The University of Wisconsin held its 2022 Diversity Forum Monday and Tuesday.
This year’s theme, “The Power of Remembering: Reclaiming Our Legacies to Imagine New Futures,” implores the community to take a more profound look at the histories that have shaped UW.
Deputy Vice Chancellor for Diversity & Inclusion LaVar Charleston explained the importance and outcomes of the theme and the diversity forum overall in an email statement to the Badger Herald.
“This subject has ignited meaningful conversations, thought-provoking panel discussions and Q&A’s and most importantly a sense of urgency to continue the endeavor for positive change characterized by organizational and inclusive excellence that facilitates a sense of belonging,” Charleston said.
For the last 22 years, UW has held this annual all-campus and community forum to discuss, share and learn about contemporary issues on diversity and inclusion, Charleston said.
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This year’s forum featured panel discussions, guest speakers and presentations that provide an opportunity to share and learn about pressing issues of diversity, inclusion and equity.
“Over the last several days, we have sifted and winnowed as we’ve explored the multi-faceted ways that prejudice and exclusion permeate campus life, and how students, staff, faculty and the community have responded, organized and resisted, partnering with UW’s Public History— ‘Project Sifting and Reckoning: UW-Madison’s History of Exclusion and Resistance,’” Charleston said.
One of the breakout sessions — “Striving to Become an Antiracist Department: Strategies for Sustained Engagement and Transformation” — featured a presentation by the 2021 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health is a clinical department with 17 family medicine clinics that cares for over 150,000 patients across the lifecycle from birth to death, according to the presentation.
The committee set out to develop and enforce an “anti-racism 2.0” proposal for their department in response to the global social justice movement in 2020, according to the presentation.
They used the forum to share their findings and help encourage attendees to seek change in their own departments.
During the forum, leaders also dove into the 2021 campus climate survey and explored ways to use existing data to enact real change, according to Charleston.
This year’s diversity forum had a historic participant turnout, Charleston said. Those in attendance included UW leaders such as chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and provost John Karl Scholz, as well as faculty, staff members, students and community members.
“While we have not yet arrived as it relates to a culture fully characterized by inclusive excellence, we are continually taking steps toward enhancing our climate and are excited about the opportunity to reflect on our progress and strategize about the best path forward,” Charleston said.
