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Belonging discussion scheduled for Oct. 22, 2020
Oct. 8, 2020


Greetings Huskies,

In January 2020, the NIU Office of Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the City of DeKalb met to discuss how to bring our communities together and how all community members can feel a sense of inclusion and belonging in DeKalb. As a resident and person of color, the sense of belonging is not just important to me but equally critical to our students, faculty and staff who live and work in the DeKalb community. Together, we are committed to hosting a city- and university-wide conversation on belonging with a national expert who has dedicated his academic and professional career to addressing racism, othering and how to build and unify communities around common principles of belonging.

So much has changed since January, but the need to actively pursue strategies for all community members to have a sense of belonging remains constant and has grown even more vital. 

It is in that spirit that I invite you to join me in a VIRTUAL Belonging discussion with the internationally recognized scholar, Dr. john a. powell (Dr. powell spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be “part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify.”) The event will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22. Registration is required for you to join this event.  You can register in advance at www.cityofdekalb.com/belonging or go.niu.edu/belongingbeginning next week. We will spend two hours with Dr. john a. powell listening and asking him to provide tangible ways for our community to move forward together.

Dr. powell is currently professor of Law, professor of African American and Ethnic Studies, the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion and the director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, all at University of California, Berkeley

Dr. powell has written extensively on issues of structural or systemic racism; racial justice; concentrated poverty; urban sprawl; opportunity-based housing; voting rights; affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil; racial and ethnic identity; spirituality and social justice; and the needs of citizens in a democratic society.

Dr. powell was formerly the executive director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University and held the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law. Dr. powell also founded and directed the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He has served as director of Legal Services in Miami, Fla., and was the national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was instrumental in developing educational adequacy theory.


We are committed to making NIU and the City of DeKalb stronger together!


Sincerely,

Vernese Edghill-Walden
Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Chief Diversity Officer
Interim Chief Human Resource Officer

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