IDEA

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To help the Schoolcraft College community better understand, support and engage in the strategic theme of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access), the Office of Equity and Engagement held a launch event in September. The well-attended program in the DiPonio Room of the Vistatech Center – supplemented by an engaged online audience – served as an important starting point to integrate equitable practices into the fabric of Schoolcraft College.

“We were so happy to have so many participating in the IDEA Launch Event and adding their perspectives to how we will move forward in creating a more inclusive campus,” said TaQuilla Kusero, Director of Equity and Engagement. “The event was not only to introduce the goals of IDEA, but to discuss how reaching those goals will take an integrated and structured approach from all of us.”

Also presenting were Catreese Qualls, Research Assistant for the Office of Equity and Engagement; and Dr. Glenn Cerny, President of Schoolcraft College.

What is IDEA?

Here is how Schoolcraft College defines IDEA:

Inclusion

  • An environment where individuals are empowered to use their perspectives, experiences, knowledge, and talent to create change.

Diversity

  • Psychological, physical, and social differences that occur among any and all individuals; The product/outcome of the inclusive and equitable practices of an organization.

Equity

  • Offering individualized support to address barriers that can limit the full participation of an individual or group.

Access

  • Students, employees and community members have equitable opportunities to take full advantage of the education, advancement, and resources that we offer and opportunities for similar outcomes.
Catreese Qualls, Research Assistant for the Office of Equity and Engagement.
TaQuilla Kusero, Director of Equity and Engagement.

“The launch event was an opportunity to share the mission, expectations, and purpose of creating a culture of inclusion, centrally focused on the IDEA Strategic Theme,” Qualls said. “It was a call to action to every member of our campus community to reimagine the way we think, communicate, and navigate within our respective departments and within our campus community. We must work in tandem to achieve success in creating a legacy of hope for generations to come.”

From these IDEA definitions, the College has created specific objectives to make the vision a reality. Those objectives are:

Objective 1

  • Enhance access and success

Objective 2

  • Inclusive teaching, learning and scholarship

Objective 3

  • Cultural engagement and competency

Objective 4

  • Accountability and responsibility

Objective 5

  • Fostering community

Those objectives then ladder up to specific areas of focus for the College’s leadership, faculty and staff, and student population, with action and accountability being at the forefront. Kusero noted in her presentation that progress is not always linear, but it should be incremental and measurable.

“Will it be easy to tear down barriers built by decades of broken systems? Absolutely not, but are we capable and authentically inspired to create change? Yes, we are!” Qualls said.

The DEE team noted that the launch event was the catalyst for more leaders to emerge and to encourage a deeply rooted desire to overcome the past and boldly overcome any obstacles by creating access for opportunities to have the uncomfortable conversations needed to push onward and upward.

“This is the first of many collaborations we will have as we begin to do the work of creating equitable outcomes for students, employees, and the communities we serve,” Kusero said.

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TaQuilla Kusero is the Director of Equity and Engagement for Schoolcraft College, working collaboratively across the campus to integrate equitable practices into the very fabric of the College. A key focus is the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) strategic theme, which will have a launch event from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 27, in the DiPonio Room of the Vistatech Center. Please read the following interview to learn more about TaQuilla, her office and her objectives.

Q: To start, please tell us a little about your education and professional background, especially your positions at Schoolcraft College.

A: In over a decade of working in higher education, I have worked with underrepresented and historically excluded populations at Lawrence Tech University, The United Negro College Fund in Washington D.C., and the University of Baltimore, along with the last four years at Schoolcraft College in the Distance Learning department. I have owned and operated a wedding and event floral design company, and I’m a part of a former military family, who worked and traveled abroad in Okinawa, Japan; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and across the U.S., exchanging language and culture. It is really a full-circle moment in my journey to have the opportunity to work with the SC campus community as the new Director of Equity and Engagement.

See, I was a child who suffered from an autoimmune condition that caused total hair loss, leg and joint pain, fatigue and facial rashes that left me in and out of the medical system for a large part of my childhood from the age of 7. I wouldn’t have successfully remained engaged in school, and found my joy in supporting students, if it weren’t for the empathetic and caring teachers, family and community surrounding me.

Even as I dealt with both the very visible symptoms of the condition, and the non-visible pains that made it hard to walk some days, it was the empowering words and actions of the people around me that kept me going and led me to the diversity, equity and inclusion work I do today: Specifically standing up for those who are not able to do it themselves. It was through overcoming the fear and uncertainty of what might be before me that I have been able to embrace and lead change throughout my life.

TaQuilla Kusero
TaQuilla Kusero, Director of Equity and Engagement, previously was a member of the Distance Learning department for four years.

Q: You were named our College’s Director of Equity and Engagement (DEE) in May. First, could you briefly explain your roles and responsibilities in this department? And second, what’s been your focus for the past few months as the Fall 2022 semester gets under way?

A: My role as Director of Equity and Engagement is to work collaboratively across the campus to integrate equitable practices into the very fabric of our institution. This will include developing and utilizing researched strategies, collaborating with stakeholders to set goals, providing professional development and training, and measuring progress. The last few months have involved meeting with stakeholders and laying out a plan to build a systematic approach to collaboration and integration in those areas. We have also been involved in matters of educational reform and development that have begun this summer for the Schoolcraft campus.

Q: Could you briefly explain IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) from both a high level and what it means on a sort of day-to-day basis for the Schoolcraft College community?

A: The overall goals of IDEA are:

  • To create practitioners of equity and inclusion across campus departments, with each department trained to view and implement their work with a DEI lens.
  • To create a student base that is engaged in equity and justice efforts on campus and in their community.
  • To track our progress with campus culture, practice and policy changes on a yearly basis.

