Webster University will host a two-day conference on “Embracing Diversity and Inclusion” on Monday, February 29 and Tuesday, March 1 in the Luhr Building, 475 E. Lockwood Ave. in Webster Groves. All sessions are free except those that include a meal (and even those sessions are free for Webster students).
The conference begins 9:15 a.m. February 29 with a panel on “Landscape of Diversity & Inclusion for Regional Higher Education Institutions” and concludes 1:45 p.m. March 1 with a panel on “Campus Pride – Safe Zone.”
Focusing on inclusion in higher education and providing safe zones for marginalized groups on campus show the conference’s roots in the strife at the University of Missouri – Columbia last year, whose impacts continue to be felt and discussed throughout Missouri and the nation.
“When events unfolded at Mizzou, we reached out to student leaders and met with them and asked them to tell us their experiences and what we can improve,” Webster University President Beth Stroble told The American. This conference, she said, was designed to “help create more learning opportunities.”
Nicole Roach, associate vice president for diversity, inclusion and community engagement at the university, served on the six-member committee that planned the conference. She said it was planned with Webster University in mind, but also “for the community as a whole” and is “open to the community at large.”
Panelists include senior administrators at other universities around the country, including Lee A. Gill, associate vice president for inclusion and equity at The University of Akron, and Adis M. Vila, senior fellow for the Institute for Cross Cultural Management at the Florida Institute of Technology and formerly the first chief diversity officer at the United States Air Force Academy.
Panels probe diversity by race, with discussions of “African-American Students Shaping Tomorrow” and “Hispanic Point of View.” The conference also takes up “Interfaith Cooperation,” “Disabilities and Accessibility” and “Gender Entitlement.”
Speaking of gender, Stroble emphasized that Webster University has its own unique trajectory of inclusion, as it was founded (as Loretto College) in 1915 admitting only women students. The first male students were not enrolled until 1962.
The university diversified by race before it did by gender. Two students who identified as African-American were first enrolled at Webster University in 1947. In May, 1950 Janet Irene Thomas became the first African-American graduate of the University.
Stroble acknowledged that Webster University’s local campus is essentially a commuter school, with only 850 students in residence on its Webster Groves campus (out of more than 7,250 students). Mizzou currently has 6,343 students living in campus housing, according to a university spokesperson. As such, Webster faces far fewer diversity challenges than a massive residential campus like Mizzou.
“A large state university with a lot of residential students has more people and more complex interactions,” she said. “There’s more opportunity for tension – and then you have the added elements of fraternities, sororities and frat houses.”
For more information on the conference and to register, visit http://www.webster.edu/diversity-inclusion/diversity-conference.html.