{"id":15,"ordinal":0,"modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","content_modified":"2026-09-18 18:24:23","featured":0,"title":"Reflecting on the history of Southwestern’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.","creator":null,"description":"<p>For most of Southwestern's history, it has been a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), and today it is working to be a Multicultural Institution (MI). Early initiatives by students of color created \"counter-spaces\" of belonging for themselves, which is something traced in entries about student spaces elsewhere on the Placing Memory website. This tour focuses instead on institutional initiatives designed to diversify the institution from the 1980s to the present. \r\n\r\nSU started the 1980s with an entering class with only 5.2% students of color. By 1999, the entering class was 18.4% students of color. Today, that number is over 40%, and Southwestern is now a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). But diversity is more than demographics; it is about shifting the culture of PWIs like SU to de-center whiteness and create a campus community that is inclusive, where people from multiple identities can belong together. Staff, faculty, and students of color themselves have performed this visible and invisible labor, and we should remember their work more than we currently do. \r\n\r\nThis set of entries traces the early history of Southwestern's institutional diversity and inclusion efforts--from the Minority Presence Committee to the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Diversity Enrichment Committee, and Office of Diversity Education--the predecessors of the current faculty, staff, and student coalitions focused on Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity (DIBE), the JEDI Center, and the Office of Student Success and Belonging. </p>","postscript_text":"","tour_img":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/091d8947405a696d6cdeed07ada06d98.jpg","items":[{"id":94,"title":"Who is Dr. Gregory Washington?","latitude":30.63525756916519782180330366827547550201416015625,"longitude":-97.6678158763805868147755973041057586669921875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/091d8947405a696d6cdeed07ada06d98.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/091d8947405a696d6cdeed07ada06d98.jpg","subtitle":"We should remember the achievements of Southwestern’s first full-time Black faculty member and first Multicultural Affairs Director, while also considering how the roles he played reveal Southwestern’s culture as a PWI.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":113,"title":"Remembering a 1985 report on the experiences of people of color at Southwestern","latitude":30.634630493292444697317478130571544170379638671875,"longitude":-97.666672468403703533113002777099609375,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/4e19fd93e3c0bbee84671caed206fc6c.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/4e19fd93e3c0bbee84671caed206fc6c.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":115,"title":"Who is Tanya Williams?","latitude":30.63463530143697965968385688029229640960693359375,"longitude":-97.66675472303177230060100555419921875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/e3861887e5b9264226939df4b181d733.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/e3861887e5b9264226939df4b181d733.jpg","subtitle":null,"address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":96,"title":"What were Operation Achievement and Passport to the Future?","latitude":30.634791382462964293154072947800159454345703125,"longitude":-97.6615448980511473564547486603260040283203125,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/65d838e8692255809c90a2752fbe8575.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/65d838e8692255809c90a2752fbe8575.jpg","subtitle":"Tracing the history of diversity recruitment efforts and how they were affected by campaigns against affirmative action initiatives over the years.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":100,"title":"Remembering the shifting roles of Upward Bound","latitude":30.634781682236233990579421515576541423797607421875,"longitude":-97.6615207359673149767331779003143310546875,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/8be174025d91eb5f1314165125c32744.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/8be174025d91eb5f1314165125c32744.jpg","subtitle":"How has this public service/recruitment program at SU shaped how its participants see themselves and their futures in higher-ed?","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}},{"id":109,"title":"Who is Dorita Hatchett?","latitude":30.635473100423102010836373665370047092437744140625,"longitude":-97.66608556558139753178693354129791259765625,"thumbnail":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/square_thumbnails/493a485280a248b6b2d36d064d209eaf.jpg","fullsize":"https://placingmemory.southwestern.edu/files/fullsize/493a485280a248b6b2d36d064d209eaf.jpg","subtitle":"Remembering one of the first African-American students to join a sorority and be a cheerleader at Southwestern, who went on to play a significant role in Student Life as an alum.","address":null,"custom":{"subtitle":null,"text":null}}]}