Students here at Northwestern University realize that this campus and its culture are both much bigger than just academics, as they live, sleep and eat at Northwestern every day, but do they realize the effort put into creating an inclusive and culturally dynamic community on campus? Dr. Lesley-Ann Brown-Henderson, Northwestern University’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion, discussed the school’s mission in attempting to create a more inclusive and diverse community, specifically for students of color. Her quotes have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Q: What would you attribute the statistical rise in the number of black students over the past three years to be?

A: I’d like to say campus climate improving and black students feeling like this is a place they’d want to go.

Q: From an administrative standpoint what has changed in the way students of color are being treated on campus?

A: Now people in the community are holding each other more accountable, meaning students are trying to hold faculty more accountable in the classroom and that’s being further affirmed by staff and administrators. And then I think the number of things that we are trying to implement within the community, so from Wildcat Welcome to all these other things; we try to say that this is the community we want to be, these are the things that we are trying to do and these are the expectations of our community members. I think hopefully all of these things are starting to shift the culture on campus.

Q: Would you say the culture shift on campus has been implemented more so by the students or the administration?

A: I think the implementation has been done more so by the university, but I think the students have been pushing the university.

Q: After talking to a couple of students, a few feel like the push to creating a more inclusive and diverse campus has only been seen on paper and is not really being felt by the black community as a whole; what would you say in response to that?

A: I could see how students would see that or say that. When I think about the amount of training and education in Social justice education, which is one of the areas I oversee. To see they touched over 2500 students last year with educations on issues of equity, identity, power and privilege. So, programs like that, I know are on the ground doing work with students and I think sometimes perhaps students aren’t feeling it as directly as they would like to.

Q: Would you say with the current political climate and events like Charlottesville, has that changed any of your values in the office of Diversity and inclusion regarding to black students?

A: Our mission is to collaborate with the entire university to create a safe learning environment through the intentional engagement with difference, so we want our students in our university to engage with students who are different. So, if nothing else those events have furthered center our offices values, I think our work is even more important now than ever.