Diversity Facilitation Collaborative builds connections across campus
The Diversity Facilitation Collaborative (DFC)–a group of faculty, staff and students committed to promoting a thriving and diverse community for all campus members–is a relatively new initiative at UIC. Founded in fall 2023, the DFC is comprised of skilled dialogue facilitators, equity-minded practitioners, experts in critical race and ethnic studies and community activists and advocates.
Organized and supported by the office of equity and diversity, DFC members are trained to facilitate workshops and dialogues among individuals, within departments and across units to support UIC’s efforts to cultivate a diverse learning community that embraces inclusion and equity.
Stefany Sit, PhD, clinical associate professor of geoscience education and geophysics in the UIC Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and leader of the DFC, recognizes that DFC members have a wide range of scholarly knowledge as well as lived experiences that allow the collaborative to facilitate and connect campus members with interests in supporting a diverse community.
“We hope to provide a resource to the campus community that is interested in learning about and celebrating social identities, helping people to feel grounded in our/their identities and to workshop actions toward creating inclusive communities as well as bringing value to the knowledge and expertise of the facilitators,” Sit stated.
Beyond being a resource, the DFC hopes to foster partnership on campus such as their collaboration with the UIC Department of English to write a LAS Diversity Initiative grant together and host a First-Year Writing Program workshop entitled “Engaging Anti-Racism: White Identity Development and Minoritized Racial Trauma.”
Using the intergroup dialogue technique, the DFC has also facilitated workshops for UIC’s College of Business summer BELA Program and fall Dialogue Day on mental health awareness. The DFC hopes to partner and collaborate with units and departments throughout the campus who may want to host an education session on topics like implicit bias or asset-based language.
This spring, the DFC also plans to host two community workshops on understanding intersectionality and mentor maps that will be available for all UIC faculty and staff to attend.
Sit is excited to see engagement in diversity-related work from all parts of the campus, including many STEM disciplines. The DFC aims to support the efforts that have already been started and help strengthen UIC’s values of access, vitality, empowerment and creativity.
In addition to educational workshops, Sit said: “We want to provide safe spaces of love and healing for the community. We are committed to being a campus resource that allows for learning and engagement from people of all identities.”
“I feel thankful to the inspiring group of facilitators who bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our DFC workshops,” Sit concluded. “The facilitators encourage us to think deeply and develop steps towards a more inclusive campus community.”
