In modern America, "diversity" is all the rage. And education is both leading and keeping up with the trend. As par for the contemporary course, a large public college association will soon host some fad-tastic spectaculars.
On its website, State University of New York's (SUNY) Geneseo campus -- one among 64 of the system's locations -- advertises as follows:
Diversity Summit 2024
Taking Action: Advancing Equity at Geneseo
The SUNY Geneseo Diversity Summit will take place on February 27, 2024. It is a full day of diversity-focused sessions hosted by members of the College community. There are no classes that day, and the Summit is free to attend.
On offer: "presentations, discussions, art activities, performances, and more." For a better idea of what awaits, here's an array of assemblies from 2023's series:
- How Do We Stop Devaluing Race at Geneseo?
- Transforming Classroom Learning Into Contributions to Library Guides for Black Studies Courses
- The Black Student Experience at Geneseo: Cultivating a New Climate
- Diversifying Role Models in STEM to Empower All Learners
- Will My Counselor “Get” Me?: Strengths and Challenges of Shared Identities in Mental Health Treatment
- Student-to-Student Microaggressions: Implementing Change and Intervention (This session for STUDENTS ONLY PLEASE.)
- The Hair Monologues ("Hair is personal, political, and particularly salient to people of various marginalized identities.")
RELATED: Dreadlocked Professor Says White People Aren't Allowed to Have His Hairdo
The school's previous outing managed to hit a hot woke high note -- that of wrongly pluralizing words:
- Equity in Sustainability: How Might We Reduce Single-Use Plastics? ("Geneseo's Design Challenge Team welcomes you to participate in...reducing the presence of single-use plastics and their impacts on marginalized communities.")
SUNY Brockport will also shortly celebrate diversity. Amid online information for the upcoming conference, bravery gets a "bravo":
The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is thrilled to announce the 22nd Annual Diversity Conference, themed “Creating Brave Spaces,” scheduled for March 27, 2024.
Diversity of thought even enjoys a plug:
Creating Brave Spaces is designed to promote engagement and provide a platform for respectful yet challenging dialogue. Brave spaces are where diversity of thought and opinion can coexist simultaneously within our community.
In a brave effort toward thought diversity, the conference's central guest has been carefully picked:
Mrs. Kasha Davis
Mrs. Kasha Davis is a central figure in the Rochester, NY, drag scene with her husband Steve and Drag Sisters and their successful “Drag Me To Brunch” shows. MKD performs constantly with her one-woman show and as a featured performer across the country. MKD shares her coming out story, sobriety journey & jazzy performance history sprinkled with her highly favored songs and “dad jokes in a dress.” The stories are relatable, and performances intertwine forgiveness, determination, motivation, and self-acceptance for audiences of all ages.
In the name of thought-based variety, might a Southern Baptist minister also be issuing an address? There's no obvious indication of it. In the past, such an apparent situation was called "singularity." These days, it's known as "diversity."
Heralded assortment isn't simply scholastic; we're now the United States of DEI:
'DEI' in Science Publications Has Surged by More Than 4,000 Percent
In Order to Be 'Inclusive,' Virginia County Won't 'Celebrate' America's 250th Anniversary
Democrats Swat Down a Measure to Ban Critical Race Theory in the Military
Army Secretary Champions What's 'Important': Making 'Marginalized Communities' 'Feel Included'
US Army Mandates Training to Help Soldiers Shake off Their Sex 'Assigned at Birth'
First-World Problem: Scholars Insist We Need More Gay People Studying Fish
Geneseo.edu highlights three of the upcoming Diversity Summit sessions -- a DEI conversation, an "inclusivity" Community Art Project, and the following:
Tools to Transform Racialized Institutions of Higher Education
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Estela Bensimon
There is a lot of talk about institutional change and transformation, purportedly to improve educational outcomes for racially minoritized students. However, the “change strategies” that are proposed to achieve transformation are, mostly, race neutral and unlikely to have the power to undo/decenter whiteness in the structures, practices, policies, and cultural norms of colleges and universities.
In this talk, Bensimon puts forth a perspective on transformation that is premised on the idea of academic organizations as racialized entities. ... The status quo/homeostasis is “whiteness,” “privilege,” “hierarchy” and “power asymmetries.” Drawing on the work of the USC Center for Urban Education, which Bensimon founded and directed for over 20 years, she will demonstrate tools to decenter “whiteness” in everyday practices.
And at Brockport, they've got more in store from Mrs. Kasha:
In 2024, MKD became an adjunct professor at SUNY Brockport for a full course on DRAG that will encompass history, theory, and performance.
As noted by Campus Reform, two other SUNY sites -- Oneonta and Cortland -- will hold diversity conferences in March and November, respectively. Three years ago, Cortland welcomed as its Keynote Speaker founder and CEO of RF Equity Consulting Dr. Rachael Forester (she/her/hers):
Rachael currently works as the Associate Director of the Office of Identity, Equity, and Engagement at UNC Charlotte where she also obtained her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership in Higher Education, focusing on racial equity. She is the founder of Activate! Social Justice Institute and White Consciousness Conversations at UNC Charlotte. Prior to UNC Charlotte, Rachael served as the assistant director for multicultural life and diversity at SUNY Cortland where she developed all-gender housing, all-gender restrooms, and the SAFE ZONE program, a program for LGBTQ+ ally development.
Her research includes understanding and deconstructing whiteness in student affairs to promote racial equity. Rachael recently started a free, international white accountability group to assist white people in doing critical self work as change agents for racial equity.
So goes diversity and inclusion -- its interests are nothing if not discerning.
DEI has overtaken the world. Might it someday actually include general inclusion and broad diversity? Perhaps. But that day may not quite come before the end of February. Or March. Or November.
-ALEX
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Wokeness on Tap: College Teaches Antiracist Tap Dancing
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