Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Faculty.

Develop training and content that will provide the appropriate on-ramps for students arriving at Brandeis with a wide range of experiences with race in their home countries.

English Language Programs.

Faculty. 

Curriculum will acknowledge that not every new Brandeis student will have lived in a multicultural, multilingual, multiethnic environment in their home country.

Curriculum will not take for granted that international students are familiar with the lived experience of individuals who have suffered from racist societal structures.

Staff time for training.

Funding and training.

Choose topics that are specific to supporting international students and issues of racism they face.

Identify opportunities for staff to engage more broadly in anti-racism concepts that do not specifically touch international students.

NAFSA material will address areas of specific intersection between international education and U.S.-based racism.

Dickinson College.

ISSO team members will engage with the NAFSA material and use contents to apply to its work.

Staff time for training.

Funding for training.

Choose topics.

Identify training opportunities.

Specialized training for the ISSO on matters race-specific to Brandeis.

Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

External organizations

Intercultural Center.

Gender and Sexuality Center.

Understand anti-racism work at Brandeis, and how the ISSO, our students and scholars can engage with it in meaningful ways.

Significant fundraising for scholarships.

Additional fundraising for programming funds.

Applying to become a school that hosts a greater number of Davis United World College Scholars that qualify for the next level of aid ($20,000 per year vs. the current $10,000 per year.)

Institutional Advancement prioritizes this task.

Fundraising occurs.

Consultation with alumni of the Wien International Scholarship Program, the Davis United World College Scholars Program, the Slifka Israeli Coexistence Scholarship Program, the Malkin Israeli Endowed Scholarship Program and the Silverman Endowed Scholarship Program.

Recruitment and programing.

Institutional Advancement.

Undergraduate Admissions.

Office of Alumni Affairs.

50% of Wein Scholars are from nonwhite countries (among active Wien scholars, this percentage is 80%.)

Our international scholarship student from nonwhite countries bring a variety of perspectives on race, since by definition, they come from countries where they share the dominant race. These conversations and realizations are not always comfortable for our international students, but their presence on campus broadens the conversation beyond the U.S. context to encompass the country's colonial past and perspective.

Bringing a balance of students from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank likewise advances the discussion on our campus about this region of constant evolution and conflict.

New office space.

Create a space that normalizes dropping by the international office, alongside other student and academic services.

Department of Facilities Services.

Information Technology Services.

The ISSO team needs to be able to meet Brandeis students who are not international, to foster cohesion in the Brandeis community as a whole.