{"id":27026,"date":"2022-09-27T19:51:44","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T00:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/?p=27026"},"modified":"2022-09-27T20:59:04","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T01:59:04","slug":"dei-in-higher-ed-conference-explores-best-practices-biggest-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.und.edu\/und-today\/2022\/09\/dei-in-higher-ed-conference-explores-best-practices-biggest-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"DEI in Higher Ed conference explores best practices, biggest challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

All are welcome at next week’s DEI conference, UND\u2019s first<\/strong>\"\"<\/p>\n

The Future is Now, as the graphic above proclaims. And with that in mind, next week UND will host its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion conference<\/a>, calling attention to and hoping to help resolve one of higher education’s most ongoing and widely shared challenges.<\/p>\n

The conference, \u201cThe Future is Now: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education and Beyond,\u201d will be held at UND’s Memorial Union on Oct. 5 and 6. It’s meant to bring together students, faculty, staff, community members and others who care about higher education and want to make the field better, said Tamba-Kuii Bailey, special assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion at UND.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the idea is for participants to learn about “the important work of infusing equity and inclusion in all aspects of the higher-education experience,” Bailey said.<\/p>\n

“We believe the conference will allow attendees to explore many of the challenges and barriers that we have faced in higher education,” he continued. He called special attention to the challenges that arise when institutions don’t practice inclusion as well they could or should do.<\/p>\n

In addition, he said, “we’ll be sharing those practices that people have used to remove those barriers as a means of making higher education accessible to more communities.”<\/p>\n

Bailey thanked UND President Andy Armacost for the president’s strong support of the conference. “We also have sponsorship from the College of Arts and Sciences, the Nistler College of Business and Public Administration, the UND Alumni Association & Foundation and private families,” Bailey said.<\/p>\n

And in part because of that wide range of support, the conference’s themes were made purposefully broad, Bailey said. In that way, the conference will be better able to connect people across campus and the region.<\/p>\n

“Our vision was to introduce people in the region to each other so that they can learn from their peers and hopefully engage in collaborative equity and inclusion work in the future,” he said.<\/p>\n

The in-person conference will serve as an interdisciplinary forum to introduce and explore policies, theories and research associated with equity, inclusion and social justice. It will also explore barriers to effectively implementing equity and inclusion practices, as well as solutions to address these barriers.<\/p>\n

Conference themes:<\/strong><\/p>\n