{"id":1165,"date":"2023-11-30T15:28:30","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/?page_id=1165"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:14:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T14:14:32","slug":"begin-with-belonging","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/begin-with-belonging\/","title":{"rendered":"Begin With Belonging"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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BEGIN WITH
\nBELONGING<\/p>\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Students pose in front of the mural \u201cMonuments: Atlanta\u2019s Immigrants\u201d during a Fall Break program through the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection and the Hispanic Outreach and LatinX Awareness group. During the trip, which was called “Immigration Pilgrimage Through Georgia,” students spoke with immigration detainees and visited a center that offered hospitality to refugees and other immigrants fleeing violence.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The space to simply be \u2013 authentically, in community and without fear. By allowing our students, faculty and staff the space to express their full identities, we create a culture of belonging, one in which all may realize their distinct potential to effect a just and equitable world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Our principles of diversity, equity, inclusive excellence and belonging are intended to create a better learning environment for current and future students, a supportive climate for all faculty and staff, and the conditions to advance Furman\u2019s mission to prepare students for lives of meaning and consequence.<\/p>\n\n

These values also inform the university\u2019s charge to prepare students for a pluralistic world \u2013 one in which an embrace of our differences powers a flourishing society, drives innovation and fosters open and healthy discourse. In the coming year, we will build community further by expanding on the work of Dins Dialogue workshops, the peer-to-peer offering of the Intergroup Dialogue Program, which encourages participants to engage with one another across differences in ways that promote understanding, compassion and social justice.<\/p>\n\n

These elements are strengthened through the four-year pathway, with the Pathways Program curriculum helping to ease students\u2019 transition to college by connecting them to campus resources and then encouraging students to reflect on who they are, what they value and what they want to pursue both in and out of the classroom. This is followed by department-specific programming in years 3 and 4 that help students learn about careers in their discipline and discipline-specific expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n

Awareness and understanding through student experiences<\/p><\/b><\/em>\n

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  • Students attended a rich variety of Cultural Life Programs, featuring speakers with diverse perspectives and lived experiences. Among them: \u201cHave You Seen Me? Missing and Murdered Indigenous People,\u201d a panel of women from tribes throughout the Carolinas; \u201cJewish, Gifted & Black: A Conversation with Rapper Nissim Black\u201d; and the Furman Drag Show, hosted by the Furman Pride Alliance, an exploration of evolving gender and sexuality norms that featured professional and student drag queens.<\/li>\n \t
  • During the five-day \u201cImmigration Pilgrimage Through Georgia,\u201d students gained a deeper understanding of the ramifications of U.S. immigration policy for those seeking refuge and opportunity in the United States. On the trip hosted by Furman\u2019s Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection and the Hispanic Outreach and Latinx Awareness student group, students learned the stories that inspired city murals about the Latino community, met farmers and volunteers who maintain housing for immigrants, and packed donated supplies for individuals who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities. The students also spoke with an immigrant who had been detained in a federal facility for eight months.<\/li>\n \t
  • The campus community experienced international students\u2019 homeland cuisine during Furman Engaged, the university\u2019s annual daylong celebration of research, internships, study away and other immersive learning experiences. The International Student Association and Dining Services hosted an international lunch featuring international students\u2019 beloved recipe from their countries of origin, including Ghana, China, Peru and Kazakhstan.<\/li>\n \t
  • The Riley Institute\u2019s Advantage Scholars summer program for students with named merit-based scholarships explored human differences through a variety of topics, including unconscious bias, the meaning of whiteness, gentrification and affordable housing, and the university\u2019s historical connections to slavery.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudents pose at the Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy during a tour of San Francisco\u2019s Castro District, one of the many sites they visited during a MayX trip focused on LGBTQIA+ history.<\/small><\/em>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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    A skilled and dedicated faculty<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n\n

    This past academic year, the Furman faculty passed an inclusive excellence policy, part of the university\u2019s broader DEI strategic plan. The intent was to formalize the expectation that faculty andacademic departments contribute to the university\u2019s diversity, equity and inclusion goals. The university also advanced several programs to ensure faculty are prepared to teach and mentor a diverse student body, one that is known generationally for prioritizing mental health and well-being, belonging and inclusivity. Cynthia King, the associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence and a professor of communication studies, received a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South to pilot staff\nprofessional development programming specifically related to DEI.<\/p>\n\n

    The Faculty Development Center (FDC) launched a Duke Leadership Peer Coaching initiative with a grant\nfrom The Duke Endowment. In the inaugural year, the initiative trained 30 faculty and staff who deepened their expertise with applied peer coaching activities related to advising, DEI, and teaching and learning initiatives.<\/p>\n\nThe FDC also facilitated a 16-month faculty-led initiative to update Furman’s existing survey of student opinions of instruction to gather more specific teaching feedback to reduce bias. To further expand faculty awareness, the FDC developed a series of on-demand Learning by Design Studios for faculty on equitable grading practices highlighted in the book \u201cGrading for Equity.\u201d\n\nOpen-rank tenure-track searches continued to enhance faculty recruitment by extending the reach of\njob ads and generating large pools of highly qualified applicants. The slate of on-campus recruitment experiences for finalists allowed groups of campus constituents to reflect on the professional\nexperiences that will resonate most deeply with our principal goal: to provide the strongest, most immersive and transformational education for our students. The 2023-2024 new faculty class \u2013 expert teachers, scholars, performers and innovators with diverse experiences and accomplishments \u2013 are\nperfectly positioned to make meaningful contributions to The Furman Advantage.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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    The embrace of community<\/b><\/em><\/p>\nFurman staff also gathered to strengthen their sense of belonging. In the spring, the Furman Staff Advisory Council (Staff AC) worked with the DEI-Staff Recruitment, Advancement and Training Subcommittee to plan the Pride Month Ice Cream Social. The entire Furman community was invited to join Staff AC in celebrating Pride Month, enjoy popsicles and hear excerpts read by individual contributors of the newly published edited volume, \u201cColors of the Rainbow: Voices from Furman University\u2019s LGBTQIA+ Community.\u201d\n\nThe group also organized a DEI community read, in which participants received a copy of the book \u201cThe Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together\u201d by Heather McGhee. Thirty-one staff members signed up and participated in various ways to learn and grow together.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStudents take part in the International Student Association\u2019s International Fashion Show.<\/em><\/small>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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    BEGIN WITH BELONGING Students pose in front of the mural \u201cMonuments: Atlanta\u2019s Immigrants\u201d during a Fall Break program through the Cothran Center for Vocational Reflection and the Hispanic Outreach and LatinX Awareness group. During the trip, which was called “Immigration Pilgrimage Through Georgia,” students spoke with immigration detainees and visited a center that offered hospitality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":304,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/304"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/presidentsreport\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}