After more than a year of planning, the University is now playing host to a regional diversity conference that is bringing together more than 100 student affairs professionals from 27 higher education institutions in four states.
The Summer Diversity Institute, produced by the University’s Center on Diversity and Community, began Wednesday evening and will conclude today.
The six-year-old CODAC program has focused most of its initial efforts on research and campus efforts, but a key component of the group’s mission – as evidenced by its title – is building community, Director Mia Tuan said.
“It’s a watershed moment in the sense that it’s the first time we’re linking the theory we’ve researched and putting it into practice,” she said. “We’re asking people, ‘How do you apply this into the work that you do?’”
CODAC staffer and Interim Dean of Students Robin Holmes said the conference would allow staff at the University to exchange ideas and find creative solutions to problems by giving them connections outside the school.
Annie Bentz, a CODAC professional development specialist and director of Conflict Resolution Services, said the daily schedules for attendees focuses more on quality than quantity.
Less sessions were offered in favor of longer periods for discussion, with some workshops running a full day’s length.
The three-day event was kicked off with a keynote speech by Oregon State University Vice Provost for Student Affairs Larry Roper.
“We are always in the process of becoming more of a community or less of a community,” he told the audience. “Our connections are either growing stronger or they are weakened.”
Roper discussed his childhood and implored the attendees to exercise a high degree of introspection when considering their everyday interactions.
“What is the landscape upon which your life is constructed?” he asked.
Roper described growing up in a three-bedroom house with 15 other people in Ohio. His mother and grandmother earned a living for the family working as housekeepers and when Roper went away to college he was suddenly exposed to a level of affluence that conflicted with his personal beliefs.
“I found myself in a world that wasn’t designed for me,” he said.
Concluding, Roper urged the representatives to take a positive outlook, to avoid making assumptions and to take chances to help build better institutions instead of focusing on what to halt.
“One of the most important things for us to do as diversity professionals is to have the courage to say, ‘I’m making this up as I go along,’” he said.
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