There may be many definitions of the words or phrases below, but the definitions provided indicate how the Strategic Inclusion Committee has defined them for the purposes of this document.
Academic Success
The demonstration of student achievement in higher education through a series of indicators including, but not limited to, grade point average, rigorous coursework, acceptance to program major, persistence towards graduation, and graduation.
Access(ible)
Refers to a student’s opportunity to participate in all of the education-related offerings provided by an educational Institution. Traditional access-related initiatives in higher education seek to remove barriers and provide support for historically underserved or underrepresented students.
Affinity Groups
Groups or programs that connect individuals based on interests, identities, and circumstances. Such programs can be especially helpful to first-year students and students from underrepresented backgrounds.
Campus Climate
The cumulative and continuing perception of the context in which the current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of faculty, staff, administrators, and students concerning the level of respect for individual needs, abilities, and potential are felt.
Co-curricular Learning
Learning that takes place outside of a traditional classroom model (or curriculum) that directly relates to or enhances one’s understanding of the targeted content area. Examples of co-curricular programs include study abroad, internships, symposia, conferences, and lectures.
Cultural Competence
Cultural Competence is the policies and practices of an organization, or the values and behaviors of an individual, that foster effective cross-cultural communication. It is a point on a continuum that ranges from cultural destructiveness to cultural proficiency. A culturally competent organization values the people who work there, understands the community in which it operates, and embraces its clients as valuable members of that community. This means that the culture of the organization promotes inclusiveness and institutionalizes the process of learning about differences. Cultural competence suggests a willingness to expand the organization’s paradigm for culture.
Members of an organization with cultural competence as a goal examine their own cultures to understand how they, as cultural entities, impact the perception and interaction of those who are different. This means identifying the dynamics of difference caused by historical distrust. Clearly understanding who we are and accepting how others perceive us is one of the first steps towards cultural competence. The next step is the same underlying, non-defensive examination of the organization’s culture.
Culturally Relevant/Responsible
Recognizing, understanding, and applying attitudes and practices that are sensitive to and appropriate for people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
Culture
Denotes the way of life of a group of people, encompassing their ideas, values, beliefs, norms, language, traditions, and artifacts.
Diversity
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities recognizes and respects the importance of all similarities and differences among human beings. The system and its institutions are committed, through their programs and policies, to fostering inclusiveness, understanding, acceptance, and respect in a multicultural society. Diversity includes, but is not limited to, age, ethnic origin, national origin, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, disability, religious beliefs, creeds, and income. Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is committed to confronting prejudicial, discriminatory, or racist behaviors and policies.
Domestic/Local Multicultural Experiences
Off-campus engagement opportunities with diverse communities (racially, culturally, socioeconomically, religiously, etc.) within the state of Minnesota or within the United States. This distinction was made in response to traditional immersion activities outside of the United States or what is more commonly referred to as study abroad.
Early Alert
A system in which faculty can log student behaviors that have been deemed strong indicators for dropping out or stopping out from college. Such systems have become more popular in higher education as institutions seek to improve their abilities to identify high-risk behavior.
Equity/Equitable
The proportional distribution or parity of desirable outcomes across groups. Sometimes confused with equality, equity refers to outcomes, while equality connotes equal treatment. Where individuals or groups are dissimilarly situated, equal treatment may be insufficient for or even detrimental to equitable outcomes. An example of equity is individualized educational accommodations for students with disabilities, which treat some students differently in order to ensure the equitable access to education.
Ethnicity
The shared sense of common heritage, ancestry, or historical past among an ethnic group. Ethnicity is a distinct concept of race, as Illustrated by the fact that Hispanics, designated an ethnic group In the United States may nevertheless be of any race. In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget definition of ethnicity, the U.S. Census Bureau defines ethnicity or origin as “the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.
First-generation Student
A student whose parent(s)/legal guardian(s) have not completed a bachelor’s degree at a four-year college or university.
Global
Activities, events, programs, and other learning experiences that are directly connected to international communities, cultures, and contexts.
Inclusion
Organizational strategies and practices that promote meaningful social and academic interactions among persons and groups who differ in their experiences, their views, and their traits. Expanding upon efforts that promote diversity on the basis of demographic differences.
(Inter) Cultural Competence
An ability to learn about and interact effectively with people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This competence comprises four components: (1) awareness of one’s own cultural worldview, (2) attitude towards cultural differences, (3) knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and (4) cross-cultural skills.
Intercultural Engagement
Refers to educational opportunities, events, and programs that invite individuals to step into new cultural contexts with the intent of developing greater cultural competence.
Intergroup Dialogue
A facilitated, face-to-face discussion with the objective of creating new levels of understanding, relating, action between two or more social identity groups.
Interreligious Engagement
Events, projects, and curriculum designed to support activities related to the study and practice of religion in comparative and cross-cultural contexts.
Learning Communities
A group of people actively engaged in learning together, from each other, and by habituation. Learning Communities often consist of two courses linked together to explore common themes and encourage partnerships with professors and peers.
Multicultural
Refers to a collective variety of cultures that can be defined along racial, sex, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, language, religious, and education lines. Goals for multicultural education vary along a continuum that includes demographic inclusion, student empowerment, intergroup understanding, educational equity, and social transformation.
Personal Safety
A person’s sense of safety as it relates to social, intellectual, physical, and cultural interactions, and spaces.
Safe Spaces
Spaces where students, community members, and employees feel socially and physically safe to represent their full identities and share their unique perspectives.
Underrepresented
Any individuals who are historically underrepresented in American higher education in terms of: race/ethnicity/ nationality, gender, parental education level, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or spirituality/religiosity/philosophy.
These key terms and definitions were provided by MinnState, Appendix C, Diversity and Equity Strategic Planning Toolkit.
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