HEED Award Recognizes School's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

For the fourth year in a row, SAIC received the 2017 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT into Diversity magazine, a national honor recognizing US colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion.

The oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education, INSIGHT into Diversity magazine highlighted SAIC’s innovative diversity efforts, many of which unite the School with the larger Chicago community. On campus, the School’s Diversity Advisory Group (DAG)—formed in 2009—continues to work toward a culture that fosters inclusion in the classroom and welcomes new identities as they emerge. DAG’s 2017 initiatives to meet this commitment include:

• Diversity Infusion Grants are awarded to faculty who make changes to syllabi that broaden, refresh, and further SAIC’s curricular offerings in relation to diversity and inclusion.
• Faculty enrichment lunches engage faculty on inclusive classroom dynamics.
• Global Encounters programming geared toward increasing understanding and visibility of international concerns. 
• Continued partnership with the Chicago Freedom School to provide workshops and training to SAIC students, staff, and faculty. 
• Radical Care Workshops work to uplift both the importance and relationship of activism, self, and community care. 
• Workshops for faculty to explore diversity concepts and develop an understanding of classroom management that is inclusive of all students. 

As a recipient of the annual HEED Award, SAIC will be featured in the November 2017 issue of INSIGHT into Diversity magazine. For more information about the 2017 HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com.