Dear Members of the Scripps Community,
In keeping with Scripps College’s ongoing focus on strengthening a campus-wide culture of inclusion, I’m excited to introduce the <a href=”http://www.scrippscollege.edu/diversity” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>IDEA Initiative</a>, a comprehensive plan to align resources, programs, and events to advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and access throughout the Scripps community.
As a community, Scripps students, faculty, staff, and alumnae value inclusion, diversity, equity, and access and recognize these outcomes as a prerequisite to the College’s sustained academic excellence and leadership. In order to articulate a shared vision for an inclusive climate at Scripps, we must intentionally transform relationships, learn how to listen and collaborate, and develop viable solutions to problems that threaten to divide/fracture our community. The IDEA project will accelerate the realization of our aspirations for Scripps by coordinating educational programs and resources, opportunities for dialogue, community-based collaboration and planning, and campus- and Consortium-sponsored events.
Denise Nelson Nash, vice president and secretary of the Board of Trustees, will facilitate this work on behalf of the President’s office by convening student, faculty, and staff leaders to develop an action plan, coordinating policy-level discussions among the Board of Trustees, and supporting a yearlong community engagement program with <a href=”http://www.sdcampusnetwork.org/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Sustained Dialogue Campus Network</a>. However, our success will ultimately depend on our individual and collective efforts to share expectations, accountability, and ownership for this work.
I challenge each of you, as well as myself, to acknowledge that we are jointly responsible for defining and refining how we foster a culture of inclusion. This is an ongoing conversation that will continue to evolve as new opportunities and challenges arise and as Scripps continues to strive for academic excellence, leadership, and global citizenship.
I look forward to working alongside you to make IDEA a success this year and in the years to come—our future depends on it.
Sincerely
Lori Bettison-Varga
President