Large sunny garden filled with sculptures in downtown Chicago
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Initiatives & Programs

Initiatives & Programs

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion works to foster a culture of belonging by creating programming that affirms and facilitates shared learning and academic connectedness amongst the campus community.

Culture of Belonging Programs

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion collaborates with partners across the School to foster inclusion by offering a menu of welcoming and affirming programming to support the success and retention of our diverse campus community. Annual programs include Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI); Welcome Week BIPOC student, faculty, and staff reception; faculty and staff affinity gatherings; Student Affinity Groups; Multicultural Affinity Communities; and the Cultural Oasis and Affinity Group Open House. 

An exterior shot of one of the buildings on the SAIC campus.

DEIA+AR Development and Learning

The Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion coordinates, facilitates, and collaborates with campus partners to provide school-wide opportunities for development and learning for students, faculty, staff, and SAIC leaders. The DEI staff are internal content experts and partners who can co-create training, workshops, and educational programs based on departmental and SAIC community needs and interests.

Student Affinity Groups

If you are a student who would like to get involved with student organizations on campus, we encourage you to attend the annual Student Group Fair and to visit Engage SAIC to explore student groups or email saicdiversity@saic.edu so we can share how to join, establish, or reestablish a student affinity group. 

    • Arab Culture Club (ACC)
    • African Student Association (ASA)
    • BLK@SAIC
    • Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA)
    • Hapa, Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders (HAAAPI) @ SAIC
    • SAIC Hillel
    • IEUM production
    • Indigenous Student Association (ISA)
    • Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IV)
    • SAIC Japanese Cultural Association
    • Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
    • Korean Graduate Student Community (KGSC)
    • Korean Student Association (KSA)
    • National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS)
    • Organization of Asian Artist Propagation (OAAP)
    • Saudi Students Association (SSA)
    • South Asian Student Association (SASA)
    • Taiwanese Graduate Student Association(TGSA)
    • Transfiguration
    • SAIC Trans Artist Coalition
    • SAIC UNIDXS

The Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI) Committee

The Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI) Committee is a collaboration of students, staff, and faculty whose primary purpose is to offer learning opportunities and foster a sense of belonging by honoring the heritage of historically marginalized communities in order to cultivate a more inclusive School. HAPI is committed to affirming and honoring these communities through the creation of partnerships and programs designed for all SAIC community members to learn more about the richness of diverse cultures, art practices, histories, and contemporary lived experiences.

  • Fall 2024 
    Latinx Heritage Month (September 15–October 15)
    LGBTQIA+ History Month (October)
    Indigenous Peoples Day (October 14)
    Native American Heritage Month (November)
    SAIC Disability Month (November/December), in conjunction with International Day of Persons with Disabilities

    Spring 2025 
    Black History Month (February)
    Women's History Month (March)
    Trans Visibility Week (centered around Trans Day Of Visibility on March 31)
    Arab American Heritage Month (April)
    Asian, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AAANHPI) Heritage Month (April/May)
    Jewish American Heritage Month (April/May)

    Explore the Heritage Awareness Calendar for the most current event information. 

Events

    • BIPOC Students, Faculty, and Staff Welcome Week Social
    • Cultural Oasis and Affinity Group Open House
    • BIPOC Faculty and Staff Reception 
    • International Faculty and Staff Reception
    • LGBTQIA Faculty and Staff Reception
    • Religious and Spiritual Minority Faculty and Staff Lunch
    • People Living with Disabilities Faculty and Staff Lunch
    • Parenting and Caregiving Faculty and Staff Lunch
    • Taking Root: DEI in Action EOY Celebration

Annual Shared Read

As an outgrowth of SAIC’s ongoing commitment to redress institutionalized racism and advance racial equity, the purpose of Shared Read—our annual, School-wide reading of a text—is to create a foundational and integrative learning experience for us to collectively cultivate anti-racist awareness and ways of being. The formal and informal engagements we develop through the Shared Read are integral to our development of a shared repository of knowledge that invites us to stretch ourselves by embracing new ways of thinking and being in the classroom, studio, and office—and beyond. If you are interested in teaching the book in your courses, using it in programming, would like to begin a book club, or simply would like a copy of the book selected for this academic year, please email saicdiveristy@saic.edu. 

A book cover of 'Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements' by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha

2024–25 Book

Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha

An online reading guide for the text can be found here. 

A photo of multiple students at the SAIC library.

Anti-Racism Library Resources

SAIC is committed to redressing institutionalized racism and advancing racial equity and creating an inclusive community that actively opposes racism in all its forms against all communities of color.

Members of the school Anti-Racism committee and the Library have curated a non-exhaustive collection of resources, guides, compilations, reading, watching, and listening material for teaching, learning, programming. The resources are intended only to supplement the ongoing self-guided process of learning about diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and anti-racism. For a deeper dive, visit our Learn & Unlearn: Anti-racism Resource Guide, a collaboration with the John M. Flaxman Library.

This is a living document and all suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Send any suggestions to dei@saic.edu.

Exterior shot of the SAIC MacLean Center and Lakeview Building.

Acknowledging SAIC’s Native Land Occupation

The practice of creating and acknowledging the Native and Indigenous lands that SAIC occupies “demonstrates knowledge and sensitivity to contributions from diverse and/or multiple subject positions in relation to both the city of Chicago and broader global communities” (SAIC Research Studio 1 learning outcome) and lays the foundation for creating authentic and reparative relationships with Native and Indigenous communities,  artists, and sacred lands. SAIC’s Anti-Racism Committee’s Land Acknowledgement subcommittee has curated support materials to help the campus community discuss and integrate the land acknowledgement into their courses, events, gatherings, and programming.

Students talking with each other and studying in a large lounge space on the fourteenth floor of an SAIC campus building overlooking Grant Park and Lake Michigan

Diversity Infusion Grant (DIG)

The Diversity Infusion Grant (DIG) supports the research and resources necessary for faculty to make course revisions that broaden, refresh, and further SAIC’s curricular offerings in relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion. There are two cycles per academic year and grantees will receive $1,000 to support this work. The Diversity Advisory Group’s (DAG) Curriculum Committee has created the SAIC Diversity Infusion Grant to facilitate more intentional DEI practices in classrooms by faculty. The funds are intended to support faculty incorporating more diverse reading selections, a greater variety of global images, guest speakers, DEI pedagogy, and/or diversity-related project assignments. The Office of Equity also convenes DIG alumni and interested grant applicants each semester to foster an intellectual community of art and design educators committed to DEIA+AR.