Enrollment and Student Services ADEI Unit Update April 2023

Early in Winter 2023, the Office of Multicultural Student Services (MSS) worked closely with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Planning Committee. Many students who engage with MSS programs, along with MSS staff, participated in planning Western’s Dr. King Day events and several of our Black Student Coalition leaders spoke during the program.  

Nia Gipson, Coordinator of the Black Student Coalition, and Chelsea Joefield, ESC Club Advisor and Program Manager, co-chaired the Black History Month Planning Committee. We hosted a variety of events throughout the month, kicking off with the grand re-opening of the Black Student Coalition, holding educational sessions, collaborating with campus partners for social events such as the men and women’s basketball games, and culminating with the joyful Legacy Ball.

MSS hired two student staff in the Blue Resource Center (BRC), providing support, connection to resources, and community for students who are undocumented and from mixed status families. The BRC is now open for most of the afternoon Mondays through Fridays; office hours are online. Amy Salinas Westmoreland, director of MSS, continues to lead the Undocu Support Team; in Winter, Katy Potts, Western’s new chief of police, and the BRC’s student staff, joined this working group.

Throughout the quarter, MSS collaborated with university partners to support and host events including:

• The Black Lives Matters as School Conference hosted by Woodring College of Education
• With the Dance Department in the College of Fine and Performing Arts, hosting Toni Paison who taught our students traditional Filipino and Hawaiian dances
• Partnering with the Leadership Symposium and Allied Arts to provide our student artists an opportunity to sell their art at the Allied Arts Cultural Arts Festival
• Partnering with Melina Juárez, professor of political science, and LGBTQ+ Western, to host a Queer & Feminist Love craft night around Valentines’ Day

In Winter, the DAC was busy administering accommodations for over 2,000 disabled students. Access manager Amelia Flores jumped in to manage the daily operations of testing services, supervising student staff in testing services and strengthening structures for communication among testing staff and between testing services and other areas of the DAC’s operations.  

In Winter, all access managers began holding regular drop-in office hours for students and faculty; each access manager’s weekly hours are posted on the DAC homepage. Toward the end of the quarter, Josef Mogharreban, director of the DAC, formed a Faculty Advisory Council to facilitate greater reciprocal communication and understanding as the DAC and faculty work together to support disabled students’ access to classes.

The DAC updated and created new resources that are now live on their website, including an overview of the accommodation process, documentation guidelines for students seeking accommodations, and information geared to faculty about the most common accommodations approved by the DAC and ways these accommodations reduce barriers to accessing learning.

The DAC also strengthened our partnership with University Residences as the two departments work together to facilitate accommodations for students living in the residence halls. Staff from the two departments met in a retreat to deepen understanding of each department’s work and build stronger interdepartmental communication structures.

Josef and the DOC student staff team worked together on the DOC’s move into the DOC’s new space in Wilson 165. The DOC led a MCC lunch conversation about intersections of neurodivergence and Blackness, hosted a study session, and livestreamed the memorial service of disability rights advocate Judy Heumann.

LGBTQ+ Western’s work last quarter largely focused on programming supporting identity development, connecting with community, and learning about sexual orientation and gender identity as they interact with other aspects of identity and experience. During Black History Month, we hosted a powerful Black LGBTQ+ Experience Panel and partnered with the Black Student Coalition for a Black & … workshop. Other programs included the ongoing bimonthly Trans Tea gatherings, a food justice program with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as part of the Queering Research Series, and a trans legislation update in partnership with the Center for Law, Diversity, and Justice.

At the end of Winter, LGBTQ+ Western hired four new student staff members. Student staff were busy preparing to open the new LGBTQ+ student lounge in room 722 of the Multicultural Center and getting ready for the annual Drag Show. The student lounge is now open – come check it out!