Office of Institutional Diversity

 

Hola! Boozhoo! Karibu!
Bon jour! Ni hao! Salut! Guten tag! Namaste!

Welcome...You are Extraodinarily Welcome

to the Office of Institutional Diversity at the College of St. Scholastica!

                                                        

With an increasingly diverse campus community, we recently expanded and elevated our diversity advocacy program to an Office of Intercultural Services and Diversity.  Our main offices are located on the second floor of Tower.  Also located in Tower, across from the Student Union, is the Intercultural Center.  Our full-time staff are available as resources and advocates for supporting and sustaining inclusion and diversity throughout the entire campus community.

The Office of Institutional Diversity offers students from all walks of life an opportunity to welcome and feel welcomed. Services encompass academic and personal advocacy, leadership opportunities, training, awareness and fun.

College of St. Scholastica Diversity Statement

The College of St. Scholastica is committed to fostering a learning environment that is culturally diverse and pluralistic. Informed by our Benedictine heritage and its values of community, hospitality, respect, stewardship and love of learning, we are compelled to be open to diverse points of view and not avoid dissent, while constantly being mindful of what it is to be an engaged community working for social justice. To do so recognizes human dignity, difference and equality that includes, but is not limited to: race, age, class, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities/qualities, and ethnicity.

In our striving to be an inclusive community, we must engage in intellectual discourse and exchange if we hope to develop an understanding of our commonalities and differences, even if this discourse and exchange result in conflict and change. The challenge that lies before us as a community is to embody in our institutional life what it means to be truly committed to cultural diversity and pluralism.

It is the goal of the College of St. Scholastica as a Catholic Benedictine community to nurture an environment that actively acknowledges and values diversity and is free from racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice, intolerance or harassment. Informed by our Catholic Benedictine heritage and its values of community, hospitality, respect, stewardship and love of learning, we are compelled to be open to diverse points of view and to encourage respectful dissent while engaging in intellectual discourse.

However, respectful intellectual discourse does not include bias-related conduct that assaults the dignity and worth of the individual. Protected freedom of expression ends when bias-related hate, intimidation or hostility begins.  For more information regarding the Bias Incident Policy, please see page 95 of the Student Handbook.

To report a bias incident, complete the on-line reporting form to the Office of Institutional Diversity. Reports can be made anonymously. This process is only available to the St. Scholastica community, you will be required to log in with your CSS user name. Your identity will be held in confidence unless it is determined that a crime has been committed.

Why Diversity Matters...

• Academic Excellence is Inclusive

  
  

  At the College of St. Scholastica, diversity is not just about numbers. You will find at St. Scholastica a deep commitment to fostering a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment throughout the entire campus community. Our dedication to diversity is informed by the knowledge that equity and academic excellence are completely intertwined.

  Research has proven that a diverse, intercultural student body deeply benefits all students. True academic excellence is only achievable when students are exposed to diverse perspectives, cultures, experiences and voices, when ways of questioning, speaking and thinking are uniquely diverse, when the search for knowledge is open to complexities that challenge old ways of thinking. Embracing learning through diversity and diversity in learning...this is the culture we strive to create and sustain.

• Benedictine Values are Inclusive

  
  

  As a Benedictine college, our heritage teaches that we are to value and model Community, Hospitality, Respect, Stewardship and Love of Learning. These are not just words. They are core values we live, work and study by.

  To live those values means embracing and welcoming diverse people, ideas, cultures and perspectives. It means cherishing and promoting the worth of all human life, treating all persons with dignity and reverence, extending warmth, acceptance and respect to all regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual preference or economic status.

  At St. Scholastica, we value and affirm the intrinsic worth of every member of our community. Diversity and equity are not optional, but rather a moral and ethical imperative grounded in our rich Benedictine heritage.