PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A Berkshire Community College professor has initiated a diversity council in response to current events involving inequality and systematic oppression.

 

Jennifer Collins, associate professor of chemistry and chair of the Life Sciences Department, gave a presentation to the Board of Trustees on Tuesday evening to introduce the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council.

 

The first plans for the council began in the summer, while BCC staff were preparing for a remote learning semester in the fall.

 

"There is a response from the BCC community that we want to be involved, we want to be more proactive, and we want to be more prepared as far as education and training for what is going on," Collins said referring to climate that inspired the council.

 

Associate professor of chemistry stepped in to address this need by organizing the foundations of the group.

 

The council currently is made up of 58 employees, but it will be open to students in the future. With the current remote learning setup, it is hard to reach the student body to get them involved and welcome them to the council.

 

To organize themselves, the members of the council voted on a government structure to assign roles, make decisions, and communicate.

 

This involves a group of three co-facilitators, which will be elected on Oct. 8.

 

"It was not any one person taking it on, because we are all jumping into this voluntarily on top of what we're already doing," Collins said. 

 

To focus on different areas, they have been able to form various subcommittees with designated leaders that report back to Collins.

 

There is a large group focused on education, specifically bringing in opportunities for BCC employees, students, and even the community.  

 

Another group is researching best practices on other campuses and businesses so that the committee has role models of which are making positive change.  

 

One group will be working with the Affirmative Action Committee and human resources with welcoming and onboarding new employees. This need came from new employees moving to the Berkshires and struggling to settle in, find things they need, and make connections in the community.

 

A tech-savvy group is working on creating a page on the BCC website about diversity, equity, and inclusion events happening on campus. Another group focuses on community presence and making connections in the Berkshires so that BCC can get more involved in the community.

 

There is also a budgeting group to determine what funding is needed and a survey group to get information about what is happening on campus and what is needed on campus. This information will help the council better serve the community.

 

The key statement to the council is being actionable. The group doesn't want to just keep having meetings.

 

"We want to do stuff," Collins said. "We don't want to just keep talking. We're about centering the voices of people whose experiences are ignored. Hearing them, not just them being the one small voice and everyone is talking over them."

 

If someone is experiencing injustice, the council wants to hear it, to know what it can do to help, where it can report, and if there is something that can be acted upon.

 

One way the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council has taken action is by teaming up with Multicultural BRIDGE, a non-profit learning organization out of Lee that aims to promote mutual understanding and acceptance among diverse groups and to serve as a resource to both local institutions and the community at large

 

Members will be working with BRIDGE throughout the fall semester to come up with a survey. BRIDGE will also be bringing training opportunities, education opportunities, and rooms to have discussions with employees at BCC informing them of current events and how to respond and participate.

 

Members of the council have attended and participated in various online trainings. The remote aspect of these trainings have made a wealth of content available to members online, as opposed to having to travel for training.

 

"There's all kinds of training on self-awareness, anti-racism, anti-discrimination, and learning your own confidence and how to grow yourself that is available and that we can all take advantage of," Collins said. "We have had a number of people in the BCC community participate in many of these since the summer and it is ongoing."

 

As far as getting out in the community, members of the council have attended organized meetings put on by NAACP and Black Lives Matter in various public commons.

 

"We're getting active, we're being participatory," Collins said. "We're getting out there, which is really nice to see."

 

The mission statement also addresses the culture on campus, commitment to social justice, and education. These are the key things that the council wants to be actionable about.

 

The council had 40 members when it passed its mission statement and more people got involved once it was published. Collins is thankful for the support the council has gotten, saying, "we are really proud of this, and really proud of where we are going."