Over the past two years, U.S. Higher Education institutions have been under significant attack regarding their work on of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) which has become a hallmark of work on supporting marginalized identities for more than 30 years. These attacks by conservative members of political parties, specifically the U.S. Republican Party and President Donald Trump, has led to the widespread closure of such offices, elimination of positions and units in support of women’s identity, LGBTQIA+ identities, and multicultural identities. For those institutions who remain committed and entrenched, the language of “DEI” is pivoting, oftentimes to that of “belonging” or “inclusion” or even to leadership as a framework. How these changes are being approaches appears to be unorganized at best and without any strategy at worst. This moment of threat offers an opportunity for transformation of the entire framework of DEI to that of something more robust and intersectional. Utilizing modern sustainability frameworks, which since the 1990s has employed not only the use of pillars of environments and economy but also social inclusion and culture, lends itself to an opportunity for higher education to not just survive this moment but to thrive over the next generation and beyond. This paper evaluates the application of sustainability frameworks to support the next generation of equity and inclusion work on campus by offering evaluations of current unit and programming descriptions and then reframing them with the use of cultural sustainability and social inclusion.

Authors:
Cody Nielsen, Western Michigan University, United States

About the Presenter(s)
J. Cody Nielsen- Assistant Professor of Higher Education and HESA Coordinator. Interests- addressing issues of white christian hegemony, supremacy, and privilege within education settings.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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