Welcome to SSU Diversity

  • We at Sonoma State University strive to create a campus climate in which the will to build trust among people - and groups of people - is widely shared, and opportunities for enhancing diversity and a sense of community are encouraged and supported. We stand committed to fostering and sustaining a pluralistic, inclusive environment that empowers all members of the campus community to achieve their highest potential without fear of prejudice or discrimination.

    We encourage every member of our university community to embrace the underlying values of this vision, and to demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting, retaining, and attracting students, faculty, and staff who reflect the diversity of our larger society.
  • We strive to build an exemplary educational community characterized by:

    • an intellectual environment that is both challenging and nurturing,
    • encouragement and support for curriculum and pedagogy dedicated to diversity issues,
    • a commitment to social justice and equality,
    • a respect for human diversity,
    • and a genuine appreciation of how the many differences among us enrich a liberal arts and sciences university.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact us.

Elisa Velasquez-Andrade, Ph.D.
Director of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence
elisa.velasquez@sonoma.edu

If you have any technical questions concerning this website, please e-mail Jean Wasp

 

Spring 2013 Events

 

Highlights

 

Sylvia WatersAlvin Ailey Legacy College Residency, Feb. 24 – 26

Sponsored by Weill Hall at the Green Music Center with HUB, ASP and Department of Theatre Arts & Dance in celebration of Black History Month

Sylvia Waters, former principal dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and founding Artistic Director of Ailey II, offers a college-level intensive residency for local dance students to take a definitive look into the history of the legacy created by Alvin Ailey—a celebration of the African-American heritage and the Modern Dance tradition.

Waters will present lecture/discussion sessions and teach sections of iconic Ailey repertory, including excerpts of Blues Suits, Streams, and Ailey's signature masterpiece, Revelations. Ana Marie Forsythe, a master teacher of the Horton technique, will lead Horton classes that focus on developing range of movement in an anatomically-corrective manner. Working closely in tandem with the instructors will enable students to create an interactive discourse about history, theory and applied practice. Dance technique classes will be offered Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Feb 24-26 and are open to SSU students as wel las dance students from Santa Rosa Junior College and the Santa Rosa High School ArtQuest program. For more information or to sign up for classes, call 664-2474.

Water's offers a public lecture at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 25 in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center. Through the use of selected texts, including Jennifer Dunning's biography Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance, and archival footage of performance and interviews, students will learn of Ailey's singular vision by cultivating an appreciation of the impact of his work in the artistic, societal, and cultural realms. Special attention will be paid to his musical collaborations with Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Ralph Vaughn Williams and Charlie Mingus, among others.

 

Cornell WestCornel West, April 11, Green Music Center

Part of the Neves/Evans Social Justice Lecture Series and On Campus Productions.

Cornel West has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and "bearing witness to love and justice." West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard and the University of Paris. He has written 19 books and edited 13 books. He is best known for his classic Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his new memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. More on West at http://www.cornelwest.com/.

 

Donna LopianoAccess and Equity: Celebrating 40 Years of Title IX and Looking Toward the Future with Donna Lopiano, PhD. Wednesday, March 27. Faculty/Staff Workshop 10-11:30 a.m, Schulz 3001, Student/Community Workshop 4:30-6 p.m, Cooperage. Public lecture, 7:30 p.m., Cooperage.

Title IX is the federal civil rights law enacted in 1972 that prohibits sex discrimination and promotes gender equity in education. Although it is best known for breaking down barriers in sports for women and girls, it also opens the door for girls to pursue math and science, requires fair treatment for pregnant and parenting students, and protects students from bullying and sexual harassment. Dr. Lopiano is recognized as one of the foremost national experts on gender equity in sport and has testified about Title IX and gender equity before three Congressional committees, served as a consultant to the U.S. Office for Civil Rights Department of Health, Education and Welfare Title IX Task Force and as an expert witness in twenty-eight court cases

Contact Kristal Raheem, Associated Student Productions (ASP), raheemk@seawolf.sonoma.edu (707-664-2753) for more information about the evening lecture. Contact Margaret Anderson, Hutchins Dialogue Center, manderson64@gmail.com (707-326-6458) for more information about the workshops.

 


Reflections of the Earth and Tradition: Contemporary California Indian Art. Nov. 29, 2012 to Mar. 8, 2013 in the Library Art Gallery. Open: Mon-Fri 8 a.m.- 5 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Sun. Noon-5 p.m.. Reception for the artists, Jan. 31, 4-6 p.m, The HUB.

Pedagogy Fair, early Spring (contact Elisa Velasquez-Andrade, Director of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence, for more information. 707-664-2401 or elisa.velasquez@sonoma.edu )

Why Women Still Can't Have it All: Wednesday, Feb. 6, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.. The Cooperage, Room 1.

Career Services partners with the Santa Rosa Branch of the AAUW (American Association of University Women) to host a panel of noteworthy women discussing the challenges they have faced balancing the demands of work and home as they rose in prominence in their fields. This event is inspired by the cover story in the July/August 2012 Atlantic Monthly, "Why Women Still Can't Have it All" by Anne-Marie Slaughter.

Vagina Monologues, March 7-9, Cooperage.

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler have been "hailed by The New York Times as "funny" and "poignant" and by the Daily News as "intelligent" and "courageous," The play, which was first performed off-Broadway by Ensler, dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women's experiences." (http://vdaysf2012.eventbrite.com/ )

April is Disability Awareness Month

Sponsored by Disability Services for Students, events for this issue are being finalized, but topics may include Veterans, the Arts and Disability, and a speaker who sustained a physical disability while rock climbing.


Diversity Mapping Presentation

Download the PowerPoint presentation here.

SSU Diversity Mapping Project: Findings and Recommendations by Dr. Rona Halualani, San Jose Sate University