We strive to foster an environment that welcomes, celebrates, and supports our diverse members and we welcome the challenges and conversations that come with this diversity. By committing to active engagement in the areas of equity, diversity, and inclusion, we benefit from the talent and experiences of all members of our rich community. We acknowledge that Willamette University, like many institutions, has a past that reflects a history of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and bigotry. By recognizing the harm we’ve caused in the past, we hope to heal old wounds and commit to working towards inclusivity and equity. As such, below you can find a number of resources to ensure your student organization becomes as equitable, diverse, and inclusive as possible.
Need to file a bias incident report? Complete a bias incident report
- EDI Video Resources
- Race-The Power of an Illusion: A three hour series that “questions the very idea of race as innate biology, suggesting that a belief in inborn racial difference is no more sound than believing that the sun revolves around the earth. Yet race still matters. Just because race doesn't exist in biology doesn't mean it isn't very real, helping shape life chances and opportunities.”
- TED Talk: Color Blind or Color Brave - Mellody Hobson
- TED Talk: Pedagogy of Privilege - Justin Ford
- TED Talk: We Need to Talk About an Injustice - Bryan Stevenson
- TED Talk: How Students of Color Confront Imposter Syndrome - Dena Simmons
- EDI Focused Books
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Stamped: Racism, Anti Racism, and You by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- The Miner’s Canary by Lani Guinier
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- What My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States by Dave Zirin
- When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
- Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum
- Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
- Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis
- Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
- LinkedIn Trainings
LinkedIn Trainings are free for the Willamette Community!
- Confronting Bias - Thriving Across Our Differences: Find greater meaning, well-being, and productivity by learning how to interact with others across differences. Continue your Thrive journey and discover how to create inclusive environments where everyone can thrive.
- Unconscious Bias: In this course, diversity expert Stacey Gordon helps you recognize and acknowledge your own biases so that you can identify them when making decisions, and prevent yourself from making calls based on a biased viewpoint.
Skills for Inclusive Conversations: Find out how to conduct an exploratory self-assessment to better understand yourself and your team, learn tactics to go from polarization to common ground, and discover practical techniques for discussing difficult topics.
- Tips for Leading with Equity and Inclusivity
- Avoid hierarchical structures within your organization to promote stronger inclusivity. While a club's organization may be hierarchical, this hierarchy should not be applied to individuals, ideas, tasks, responsibilities, or expertise.
- Talk about common goals with your organization frequently. Discussing common goals and listening to the goals of all members of your organization can keep everyone included and heard. Relating to each other through common goals can also keep a group together and tight, avoiding an us vs them mentality between leadership and members.
- Make leadership decisions based on the group's common goals and objectives.on’t lose sight of those common goals and objectives your group has talked about. When planning events or club functions, be sure to ask why you are planning a specific event and who it is serving. If an event or function is not in line with the collective goals and objectives of the whole organization, maybe look into changing it.
- Minimize hierarchical tasks and responsibilities. The brunt of planning events can often fall onto leadership teams, especially for larger scale events. This means there is often significant work associated with club leadership as opposed to regular membership. This however doesn’t make the tasks normally reserved to members at events (food service, tabeling, staffing, etc) any less important. Leaders should still take time to help and contribute to these jobs as they are equally important to an organization's health and event effectiveness.
- Work with people and vendors who share your common goals and support your mission for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Finding organizations who support EDI can be challenging (and sometimes impossible). There should always be some effort to seek out companies/businesses/performers that share Willamettes mission of making a more diverse and inclusive space. This may often cost more and as such ASWU is often willing and happy to fund requests at a higher rate to meet these EDI mission needs.