Diversity Initiatives

As you see in our Departmental Values, the Office of Residence Life (ORL) values diversity in the residential communities on campus. Following are some ways in which we enact that value.

Staff Training

  • Resident Assistants and Professional Staff receive at least 8 hours of diversity-related training in July and August.
  • Training topics include but are not limited to Identity and Inclusion at Miami, Responding to Incidents of Intolerance, Diversity Resources on Campus, and OEEO & Title IX.

Living Learning Community and Living Options

  • Several Living Learning Communities are directly connected to diversity and inclusion including Love. Honor. Pride., WiSDEM (Women in Science Disciplines, Engineering and Mathematics), and Community Justice and Wellbeing.
  • Miami offers Gender-Inclusive Housing.

Programming

  • One of our Pillars of Success is to Develop Diverse and Inclusive Environments.  One way we achieve this pilllar is to implement and support diversity-related programs in our communities. 
  • ORL staff, LLCs and Community Leadership Teams offer a variety of in-hall programs such as Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (Emerson Hall), Decorating with Diversity (Scott Hall), Shabbat Dinner (Dodds Hall), and Values Exploration (Brandon Hall).

DEI Reps

  • DEI Reps promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the residence halls.  
  • Each Community Leadership Team will select at least one DEI Rep who will meet weekly with all of the DEI Reps
  • DEI Reps
    • write and email the weekly DEI Moment of the Week to their community listserv.
    • meet with campus leaders for discussions around a variety of topics. 
    • plan and implement community building programs for their community

Staff Development

  • Professional Staff affinity groups - the opportunity for our staff to self-create support groups based on identity affiliation
  • Reading book groups - Examples of past reading group books includes Blind Spot by Banaji and Greenwald and We Can't Talk About That At Work by Winters. 
  • Regular diversity-related calendar event updates

Assessment

  • Several questions on the annual Assessment of Living and Learning survey completed by thousands of on-campus students are related to diversity and inclusion. Demographic information about respondents is analyzed to identify trends among underrepresented students.
  • Two annual climate surveys are administered, analyzed and discussed; one to the RAs and one to the Professional and Central Staff in ORL.