For the second year in a row, Agnes Scott received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education. As a recipient of the annual HEED Award — a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion — Agnes Scott will be featured, along with 102 other recipients, in the November 2022 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
“Agnes Scott College is pleased to be recognized once again for our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment for our students, faculty and staff,” said Yves-Rose Porcena, Agnes Scott College’s first vice president for equity and inclusion. “The work we’ve done over the past few years and beyond builds on the college’s reputation as a community that embraces and values our remarkably diverse student body and cultivates opportunities to engage, communicate and collaborate across differences.”
INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine selected Agnes Scott to acknowledge the strides the college has made in creating an increasingly inclusive community. The college published a bold Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (J.E.D.I.B.) plan in the summer of 2020, a campus-wide strategy guide for realizing the college’s commitment to social justice. The plan elevates Agnes Scott through five core tenets: advancing a culture of anti-racism, inspiring and supporting students, developing and caring for employees, driving excellence through training, education and research, and impacting our local communities.
Over the past year, the college has continued its long-awaited work of celebrating the accomplishments and achievements of Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) on campus and in the surrounding community. In November 2021, Agnes Scott celebrated its first Black graduate Edna Lowe Swift ’71, with a bench dedication ceremony and a permanent place for her legacy to be remembered. In early 2022, the Gay Johnson McDougall Center for Global Diversity and Inclusion partnered with subject-matter experts on campus to create a professional inclusive leadership certificate program set to debut this fall.
However, Agnes Scott’s biggest news over the summer was being named a recipient of a $750,000 grant from The Mellon Foundation to fund a new project, “Acknowledging our Past: Acting Now for a Transformed Future.” The three-year initiative is designed to elevate the lives of BIPOC artisans and works who built Agnes Scott and the city of Decatur through a strategic partnership with the city and the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has also chosen Agnes Scott as a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) campus. As a THRT campus, the college partners with local and community groups and the campus community on projects that advance transformational racial change, promote racial healing and erase structural barriers to equity and equal opportunity.
“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees — and best practices for both — continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”
For more information about the 2022 HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com.
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