Status
The tasks for these demands are in progress. For more information, please email communityequity [at] emerson.edu (communityequity[at]emerson[dot]edu).
Overview
These demand aims to create the following social contracts within the Emerson community:
Demand 1
Social Contract for White students
Point Person(s)
Individuals involved:
Specific Actions
Work with staff in the following departments to develop skill-based training for students to address the issues raised in the social contract:
- Housing & Residential Education (HRE)
- Orientation
- Intercultural Student Affairs (ICSA)
- Office of International Student Affairs (OISA)
- Center for Spiritual Life (CSL)
Dates/Timeframe Updates
Ongoing, with initial implementation in Summer and Fall 2021.
Demand 2
Social Contract for student organizations
Point Person(s)
Individuals involved:
Specific Actions
Student Engagement and Leadership (SEAL) & ICSA staff began implicit bias training in Fall 2020, continuing into Spring 2021. The staff are revising mission and goal statements as well as self-evaluation tools and facilitated workshops offered to student organizations.
Dates/Timeframe Updates
- Spring 2021: Student Engagement and Leadership (SEAL), International Student Affairs (OISA), Student Accessibility Services (SAS), and New Student Programs (NSP) has scheduled and hosted conversations with organization types in Advocacy, Comedy, Dance, Visual and Media Arts, Fraternity and Sorority Life, Intercultural and Spiritual, Performance, Professional, Sports and Competition, Writing Literature and Publishing, and Theatrical Performance. Topics included the recruitment and selection of student members, selection of programs/events/activities/productions, selection of executive board members, barriers to participation, characteristics of white supremacy within professional organizations, understanding how to make value-based decisions, understanding the line between collaboration and performative allyship, and how to engage with BISOC members without tokenizing. Meetings will continue through the end of the semester. Following the completion of these conversations, the Student Org Social Contract Team will work together to begin drafting what will become the Student Organization Compact – an agreement for all affiliated student organizations to engage in a systematic review of membership recruitment and selection, programmatic selection and implementation, leadership selection, and barriers to participation.
- Summer 2021: The Student Organization Compact has been updated, and will officially be part of the Annual Student Organization Reactivation process along with a required training from Student Engagement and Leadership and Intercultural Student Affairs that will cover tangible ways student organizations can make an impact on their ability to be a more equitable and inclusive.