SUU Hosts First Summit on Belonging
Published: November 21, 2022 | Author: Kenzie Lundberg | Read Time: 2 minutes
Southern Utah University’s Office of Equity and Inclusion hosted the first Summit on Belonging on October 25 and 26, 2022. The conference-style gathering provided the campus with spaces for conversations, training, and best practices to advance belonging through diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts.
This year’s theme, Everyday Equity, focused on providing spaces to learn about simple, easy and implementable actions that each participant can incorporate into their everyday life and work in order to make room for each other and dismantle structural barriers.
Sessions included workshops, panel discussions, and two keynote speakers, Nubia Peña, senior advisor on equity and opportunity to Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox and director for the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, and Justin Jones-Fosu, international speaker, young-award-winning entrepreneur, and author.
“This event is an avenue to mobilize all of the grassroots efforts happening on campus into an institutional commitment to raise collective awareness and enhance our cumulative skills,” said Daneka Souberbielle, chief diversity officer and associate provost for equity and inclusion. “As a university, we want to engage, support, and contribute to an increasingly diverse local, regional and global community. We want to create a positive and accessible experience where all stakeholders on campus can engage and show up.”
The Summit also shared countless resources for faculty and staff to support belonging on campus, a few departments available to help include the Office of Equity and Inclusion, Center for Diversity and Inclusion, Center for Teaching Innovation, Non-Traditional Student Services, Disability Resource Center, and diversity clubs.
Looking forward, Souberbielle and the Office of Equity and Inclusion would like to continue skill-building with next year’s summit, as well as focusing on aligning institutional policies, procedures and processes to support the individual efforts that so many are putting forth.
As an institution, we believe that diversity makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared to compete in a global society.