Campus Connection

UW-La Crosse received the 2013 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — UW-L will be featured along with 55 other recipients in INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s November 2013 issue. “For the offices and units that are a part of Campus Climate and Diversity, receiving this award has been a humbling experience. We are very grateful for the tremendous support we receive from the campus community,” says Barbara Stewart, UW-L associate dean for Campus Climate and Diversity. “Winning this award is a powerful indicator of how far we have come with regard to diversity and inclusion. But also it should motivate us as a campus community to strive to make even greater progress in the future.” INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine selected UW-L based on the university’s exemplary diversity and inclusion initiatives, and its ability to embrace a broad definition of diversity on campus, including gender, age, race, ethnicity, Veterans, first generation, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA community. At UW-L efforts to recruit and retain diverse students, faculty and staff are a campus-wide priority. For example, multicultural students are invited annually to visit from Rufus King Middle School. These visits have helped UW-L reach out to multicultural students from the Milwaukee area and encourage them to consider attending UW-L. The students meet with faculty and staff, tour campus and are able to get the inside scoop on college. Federal TRIO programs on campus are geared toward supporting low-income students, those who are the first in their family to attend college and people with disabilities. The programs work together to provide a solid pipeline to prepare students for post-secondary education, help them succeed in college and potentially prepare them for graduate school if they so desire. For many years, UW-L’s TRIO programs have done an outstanding job of assisting students to be successful and realize their dream of a higher education, says Stewart. The adoption of Inclusive Excellence as a campus-wide initiative has helped bring more attention to the issues of diversity and inclusion, says Stewart. The efforts of the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning, the infusion of diversity into various curriculums and the emphasis on creating an inclusive climate in and out of the classroom has helped enhance diversity efforts. Through diversity programming, university students connect with their peers and engage in dialogue about their experiences with diversity. Awareness through Performance, which consists of a group of students who use the stage as a platform to create greater consciousness about social justice, diversity, and climate issues, perform on campus and at several external venues throughout the year. Weekly campus-wide discussions, films, day-long programs, and a variety of diversity trainings give the university and community resources to learn more about diversity and inclusion issues. “If there is a way we can help students feel more comfortable or are able to assist a community member on their journey to learn more about diversity and inclusion then we’re doing our job,” says Stewart. “We hope the HEED award serves as a way to honor those institutions of higher education that recognize the importance of diversity and inclusion as part of their everyday campus culture,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.