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Promoting diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging

Understanding across differences

Eckerd College has an institution-wide plan to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Our Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) collaborates with and supports all campus stakeholders as the College strives to strengthen its cultural competence and foster critical conversations that break boundaries, challenge stereotypes and advance understanding across differences.

Our statement

Eckerd College values the individuality of each community member and respects all members and their free expression. We encourage curiosity, global mindedness and developing the intrinsic leadership potential of students, faculty, staff and all members of our community.

Eckerd College believes in the educational benefit of critical thinking, open dialogue and civil discourse while looking through the lens of others. We embrace diversity of thought, challenging our own biases and systems of belief for greater understanding and compassionate connections.

We seek to provide all members of our community an experience that embraces diversity, cultivates conscientious citizenship and offers a sense of belonging regardless of an individual’s ability, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexuality, age or political affiliation.

We believe educational excellence can be achieved only through cultivating diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Eckerd College president walks with a Black student along a colonnade while pushing a yellow bike

Five pillars to serve campus

Inclusive excellence focuses on:

ACCESS

Achieve a more diverse and inclusive student body, faculty and staff—using strategies to increase or maintain compositional diversity and retention of Eckerd students and employees.

CLIMATE

Create and sustain an environment that acknowledges and celebrates diversity and employs inclusive practices throughout our daily operations.

SCHOLARSHIP

Accomplish excellence in education and scholarship by offering courses, generating learning and creative opportunities, and designing curricula with attention to inclusion for students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Create and sustain an institutional infrastructure that effectively supports progress in achieving diversity objectives in the 2021–2026 “ONWARD: Strategy in Action” strategic plan.

ENGAGEMENT

Use Eckerd’s mission as a liberal arts college to provide lifelong learning opportunities to members of the local community and marginalized populations.

Center for Inclusive Excellence

A comfortable place on campus to decompress, express oneself and connect with others who celebrate diversity

We welcome everyone to use our Center, which opened on May 11, 2023 in Lindsey Hall.

Anyone who shares this space becomes a steward of it and our vision for an inclusive campus community.

We are grateful for the Inclusive Excellence student ambassadors who help manage the Center. Together we are creating a campus where people from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and with diverse identities can exist with equity, feel included and experience belonging.

Contact us

Beverly Warren, Ed.D.
Vice President for Inclusive Excellence
warrenba@eckerd.edu

Download our brochure for an in-depth look at DEIB at Eckerd