As an office committed to meaningful engagement with the community and active participation in democratic and civic life, the Center for Civic Engagement has committed to making racial justice more central to our work, and has taken a number of actions through our campus programming, community-based initiatives and educational opportunities for professional and student staff. Over the past several years, we have taken the following actions:
- Enhanced our civic education programming to provide information, tools and resources to support students in participating in civic life and making their voices heard. Programs and resources have included workshops and resources on changemaking, student organization trainings on nonpartisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote, mini grants to students for nonpartisan voter outreach and student civic leadership opportunities.
- Promoted conversations about racism, systemic oppression and structural inequalities through events, programs and trainings. Specific efforts have included roundtable debates and a deliberative dialogue on inclusion and free speech; regular training from the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for professional and student staff; and integrating information on critical models of community engagement in various programs and presentations.
- Launched a new Civil Dialogue Project to support students, faculty and staff in developing the skills to have better conversations about important topics. The Civil Dialogue Project has trained thousands of students in foundational dialogue skills, supported faculty in bringing dialogue into their classrooms, hosted a student Civil Dialogue Ambassador program, facilitated dialogue events and more.
- Collaborated with various campus partners to reduce the voting gap between white students and students of color by addressing unique barriers to registering and turning out to vote. Despite these efforts, this voting equity gap persists, with a 15 percentage point gap in the voting rate of white students and students of color in both 2020 and 2022.
- Led conversations with campus and community partners, specifically school partners, about strategies to better support students of color serving in predominantly white communities.
- Addressed equity issues in accessing community opportunities by increasing transportation resources and the number of paid positions for students to work in our office or serve in the local community.
- Created an office environment that encourages students and staff to discuss campus and community issues related to racism, and creates a space for continued learning and growth.
Moving forward, the CCE is committed to continuing progress on these actions. Specifically, we are committed to:
- Closing the voting gap between white students and students of color by removing barriers to registering and turning out to vote. We have set a goal to reduce this gap by 5 percentage points in 2024 (per data from the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement).
- Continue to offer a variety of civic education programs that support students in taking action on issues that are important to them.
- Expand the Civil Dialogue Project to offer training to more students, deliver advanced training opportunities, host events facilitating dialogue on important issues and support integration of dialogue into the curriculum.
- Collaborate with community partners on their commitment to racial justice.
- Continue to foster an environment for staff to discuss racism and encourage ongoing learning.
- Continue to engage a diverse group of students in CCE programs and opportunities.
- Continue offering a variety of training and development opportunities for professional and student staff related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
This work is ongoing and we will continue to prioritize and hold ourselves and each other accountable to these and other efforts.