About Becoming Community

Vision

We now are called to transformative inclusion, which encompasses both diversity and the call and imperative of community. Our current language of inclusion implies that those on the outside will join those already on the inside, with the implicit expectation that they will adopt or adapt to already established norms.

Transformation, by contrast, deconstructs the center in interaction with newcomers, so that the voices, experiences, and cultures of all community members are reflected in institutional norms and self‐understanding.

We plan to undertake and model an intentional practice of community formation based in transformative, rather than primarily reactive and additive, inclusion.

The project involved a cycle of learning, practicing, teaching, and sharing, to ensure that we embed inclusion deeply and widely on campus and share what we have learned with others.

Phases of Completion:

Phase 1:

• Continued and extended the work of our current Mellon grants with CSB/SJU faculty.
• Developed and implemented an interdisciplinary professional development model for transformative inclusion across campus.
• Identified best practices to support the recruitment, hiring, and mentoring of faculty from underrepresented groups.

Phase 2:

• Reformed our practice of community on campus to reflect the dispositional and paradigm shifts toward transformative inclusion.
• Demonstrated measurable progress and outcomes as a result of becoming a transformationally inclusive community.
• Served as a convener in the region as it relates to creating and sustaining transformational inclusion structures to support equity and justice in the local community.

Phase 3:

• Structurally implemented the methods of transformative inclusion that the earlier phases will have revealed.
• Disseminated our learning to others in higher education who seek systemic transformation and lasting substantive change as it relates to inclusion.