Strategic Priorities
Racial Justice and Equity
"Racial justice is the systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all. Racial justice — or racial equity — goes beyond “anti-racism.” It is not just the absence of discrimination and inequities, but also the presence of deliberate systems and supports to achieve and sustain racial equity through proactive and preventative measures."
At Barnard the work of DEI centers racial justice and equity. Each semester we will commit to offering workshops and collaborations that give members of the Barnard community the tools they need to uphold racial equity in their departments and in their academic experience.
Monday Morning Assembly for Racial Justice
This summer students, faculty and staff have assembled each Monday Morning to learn and commit each week to enacting racial justice. For more information on the assemblies please email: diversitycouncil@Barnard.edu
Fall Mini-Institutes
Check back for descriptions of our offerings in mid-August!
Community Engagement
Barnard has a long history of engagement with the range of communities in NYC. Through Community Impact at Columbia, Barnard students have committed to a range of volunteer and service learning projects in Harlem and Morningside Heights. DEI @ Barnard is rooted in the belief that at the core of liberal education is a mission to learn across differences and engage locally with a sense of mutuality, public responsibility and cultural humility. Through collaborations with a range of departments at Barnard we are working to facilitate a culture of sustained community engagement.
Current Projects
ThirdSpace@
What could another world look like?
This academic year 2020-2021, learn from visionaries on the front lines of imagining it, and then ask yourself, “What can I do right now, with what I have and where I am?”
After all, Barnard students don’t wait around when it comes to taking action — and in ThirdSpace@, a two-part, virtual co-curricular program (SPARK + BUILD), you can do that wherever you’ll be this year, whether that’s on campus or off. ThirdSpace@ brings together the support of your peers, experienced guides, and Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership, Office of the VP of DEI, and Center for Engaged Pedagogy.
Student Groups and Opportunities
Well-Being
Well-being is a central concern of the work of equity and inclusion at Barnard. DEI works closely with the Feel Well, Do Well initiative to ensure that as a community we practice wellness through diverse approaches. DEI also collaborates with the Center for Engaged Pedagogy to infuse well-being into academic life through initiatives such as Fail Forward dinners and workshops for faculty on how experiences of marginalization impact the well-being of underrepresented students.
Trans@Barnard
Supporting transgender and nonbinary students
In order to assist transgender and nonbinary members of the campus community with navigating the policies and practices of Barnard, we are committed to developing Barnard specific resources and supports. Check back here soon for a Barnard specific resource guide for transgender and nonbinary students. Multicultural Affairs in the Office of Undergraduate Student Life on Columbia's campus also has many supports available to Barnard students for Transgender and nonbinary students.
Inclusion Grant Projects
- The BOLD Conference
The second annual BOLD Conference convened on Friday, Feb. 21. This all-day, student-led event, funded through the inclusion grant, focused on facilitating conversations between faculty, staff, and students to continue strengthening teaching and learning at Barnard. The conference offered an exciting opportunity for participants to discuss questions, share concerns, and brainstorm suggestions regarding the academic experience. This event was supported by the Center for Engaged Pedagogy and the Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We extend our thanks to all who participated and worked to make it happen. - The Love Space Demands
Members of the Shange Magic Project received $5,000 for their idea The Love Space Demands: Sharing the Words of Ntozake Shange in the Barnard Library, which will support the installation of excerpts from the work of Ntozake Shange ’70 on walls around the Milstein Center. - Storytelling Workshop
Jo-Ann Pratts of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Mark Nomadiou of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies received $5,000 to partner with the TMI Project, a nonprofit that leads sessions of the Storytelling Workshop to help storytellers use “radically candid, true personal narratives. - Activist Archive
Gustie Owens ’22 and Radhika “Rads” Mehta CC’22 received $2,000 to launch the Activist Archive, a web-based extension of their Butler Banner Project, to help students research archival information on historical campus activism, as well as plan their own movements.