Center for Diversity and Inclusion. Records, 1989-[ongoing].

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion supports the college’s ongoing emphasis on fostering racial and cultural understanding and equity through campus- and community-wide programming and outreach, and through working with student organizations and individual students. The center’s activities include coordinating multiple annual lecture series and other events throughout the year, from the Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture in September to the My Truth student testimonials and graduation stole ceremony for the college’s several multicultural student organizations (MSOs); organizing workshops for students, faculty and staff; and serving as a liaison with other area organizations like the the I Am Academy, the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance, Latin Americans United for Progress and Out on the Lakeshore. The center also works closely with the college’s MSOs in developing programming and providing a support network.

CDI traces its origin to 1984, when Alfredo Gonzales, who was director of the college’s TRIO Upward Bound program for high school students, was appointed to the newly established position of director of minority affairs. Other directors have followed Gonzales, but he continued to hold overall administrative responsibility for the program until his retirement in 2016, including, successively, as assistant dean, assistant provost, associate provost, and associate provost and dean. The program has grown in scope and broadened its focus across the past four decades, particularly under the leadership of former director and dean Vanessa Green from 2003 to 2020, its name changing first to the Office of Multicultural Life and then Multicultural Education en route to becoming CDI.

The program was originally housed within the Student Development offices in the DeWitt Center, adding a two-room multicultural center in Phelps Hall in 2000 for students. The offices and lounge space moved to the Martha Miller Center for Global Communication when it opened in 2005, and to the newly completed Jim and Martie Bultman Center in 2017. In 2020, the center relocated to its current, and larger, quarters in the college’s landmark Keppel House, which includes programmatic and gathering space, and office space for the staff as well as the MSOs.

The staff today consists of a director, assistant director, program coordinator and office assistant. The student organizations that work directly with CDI include the Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, Hope Advocates for Invisible Conditions, Latino Student Organization, Pan African Student Association, Prism for LGBTQ-identifying individuals, and Women of Color United.