On March 1, Jackie Font-Guzmán, Executive Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), sent out her newsletter, “Belonging Together”, to students.
As she was coming up with the idea for this newsletter, the question in the forefront of her mind was, “How [can] I best communicate with the EMU community?”
April 1 will mark Font-Guzmán’sfirst year working at EMU in her position. In that year, she wanted to hear stories from faculty, staff, and students. “I needed to come into [this role] with humility,” she said. “There were a lot of [students], faculty, and staff who were really doing a lot of DEI work when I came here.”
In her newsletter, Font-Guzmánwanted to highlight DEI initiatives. That included those in motion before she took on her role, and those the places she has seen need for change.
One of her concrete goals includes honoring the Black Student Alliance’s (BSA) requests. “The letter from the BSA… [is] important because that informs my work.” A curriculum change was one of those requests.
“We’re creating one three-credit course that tackles race, gender, and power differentials,” she said. The course would be incorporated into the EMU Core, or in other words, it would be a required course for all students. She also mentioned altering the Transitions course.
Another piece Font-Guzmán sees as a longer-term goal is bringing in diverse faculty. She mentions that EMU can’t control where LGBTQ or BIPOC faculty choose to go, but the curriculum issue is something that can be addressed now.
All these steps are to make sure that diverse groups are being invited to be here at EMU. She believes our campus is already quite diverse, but mentions that when a Black student can come to EMU without ever taking a class from a Black professor, that there is a problem.
Font-Guzmán envisions bringing together diverse groups and her greater goal is to advance a sense of belonging for each student. The way she envisions doing this is helping students find others that are like them. She describes this group as a safety net. “If [you] have a space where [you bring your] authentic self… that’s actually going to empower [your] group to advocate for [itself].”
While the DEI is disrupting the norm here at EMU, like the addition of pronouns to the EMU ID, Font-Guzmán said, “Change requires disruption.” She said that disrupting a norm is difficult, but it can be necessary if we are moving in an inclusive disruption. She doesn’t strive for disruption for the sake of disruption. Instead, she wants to disrupt so that there is a strategy in place for change after a disruption. She mentioned that this is outlined further in her book called “The Neutrality Trap.”
The newsletter also highlighted the Inaugural Lavender Ceremony at Commencement this spring. Font-Guzmán hopes this ceremony can be a place where LGBTQ individuals can feel that their achievements and challenges are honored.
