides at the intersection of Gender Studies, Law, Critical Race Studies, and Disability Studies, and includes numerous articles, book chapters, editorial projects, as well as two books – Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law, a foundational text for Trans Studies, and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next) (October 2020), which has already sold over 15,000 copies and is soon to be published in Spanish, German, Italian, Thai, and Czech.

June 19, 1865 – “Juneteenth” - marks the day that enslaved African Americans in Texas were informed by Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas that the Civil War was over and that they were free people. This announcement was shared nearly 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. The following year, the first celebration of freedom took place in Texas organized by those formerly enslaved. I shared more about this history in my note to campus a year ago. 

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. To acknowledge his life and pray for continued healing, peace and progress toward justice, we will gather for a Vigil of Remembrance and Reconciliation. 

Thank you for your support of the University’s first Racial Equity Summit – Activating for Change: Affirmation, Allyship for Solidarity, and Action. I appreciate those who were able to join in community and co-create space for reflection, analysis, and renewal as we position to further the aims of LIFT SU and our inclusive excellence work more broadly – all efforts anchored in and animated by our Jesuit mission and values. 

Come join the SU community for the University’s first Racial Equity Summit and co-create a space for learning and growing together. In the spirit of our Jesuit values, the summit will include a combination of analysis, reflection, engagement with art and music, and other special additions and new rituals. 

All are invited to the Racial Equity Summit, a LIFT SU initiative. We will gather as a learning community to reflect on and deepen understanding of systemic racism and this consequential year, and to catalyze around commitments to racial equity and antiracist education. The summit offers a platform to affirm voices and experiences, renew solidarity, and build collaborative capacity towards becoming a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive university.

I hope that you are experiencing a productive and restorative start to the spring quarter. I’m pleased to announce the Racial Equity Summit – a LIFT SU initiative – an opportunity to gather as a learning community to deepen understanding and build collaborative capacity towards becoming a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive university. 

I write to express my deep gratitude for each of you. Thank you for your courage to stay the course during these uncommon times, and the care you have shown to our students and to one another. I acknowledge the hardships we are living under, and I believe that our hope lies in our interdependence. 

As we recommit ourselves to educating the whole person at the start of the academic year in this watershed moment, I extend my deepest gratitude for your efforts and courage. As a follow-up to the President’s Welcome and Provost Convocation, I write to share my hope and determination that as Seattle University we will move forward with greater intentionality and collaboration to make racial equity and anti-racist education more than a stated value of our Jesuit Catholic character, but transformative and sustainable institutional practice.

Today, Seattle University marks the significance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a day to honor and celebrate Indigenous peoples and to acknowledge the toil of colonization as reflected by the land we occupy as a university. We recognize that we reside on occupied Coast Salish lands and Seattle University is on the homelands of the Duwamish people. We pay respect to Coast Salish Elders past and present and extend that respect to their descendants and to all Indigenous people. 

As we remain at a physical distance in the midst of this unprecedented time, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the engagement this year in our collective work around inclusive excellence. Thank you to all who have shown your care of and patience with me during this time like none other I have known. Deep appreciation for the many ways that you have shown up to co-create spaces to grow together and pivoted with grace. 

619.   January 1, 1863.   June 19, 1865.  

During this profound moment in our history as a nation and a university, it is important that we take note of the significance of these dates. Each represents important markers in our country’s racist history as it relates to the enslavement and systematic oppression of Black people. And, the enduring and material effects of slavery’s legacy that continue to plague our society are deeply ingrained. For weeks we have been reminded, yet again, just how much so.  Read More

Given this uncertain time and the circumstances that we are working hard to address, I write to extend my hand and heart to you virtually as we engage in uncommon care in uncommon times. We are all focused on delivering the most effective, high-quality, online learning environments for our students and supporting them, and one another, as we try our best to acclimate to this rapidly evolving global health pandemic.

As we close Black History Month and enter Women’s History Month, thank you for the numerous efforts across campus to advance understanding. I invite your continued engagement to learn and grow together, and to reflect on the contributions of so many whose resilience in the pursuit of justice remains a beckon of hope. 

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion invites faculty and staff to join in the first Educating for Justice session of 2020. Building on our visit last quarter with Ijeoma Oluo, author of this year’s common text, this session will focus on what it means to engage in racial justice work as allies on the journey to growth. 

As we move to wrap up the business of fall quarter, I write to wish you peace this holiday season and to express my deep gratitude for your engagement and partnership in our collective work to make SU inclusively excellent for all.