On behalf of NIRSA’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Commission, I invite you to take some time this week to review the resources below. Whether you choose to integrate them into an upcoming staff training or you’re simply reading them to expand your understanding of the vital topics of equity, diversity, or inclusion, these resources can help shape your perspective on social justice.

By Lockhart & Shaw| Teaching Tolerance

The words we use—and that we educate our students to use—shape our sense of culture and guide what is considered normative. Yet, language can often hold bias that reinforces inequity in ways so subtle we may not notice.

To help raise awareness of the ways difference, power, and discrimination can appear in the language we use, and to help with the larger task of achieving effective dialogue, Teaching Tolerance offers free, downloadable activities for personal or instructional use. Some materials focus on a specific issue—for example, racism, homophobia, or sexism—while others focus more broadly on the way we use words and the multilayered meanings they carry.

The activities are broken down into five to ten-minutes activities, 20 to 60-minute activities, longer activities, and activities geared specifically towards college students. As you plan your back-to-school activities, as well as staff and student trainings, these can serve as ready-to-use additions to your plans. They can also serve as a go-to starting point if there’s a need to address incidents of bias, or even hate, that may come up in the rec center, on campus, or in the media throughout the year.

 

By Willis Hawley, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine and Melissa Landa | Teaching Tolerance

Maybe you’re already planning to guide your students and staff in some element of diversity training this year. Maybe your department is actively seeking to increase diversity—in terms of staff or in terms of communities served. Maybe an incident of bias came up in the rec center last year and you found yourself unsure of how to best approach the students involved in the situation.

Whatever your goals are as this new school year begins, it can be beneficial for you and your staff to start talking about and understanding what your beliefs around race and ethnicity are and how you’ve formed them. Teaching Tolerance provides worksheets, discussion prompts, and a guide for how to utilize this content during in-service trainings.

 

By Center for Research on Learning and Teaching | University of Michigan

As campus recreation professionals know, the current political climate has affected campuses from coast to coast. Students’ experiences and emotions are certainly impacted and because so much of the recent rhetoric, media coverage, and events are rooted in people’s identities these are not things students check at the door of the rec center.

While the “Teaching in the Current Political Climate” resource is geared towards instructors, the guidance on establishing boundaries of civil discourse, supporting students in distress, supporting students in responding to violence or threats, responding to tensions, and tending to your own self-care are relevant to all types of student educators.

Add your voice to the conversation

We encourage you to connect with colleagues from across North America on this important topic. Join NIRSA’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Community of Practice today to find more resources or to participate in the online discussion.

Director of Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships at | NIRSA Profile

Erin O'Sullivan is currently the Director of Advocacy & Strategic Partnerships at NIRSA.