Diversity Enrichment Team

Summary Statement

Birmingham-Southern College is a learning institution that promotes liberal arts education and a fuller understanding of the world. We are distinctive in many respects, but perhaps in none more so than our singular commitment to rigorous inquiry that demands multiple and often competing perspectives. The nature of questions being asked and the perspectives being engaged are often a function of the diversity of experiences and outlooks of those participating.

Diversity for Birmingham-Southern College is therefore particularly relevant to our core perspective of seeking ways of providing students an educational experience that incorporates the wide range of human diversity.

To ensure that our community is composed of a rich mix of individuals who, through their own distinctive view points, contribute to the intellectually challenging culture of Birmingham-Southern College we established the Diversity Enrichment Team.

Charge

The Diversity Enrichment Team serves to encourage and promote ways to foster and maintain an environment that is both academically and socially inclusive. The team is responsible for the design, implementation, adherence, and assessment of Birmingham-Southern College’s strategic diversity plan and processes and assists in developing an institutional systematic approach toward increasing and maintaining diversity on campus.

The Diversity Enrichment Team may also make use of community resources (including members of the Norton Board of Advisors) as it conducts its work.

Values and Principles Guiding the D.E.T.

The work of the DET is grounded in the following understanding: Diversity is comprised of complex aspects of identity by which individuals distinguish themselves, including race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression & identity, age, religion, language, education, family structure, marital status, socio-economic status, physical characteristics, and abilities.

Birmingham-Southern College is committed to the principles of community and global engagement, compassion and empathy, inclusion and acceptance, and valuing difference in others. Each aspect of diversity shapes us as individuals but does not fully capture our being. Therefore we assert that no one should be solely defined or narrowly perceived by these terms of identity. We affirm that diversity plays a critical role in a liberal arts education: Birmingham-Southern College supports and celebrates diversity by providing opportunities to explore diverse perspectives and engage in critical reflection.