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Inclusive Excellence Plan

This page contains information and progress towards TCNJ’s Inclusive Excellence Plan. The goal of the plan is to establish an institutional framework for inclusive excellence, and to develop a set of strategic priorities to create and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus community.

Inclusive Excellence Cafes

Inclusive Excellence Committee


Inclusive Excellence Terms and Definitions

Language is the means by which we create and recreate community, and only by grounding its work in inclusive language can the Inclusive Excellence Committee achieve its goals. As such, the following terms and definitions will inform the inaugural strategic diversity plan.

Diversity

Individual differences (e.g., personality, prior knowledge, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations)1

Inclusion

The active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.2

Equity

The creation of opportunities for historically underserved populations to have equal access to and participate in educational programs that are capable of closing the achievement gaps in student success and completion.3

Equity-Mindedness

“The term ‘Equity-Mindedness’ refers to the perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes. These practitioners are willing to take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students, and critically reassess their own practices. It also requires that practitioners are race-conscious and aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in American Higher Education.”4

Belonging

An intrinsic motivation to affiliate with others and be socially accepted.5

Cultural Competency

Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professions to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.6

Social Justice

Full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.7

Sources

  1. AAC&U: https://www.aacu.org/making-excellence-inclusive
  2. AAC&U: https://www.aacu.org/making-excellence-inclusive
  3. AAC&U:https://www.aacu.org/making-excellence-inclusive
  4. Center for Urban Education, University of Southern California
  5. Adapted from Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-96.
  6. Cross, T. et al (1988, 1989). Toward a culturally competent system of care. Washington, DC: CAASP Technical Assistance Center, Georgetown University Child Development Center; National Center for Cultural Competence. (2009). Conceptual frameworks/models, guiding values and principles. Washington, DC: Georgetown University
  7. Adapted from Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, and Pat Griffin, editors. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice: A Sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Foundational Materials

  1. Social Justice Task Force Report
  2. Dr. Damon A. Williams Report
  3. Equity Scorecard Survey Report
  4. Campus Pulse Climate Reports
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