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, leadership development opportunities, and advocacy for students at Skidmore College using frameworks of equity and social justice. We work towards belonging and liberation for students of all identities at Skidmore through building communities of care 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 at Skidmore.

Vision

OSDI envisions Skidmore College 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 trickle up social justice 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 Skidmore College. At OSDI, this means we strive to build communities on campus that have commitments to consciousness raising, honest feedback, and personal growth.
• Drawing from the work of Dr. Kimberleé Crenshaw, 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.
• Joy and fun 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.

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Diversity and Inclusion at Skidmore College