WWC’s Not-So-Underground DEI Efforts
Alex Gore | September 27, 2023
According to its mission statement, Warren Wilson College (WWC) emphasizes the importance of “lead[ing] purposeful lives dedicated to a just, equitable and sustainable world.” However, WWC’s initiatives, many of which are created and led by the Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIE), are not widely known or recognized by its students.
The OIE was created from a series of proposals based on assessments that were done around WWC campus. The office focuses on five areas: race, ethnicity, nationality, gender and sexuality, religion and spirituality, first-generation status and disabilities.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts extend to students, employees, Board of Trustees, alumni and campus visitors. M.Z. Yehudah Ph.D., WWC’s dean of inclusive excellence, oversees all areas pertaining to DEI on campus.
Six clubs are active on WWC’s campus that are identity-specific: Latinx Student Collective (LSC), Black Student Union (BUS), Indigenous Student Association (ISA), Southwest Asian North African Alliance Club (SWANA), Asian Culture Club (ACC) and Worldwide Club (WWC). These clubs and club events are open to everyone and are multi-faceted, Yehudah explained.
“These clubs serve that dual purpose,” Yehudah said. “Support for the identities they represent, but also on education for the larger campus. We try to reach as many as we can reach. We try to support as many people as we can.”
The Queer Resource Center (QRC) works closely with the OIE. Jonathan Gonzales, known as JoGo around campus, oversees the QRC, which includes programming and running the crew. Advocacy, education, celebration and community are their areas of focus.
“There are so many intersecting identities on this campus,” Gonzales said. “It’s important for me as the supervisor of the QRC to make sure I am well connected with WIDE and the Office of Inclusive Excellence to share information and resources.”
The QRC hosts events ranging from casual socials to broad-scale Asheville activities. They hold an annual pride celebration in April called Gaypril, where they partner with CORE Crew for the Big Gay Earth Day Parade. This weekend on Saturday, Sept. 30, WWC’s QRC is participating in Asheville’s Blue Ridge Pride Festival.
DEI initiatives extend to the work program as well. The OIE leads training for work crews and supervisors which will continue in October. The Wilson, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (WIDE) Crew works with the office as well, but its members’ journey differs from other crews.
“We tend to get a lot of cool people, but the goal is for them not to stay here,” Yehudah said. “We want them to go to different parts of the campus. So we have former crew members in CORE, Athletics and Construction, we have people all over now.”
Siti Kusujiarti, chair of the sociology and anthropology department, works with the OIE as part of the faculty committee. Her work as a sociologist helps to explain the need for the implementation of DEI initiatives in higher education.
“Higher education is still fairly hierarchical,” Kusujiarti said. “It’s policy-oriented, and sometimes it doesn’t take into account the experiences of international and [Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BI-POC) students. If you’re not from the privileged group, then you’re being disadvantaged by the system.”
Yehudah and Kusujiarti mentioned assessment as a solid method of improving the system. Establishing a culture of assessment on WWC’s campus for both employees and students allows space for honest equity to be recognized and creates opportunities for growth.
A notable feature of WWC is its dedication to sustainability and promoting environmentally conscious practices, but the idea of sustainability should not be cut short at the environment, Yehudah explained.
“As we focus on inclusive excellence, the idea is that we can bring in as many different people as we want to, but if they’re not being supported, they won’t stay here,” Yehudah said. “We think long term about sustainability, how we sustain the campus as it evolves, what systems we have in place that will sustain the campus. So sustainability is not just land, we have to talk about people.”
The topic of uncomfortable conversations was also mentioned several times, with Kusujiarti mentioning the challenge of human reaction.
“Sometimes we tend to be defensive when we’re trying to talk about these issues. I think that’s one of the challenges, the defensiveness we have,” Kusujiarti said. “We need to take into account the language, the way we speak about this while recognizing the problems and taking action.”
The work is ongoing, Gonzales explained. Because information is always changing, it is necessary to keep up with the trends of queer and trans students to properly support them.
“I think my overall goal is for folks to spend their time here at Wilson and leave feeling great about their experience,” Gonzales said. “I hope they will be able to say that they were able to live and embrace their true, authentic selves and had the support and resources throughout their time here.”
Yehudah urged the importance of being open to making mistakes in the learning environment, which coincides with understanding.
“We can’t be fearful of making mistakes. These are the types of problems that we can solve with courage,” Yehudah said. “With fearlessness, with a little bit of understanding and compassion and empathy, I think we can get it done.”
Students who are interested in learning more about the OIE can stop by Ransom House. Events hosted by the WIDE Crew and QRC can be found on WWC’s upcoming events page.