IDEA provides five (5) key objectives to guide us in reaching those goals:

  • Strategic Objective 1 – Enhance Access and Success – Enhancing access and success for students, faculty, and staff belonging to structurally excluded populations.
  • Strategic Objective 2 – Inclusive Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship – Devote resources, promote, and incentivize practices that further enhance the teaching, learning and scholarship to ensure that the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion are essential components of a Schoolcraft educational experience.
  • Strategic Objective 3 – Cultural Engagement and Competency – Promote active social and academic engagement to ensure that we center and amplify students’ needs and voices by continuously elevating cultural and intercultural competency in and out of the classroom setting.
  • Strategic Objective 4 – Accountability and Responsibility – Develop mechanisms to continuously assess institutional climate and promote responsibility to a socially responsible Schoolcraft College.
  • Strategic Objective 5 – Fostering Community – Engage in practices that build relationships and partnerships to ensure the sustainability of Schoolcraft College within the greater Livonia community

What that looks like on the ground level is:

  • Creating classrooms, curriculums, and workplaces that include, affirm and utilize the knowledge, perspectives and experiences of underrepresented and marginalized students and employees.
  • Using high-impact practices and frameworks to reform the educational experience from recruitment to graduation, to meet the needs of students.
  • Measuring and collecting quantitative and qualitative information that not only helps us identify where we are in the process of institutionalizing equitable and inclusive practices, but also guides us in how to measure our progress, challenges and create solutions along the way.

Q: What’s on the horizon and what are you looking to accomplish the rest of this semester/calendar year?

A: The rest of this year will be spent building the campuses capacity to create widespread, integrated changes through the establishment of collaborative advisory groups and liaisons to each department. There also will be four areas of focus we will be working on in conjunction with other departments on campus, including:

  1. Identifying practices and policies that have a disparate impact on marginalized and underrepresented people on campus in order to change them.
  2. Developing professional and training opportunities that cover IDEA frameworks and practices, developing learning communities that provide ongoing support, and creating programming to discuss and share solutions for issues that affect us locally, nationally, and globally.
  3. Engage students through leadership development and scholarship opportunities for students who are interested in engaging the campus community in meaningful conversations and activities around topics of diversity, inclusion, equity and social justice.
  4. Making evidenced based decisions based on research and feedback.

Q: How can people get involved?

A: Creating a more inclusive campus is the job of every person in our community, no matter your role or area of expertise. We will be working closely with faculty, departments, students, and groups on campus to integrate strategies moving ahead. We also can be reached at [email protected] if you want to be directly involved in other opportunities throughout the year. We hope that you join us at the IDEA Launch on Tuesday, September 27, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. to hear more about the imperatives of equity and inclusion in higher education, as well as have an opportunity to bring your voices and perspectives to the table as we forge ahead.

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Workshop is available to all on Zoom

As Schoolcraft College continues to foster conversations around IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access), an important topic within that sphere is microaggression.

As cited in UCLA’s “Diversity in the Classroom,” the term microaggression dates to the 1970s and can be defined as follows:

Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.

To help foster better understanding of microaggression and provide some strategies and tools to deal with microaggression, Schoolcraft College’s STARS/DEI* program presents “The Bystander Imperative” from 4-5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 25. The program is open to all and can be accessed on this Zoom link with the following credentials:

  • ID: 892 2440 9271
  • Passcode: 392253

“The goal of the ‘The Bystander Imperative’ is for participants to learn about being an active bystander when witnessing microaggressions,” said Jennie Rokakis, Learning Support Services Assistant. “Participants will learn about why we don’t act, identify our personal roadblocks to action, practice techniques to intervene, and conclude with building communities of accountability.”

Person writing on chalkboard
Nick Daily (he/they), a Black Queer person who has been doing workshops, training, consultative, and support work for over a decade, will lead Friday’s workshop.

Leading the workshop will be Nick Daily (he/they), a Black Queer person who has been doing workshops, training, consultative, and support work for over a decade. Most recently, Daily served as Chief Diversity Officer for a large community college in California.

“One of our STARS DEI staff members attended Nick’s presentations at professional and affinity group conferences and reached out to see if he would be willing to work with the STARS DEI program on a campus-wide workshop,” Rokakis said. “After learning more about the program and Schoolcraft College, it was determined that ‘The Bystander Imperative’ was a great fit for the program and the campus’ focus on IDEA.”

Presenting “The Bystander Imperative” is the latest in a string of initiatives for the STARS/DEI program. 

“The STARS Scholars, Mentors, and Mentees recently participated in MLK Day of Service to highlight two of our core pillars – service-learning and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” Rokakis said. “They participated in various service projects around Metro Detroit, including packing art supply donations at Arts and Scraps, organizing food donations with Gleaners, and crocheting hats and scarves for shelters.

Rokakis added that one student, who works in a hospital, gathered her co-workers and made gift bags for the patients. They then gave the gift bags to patients and sat and talked with them regarding Dr. King as well as reflect on history, how far we’ve come, and the work still to be done.

“This student shared that the patients were grateful for the company, and many shared their own story of growing up during the civil rights actions of the 1960s,” Rokakis said.

STARS/DEI and “The Bystander Imperative” are made possible by a generous grant from the Schoolcraft College Foundation.  

*Scholars Taking off Academically & Rising to Success (S.T.A.R.S.) Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Leadership Program is an opportunity at Schoolcraft College that offers unique experiences to develop students as scholars and leaders. Learn more on their web page.