Inclusivity on college campuses is where students and instructors work hand in hand to create an environment where everyone is free to express his or her concerns. This type of environment is safe for everyone to speak out his or her opinions without fear of being judged.
In these college campuses, marginalization is reduced and information is viewed from different perspectives and decoded in a way that is not discriminatory.
Inclusivity supports mutual respect, thoughtfulness, and open-mindedness for students in campuses. Here are 5 ways that college campuses are becoming more inclusive for students:
1. Offering Formal Diversity Training
There are student groups in college campuses headed by group leaders. These student group leaders need to get customized training in order to be able to meet the needs of their groups. Diversity training empowers students to hold talks on matters of diversity and inclusion within the school setting.
Holding interactive workshops within the training allow for the exploration of an issue that affects students within the institution. Campus administrators by offering this training create an inclusive learning environment that is safe for students to highlight and discuss sensitive issues.
2. Integrating Diversity Education To The Curriculum
The college campus administrators integrate issues related to inclusion in the curriculum that students are going through during their studies. Rather than just having an office that deals with matters of inclusion, the pressing issues can be a part of the coursework that students learn in the classroom.
This opens up room for more interactions and gives space and freedom of expression among students. They get to air their opinions and learn new values within the classroom setting.
3. Allowing Students To Have Organizations Within Campus
Organizations are effective in bringing people with mutual concerns and ideas together where they can openly discuss them and also have a sense of belonging. When college campus administrators create a supportive environment for students to come together in an organized group and have an agenda to guide them, inclusivity is achieved.
4. Elimination Of The Aspect Of Dictatorship
Dictatorship within college campuses is a killer of inclusivity. When things are run in a one-man control kind of system where the school management makes all decisions and deems itself to be right in everything without giving students a platform to express themselves and air their issues, inclusivity becomes far-fetched.
The best way for encouraging inclusivity is eliminating dictatorship and creating open avenues where decisions made and policies created are as a result of open dialogue and both students and the management work together in making critical decisions within the institution.
5. Forming Recovery Communities Within Residential Halls
It is a fact that a huge number of students on college campuses are addicted to alcohol and most of these students feel isolated and have a sense of not belonging to the school. They consider themselves as failures and some even fall into depression and develop suicidal tendencies.
An effective way to create inclusivity within college campuses is coming up with recovery communities within residence halls, communities which reach out to these students addicted to alcohol and help them to recover. The Recovery Village is one such community that offers help for students with alcohol addiction.