Best Practices at Eastern University

Prepared for the Presidential Symposium on Intercultural Competencies

Calvin College, March 27- 30, 2003

President's Response

• Our university’s Strategic Plan includes the goal of recruiting 20% of the student population to be people of color (15% domestic students of color and 5% international)
• 77 half-tuition and more scholarships follow students of color each year (potentially 308 over 4 years).
• There are 4 positions dealing with multicultural issues: Director of Multicultural Recruitment and Retention for students of color, Director of International Students, Assistant to Provost of Multicultural Education (dealing with issues of curriculum and mentoring students), and VP of Community.
• VP of Community leads Multicultural Advisory Board that is comprised of internal and external people and that meets regularly.  Advisors work with different segments of the campus.  Multicultural Advisory Board connects various positions dealing with multicultural issues.
• Mentoring program for students of color, which was initiated several years ago, will be revived soon.
• Office space on campus is provided for the local NAACP chapter, but we don’t have a chapter.

Student's Response

• There are 4 students of color groups: SOAR (Students Organized Against Racism), Black Student League, Latino Unidos (Hispanic student group), and SPEAK (international student club).
• Remnant (step dance team) & Angels of Harmony (multiracial gospel choir) draw students of color.
• Multicultural preview day, in which various multicultural groups are presented, is held annually for prospective students of color.
• Student groups organize and sponsor various activities such as annual World Culture day, Latin Fiesta, Soul Food Dinner/Dance, etc.
• Some chapel services with special multicultural foci are offered: African-American chapel during the Black History Month and Devine Purpose (African-American praise team) sings once a month.
• Intercultural Hand-in-Hand Partnership: freshmen are paired up with upperclass students of different ethnic groups.