One of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone.bell hooks
Mission
The mission of the Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion (OSDI) is to provide support, resources, programming, and advocacy for marginalized students at Skidmore College. We work towards belonging and liberation for students, staff, and faculty of all identities at Skidmore through building that foster leadership, personal and professional development, and positive and sustainable relationships across difference. We also seek to provide educational opportunities for the Skidmore community related to privilege, oppression, power, equity, and justice around race, ethnicity, class, age, body size, gender identity and expression, sexuality, ability, religion/spirituality, and their intersections in support of student success and an inclusive campus community. We collaborate with other campus departments and offices to cultivate learning, development, and leadership; promote academic excellence; build community across difference; and enhance the lives of all students, staff, and faculty at Skidmore.
Vision
OSDI envisions 91¶¶Òù to be an equity and justice-centered institution that recognizes and affirms the intersectional realities of people’s lives and challenges systems of oppression. We seek to foster intentional relationships across difference to examine, learn, and understand our collective responsibility to create more liberatory communities.
Core values and foundations
- Our work is based in a philosophy of or the idea that if the most vulnerable and marginalized in our communities have what they need to be successful and thrive at Skidmore, everyone on campus will have what they need to be successful and thrive.
- OSDI recognizes social justice as both an end goal and an ongoing, ever evolving process1.
- While this process can sometimes surface conflict, we also believe that no one is disposable, we are all necessary in equity-centered work at 91¶¶Òù. At OSDI, this means we strive to build communities on campus that have commitments to consciousness raising, honest feedback, and personal growth.
- Drawing from , OSDI operates from an intersectional understanding of power and identity, striving
to embrace and celebrate members of the Skidmore community in their multiple and overlapping
identities.
- We are also aware of the impact that intersecting systems of oppression can have on multiply marginalized students, staff, and faculty. Therefore, OSDI works to center these experiences and perspectives in our daily work and decision-making processes.
- are acts of resistance and are necessary in social justice work!
1 Adams, M., Bell, L. A., Goodman, D. J., Shlasko, D., Briggs, R. R., & Pacheco, R. (Eds.). (2022). Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, 4th ed. Routledge.
Case Center Flags
Diversity and Inclusion at 91¶¶Òù
