Diversity, Equality Focus of New Team of Social Justice Ambassadors

Christine Clark | August 17, 2009

UC San Diego is launching a new initiative to increase awareness of the importance of diversity and equality for the campus community. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Penny Rue is leading the effort. She has brought together a team of more than 35 staff members who have been designated as allies for social justice after attending a recent Building Communities for Social Justice Practice Institute.

The initiative was designed by the directors of the Campus Community Centers: Emelyn dela Pena, director of the Women’s Center; Shaun Travers, director of the campus' LGBT Resource Center; and Edwina Welch, director of the Cross Cultural Center. Vice Chancellor Rue and the directors created the institute to spread awareness of social justice issues on campus.

Attendees at the Building Communities for Social Justice Practice Institute pose for a group picture.

“I work to identify others who genuinely care about issues of diversity and social justice,” she said. “It is my vision that we will create a community that will support staff personal growth; help create an inclusive and welcoming campus climate; and support the personal growth of individual students.”

The institute, which combined practice, theory and lived experiences, had a large impact on its participants, according to dela Pena. Student leaders will be invited to participate in similar social justice training, so they can act as resources for their peers.

“These issues have always been important to the community centers, and Penny Rue has really become an ally in helping the campus community embrace them as well,” dela Pena said.

Jon Carlos Senour, director of Student Legal Services, and Jessica St. Clair, legal educational coordinator, attended the inaugural institute, which inspired them and the other participants to include social justice into a seminar for their undergraduate internship training.

“Student Legal Services will begin including an activity and discussion focused on identity development and social justice in the workplace,” St. Clair said. “The goals of including this new component are to give our interns a chance to reflect on how their new internship may play a role in their identity development and to illustrate how individuals may provide enriching and challenging experiences for each other in the workplace.”

The institute also has helped various Student Affairs staff members use internal campus resources, which is especially helpful in this current economic climate, according to dela Pena. 

“People who want to make this a part of their work can collaborate with each other,” she said. Participants of the institute created an online networking community, where they can talk about the ways they can work with each other on implementing social justice issues, dela Pena added. For example, the Sexual Assault Resource Center will partner with the Women’s Center to include the theme of social justice into next year’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Kelly O’Sullivan, an academic integration officer in the Programs Abroad Office at the International Center, who attended the institute, said she’s working on including a course on Social Justice and Diversity in the curriculum for the new academic advisors’ Training Certificate Program.

Sonia Rosado, an assistant resident dean at Muir College, who also attended the institute, said she continues to benefit from the experience. “I think this was so valuable because we examined how to bring equality into the university and we really learned how to apply these theories in a real-world setting,” Rosado said. Malik Ismail, resident dean at Revelle College and another institute attendee, said social justice and diversity issues are more relevant now than ever before.

 “We are preparing students to be leaders,” he said. “We have a lot of problems in the world and we are preparing them to go out in the world and fix these problems.”