Recent national protests to end racial violence for African Americans, outcries following incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes and a rise of hate groups on college campuses are at the center of our dialog about the role, responsibility and response of higher education within the area of diversity, equity and inclusion. The dual impact of COVID-19 and racism has been called a “syndemic” or the aggregation of concurrent epidemics that intensify the negative impact on people and communities. One response to the current syndemic impacting our campuses directs our attention to research on inclusive student engagement and how it can have a significant impact on diversity, equity and inclusion for students, professors and the campus.
Our hope is that you will be part of this ongoing dialog so that we can learn both with each other and from each other. We will provide a platform for your thoughts and comments along with a monthly roundtable discussion to stimulate creative thinking on important topics such as re-envisioning student engagement, competency-based models, addressing disparities within student engagement, how data can impact or obstruct student engagement outcomes and other topics that will surface over the next several months. We look forward to your input, ideas, and contributions.
