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VISION, PRINCIPLES & GOALS

Vision

As a central element of its commitment to excellence, Smith College seeks to provide an environment that fosters the recruitment and success of a diverse student, faculty, and staff community.

Diversity Principles

	Power and privilege influence access to opportunities and resources, according to distinctions among people based on race, age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion, and disability.
	Within any given community, people will have multiple and complex social identities that both connect them to and differentiate them from others.
	Valuing diversity requires not simply an acknowledgement of differences, but a commitment to overcoming inequities and fostering a hospitable and respectful community.

Diversity Goals

Diversity initiatives at the college have three goals:

	to enable all to recognize and learn about the varied traditions, backgrounds, and capacities that members of the community bring to the college, and to recognize that each member has something to teach and something to learn;
	to foster critical thought about equality, inequality, power and privilege in society;
	and, finally, to reduce (as much as is possible) inequalities in the college community that are based on such differences.

Achievement of these goals must be a key priority in any academic environment that aspires to support intellectual exploration, innovative research, and effective problem-solving. Creating a community that is accepting and respectful of all its members is not, then, simply one of our goals; rather, the vision of such a community must be recognized as central to every aspect of each of the strategic priorities for the college, from curriculum to co-curriculum, associated with providing an excellent education.

This understanding of diversity both enables and depends upon honest and meaningful communication, including opportunities for sustained dialogue that engages challenging issues within our increasingly globalized community.

Background

Vision, Principles
& Goals

Action

Campus Engagement
Timeline

Focus Group Themes

Focus Group Voices

Working Recommendations

Appendix A:
Committee
Membership

Appendix B: Protocol
Questions

Appendix C: Focus
Group Demographics