President and Provost Announce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Website

Dear North Central College Campus Community,

As you know, we have spent a good bit of time over the past months listening and talking to one another, reflecting upon the experiences of our students, alumni, faculty, and staff of color. Our students and alumni especially challenged us this summer to live up to our mission, vision, and core values with regard to equity, diversity, and inclusion, as set forth in our strategic plan. The ensuing conversations have not only brought new urgency to actions already under consideration and implementation but have strengthened our commitment to making our community more just and equitable for our BIPOC students by focusing dedicated time, resources and efforts to ensure that we promptly address the important concerns that have been raised. 

Going forward, we realize that a key priority has to be effective communication. It is simply not enough that we take concrete steps to address the concerns that are raised and also execute on our existing commitments, but that we make it easy for our entire community to learn of our actions and to be able to hold us accountable for them and provide ongoing feedback. Thus, with the collaborative efforts of our DEI Task Force, students, faculty, and staff, and our leadership team, we are pleased to announce the launch of our completely redesigned and updated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts website. This site provides detailed information on both the DEI efforts already launched over the past few years, efforts under development, as well as future steps the College is taking specifically in regard to the additional DEI commitments we have made during the recent community conversations.

As a community, we need to continue with an open and honest dialogue to help us keep making progress on our commitment to creating and nurturing an inclusive and supportive environment  for all our members. We are deeply grateful to the members of the DEI Task Force, the team of faculty and staff who collaborated on the site map and gathered content, and the Office of Marketing and Communications for building the site. We invite everyone to visit the site, which will continue to be updated regularly, and give us your feedback on how we can make it better serve our community’s needs.

Thank you for your continuing commitment. We look forward to listening, learning and growing together in our quest for a more diverse, inclusive, and supportive community.

Troy D. Hammond
President, Professor of Physics

Abiódún Gòkè-Pariolá
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor of English