Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee to host community meetings

This year, ASMSU adopted a new and improved Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee. The former, and similarly named, committee consisted of around three members, and it has since been “substantially beefed up,” according to ASMSU Student Diversity Advisor and Chair Anja Lincke.

The concept for the DEI committee began with a Diversity Summit held on campus in 2016, according to an MSU Diversity & Inclusion Framework Report released on the MSU website in 2017. The old diversity director position was replaced with the Student Diversity Advisor (SDA) position in response to campus climate issues and the campus response to discrimination, threats and hate seen in the spring 2023 semester, Lincke said.

“That diversity director position was not designed to be integrated into some of the conversations at the ASMSU Executive team level. My current role is designed to be integrated into the big things that ASMSU does, and to the big bodies that ASMSU has,” they said.

The position is brand new, working closely with Senior Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ariel Donohue and Diversity and Inclusion Student Commons Director Barbara do Amaral, according to Lincke.

“Those administrators don’t tell me what to do, rather, I come to them and seek their perspective and get connected with other campus-wide diversity efforts,” they said.

The committee is seeking out ways to spread awareness of their mission to students, with hopes of further diversifying voiced perspectives to benefit campus culture according to at-large student representative Annika Gao.

“Hopefully if people are aware they can give us a little more feedback,” she said.

Currently consisting of three ASMSU senators and three at-large students, the DEI committee holds open meetings that all students are welcome to attend. These meetings are usually held each Monday from 6:10-7:40 p.m. according to Gao.

“If people have visions for what a committee like this could look like, or changes they want to see implemented on campus, this is a great place to start,” ASMSU Senator Annika Lawrence said.

Achieving the goal of heightened student engagement has proven difficult. “Many students don’t have a lot of trust in our organization to represent the diverse needs of our students,” Lincke said. Because of this, ASMSU and the DEI committee have been working to build trust and opportunity through various meetings, projects and the Town Hall initiatives started by ASMSU Senator Luna Richards. 

“Don’t think that you as one person can’t change things, because all it takes is one person who cares an awful lot,” Richards said, urging students to use their voices.

The committee is meant to empower students to engage in difficult conversations and to help them recognize the power they have to make a change, according to Lincke. They also said that they are looking for feedback on what encourages students to engage with things like the DEI committee.

“I – nor any other future SDA – will ever be able to bring the entire perspective of diversity, nor is that a reasonable expectation,” Lincke said. “The point is that we keep learning and growing, trying to connect to the diverse needs and challenges of our community to figure out what wecan do to leave this place better than we found it. I believe our future depends on it.”