by Sarah Brennan, HEO Associate
Executive Associate to Provost and Title V Faculty Development
SharePoint URL:
https://sharepoint.hostos.cuny.edu/TeamSpaces/DiversityEducation/SitePages/Home.aspx
Provost Mangino has envisioned a Diversity Education SharePoint site that is now accessible to all faculty and staff of the Hostos community. The purpose of the site is to provide professionally published resources and educational materials related to topics that address issues of diversity. The Presidential Election, for example, brought issues of immigration, gender equality, and racism to the forefront of the national dialogue. The New York Times released a three-part series of articles related to teaching the election to students. These links are archived on the Diversity Education SharePoint site. Also housed on the site – powered and collaboratively designed by the Office of Information Technology – are published articles related to racial tensions that are growing between communities and law enforcement. A faculty member from Montclair State University created a reading guide for her students when they started asking about police shootings during class. These are just a few resources available on the Diversity Education SharePoint site.
This site is being implemented because of its direct support of the mission of Hostos Community College. In Provost Mangino’s purpose statement for the site, she wrote:
“…A central tenet of our mission is dedicated to promoting social justice and upward socio-economic mobility through the pursuit of higher education. As such, as a campus we have a responsibility to provide a forum for our students to safely address some of the issues and rhetoric related to race and social-justice that have been part of the recent national dialogue. While the Office of Academic Affairs is currently collaborating with other divisions on campus to coordinate a campus-wide effort to provide safe-spaces for dialogue, the classroom provides a rich opportunity to assist students with reflection and expression.”
Not only does conversation and education promote self-awareness and awareness of others, but it promotes our students role as leaders in their communities. Further, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) considers “Diversity and Global Education” to be high impact practices, aka HIPs or effective educational practice (Kuh, 2009, p.10). We must continue to face these challenging moments proactively and the site is designed to help the faculty and staff on campus to do so.
Accessing this site is easy. The URL for the SharePoint site is: “sharepoint.hostos.cuny.edu.” When you access the site, start the url with “sharepoint” instead of “www” and use Chrome instead of Explorer. When you enter the URL “sharepoint.hostos.cuny.edu” the page below should appear. Click on “continue.”
After clicking on “continue” you should be taken to a login page. Enter your Hostos credentials.
You will then enter the site and see the screenshot below.
Use the drop-down arrow on the “Cross Campus Collaboration” option and select Diversity Education. After you click on Diversity Education, you should see the screen that appears below.
This site houses pedagogical resources, links, and an events calendar. We are working on adding an archives section.
Please note that these resources are intended for the professional education of the faculty and staff of Hostos Community College. They are meant to support the preparedness and development of intellectual capacity and cultural competencies of the professionals within our community of practice. These resources can be used to inform our practice as tensions and difficult situations continue to arise in our communities and as we continue to face difficult conversations and teachable moments inside the halls of Hostos. The resources found on this site are not meant to be used alone or as sole sources of diversity education and use of these resources should be done thoughtfully and appropriately in the context of your professional work. If you would like to share the ways in which you have facilitated difficult conversations in your offices or classrooms, please contact the Office of Academic Affairs located in the A-building, room 136, or by phone at 718-518-6660.
Kuh, G. (2009). High impact educational practices: What they are, who has access to them, and why they matter. American Association of Colleges and Universities: Washington, D.C.
*Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled tenet as tenant which has been corrected.