Whether your campus is large or small, urban or rural, traditional four-year, community college or research focused, diversity is a part of your institution's mission. But how do we as faculty and staff take diversity issues from the institutional level to the point of actively engaging our students? This session will discuss ways to successfully achieve your diversity goals with students themselves taking the charge.

Ryan Gove has traversed the eastern half of the country from his roots on the east coast to his permanent home here in the Midwest. Mr. Gove holds a Bachelor's degree in Human Development from the University of Connecticut and a Master's Degree in Higher Education Administration from Kansas State University. Currently the Director of Student Life at the University of Kansas Medical Center, his experiences working across the areas of student activities, orientation, academic advising and residential life have always had a common thread, helping students understand diversity and social justice issues.

Drawing from the legacy of the NACWC, the premise of this workshop is that a culturally competent campus becomes a reality only when white colleagues become true allies in the promotion of diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion. That is, as we climb, we must make sure we lift our diverse colleagues. Too often women, multicultural groups, and other special populations on campus find themselves with too little support as they try to advance the campus diversity agenda. White colleagues, on the other hand, are sometimes engulfed in a culture of silence, because they do not know what to do, how to do it, or how whatever they do will be perceived by others. This workshop focuses participants' attention on the critical transition from bystander to ally. Using herself as an example, the workshop presenter shares her transition experience and places it in the context of white racial identity development theory. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to reflect on what they do to advance diversity and be facilitated in their understanding of how the practice of inclusion is an important part of being culturally competent. An anonymous question and answer exercise will help participants examine various issues in a candid way. Feeling more confident and empowered, participants will leave the workshop as stronger allies in advancing diversity and practicing inclusion to create the culturally competent campus.

Dr. Kay Ann Taylor is an Associate Professor in Curriculum & Instruction and American Ethnic Studies and she teaches undergraduate and graduate foundations of education and multicultural education courses at Kansas State University. Her research interests include Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Feminism, African American studies, Latino studies, ethnic issues, women's issues, and equity issues in general from historical, comparative, and philosophical perspectives. Selected accomplishments include: 2009 recipient of the Commerce Bank Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2011 & 2009 Finalist for the Commerce Bank Presidential Faculty and Staff Award for Distinguished Service to Historically Under-Represented Students at Kansas State University, member of the Commerce Bank Presidential Awards Committee, Tilford Fellow since 2006, American Ethnic Studies Governance Board member, Developing Scholar Mentor. She is involved actively in research, teaching, and service that promote social transformation and social justice. Dr. Taylor taught previously at SUNY Fredonia, Iowa State University, and Drake University.

The proposed workshop is designed to assist educators in developing the 21st century culturally competent campus. The main objective of this workshop is to share strategies that the educators can utilize to infuse multicultural competencies within their student bodies. The attendees of this workshop will learn how to identify and avoid road blocks and which steps to take to cultivate culturally competent campus, how to locate teaching, research, and grant resources to develop new multi-cultural programs and revise or enhance the existing program offerings so that they can promote diversity and develop a balanced, global world-view in our students.

Vibhavari Jani was trained as an architect, interior designer, painter, singer, and as a dancer and received her graduate degree from Wayne State University, Michigan and Undergraduate degree in architecture from CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. In more than 20 years of practice in the United States, she has served the architecture and interior design industry in executive and administrative capacity and designed and managed large ($100 million) projects for major corporations, health care, education, government and hospitality clients including Ford, General Motors, Henry Ford Health System, TRW, National Bank of Detroit, Wayne State University and others. As an academic, she enjoys working with students and serves as the Associate Professor in the Interior Architecture and Product Design Department within the College of Architecture, Planning and Design at Kansas State University. In past she has served as a Program Chair, Endowed Professor and as an instructor at Universities in Louisiana and Michigan.

Prof. Jani's research interests include the contribution of Non-Western cultures in the field of architecture and design, influence of collaborative efforts in architecture and interior design education, sustainability and green design, and the influence of new technology and how it is impacting the interior design curricula.

Her book "Diversity in Design: Perspectives from the Non-Western World," published by Fairchild Publication received the Best Book/Media award from Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC) in 2012. She also received a Gold Medal and a Best Thesis Award for her architecture research work "Interiors and Furniture for Open Plan Offices." This research was published in 1990. Prof. Jani has also received many awards and grants for various research and creative projects. Her paintings, poetry, essays and articles have been published in India, the UK and the USA. Her many creative publications include "Creation" the book of her abstract paintings based on the Vedanta Philosophy of India, "Baal Vikas Yatra" (Baby's Growth Book) and her book of Poetry "Sumbandh Naam Nu Ek Phool."

In this presentation, Luke will cover the process and theories which he utilized in creating the H.A.V.E.N. (Healthy Accepting Venue and Educational Network) Program, which focuses on using education about Gender & Sexual Minorities in order to reduce bias experienced by individuals within this identity group. H.A.V.E.N. also teaches that the same methods of reducing bias can be applied to any situation in which an individual is experiencing bias. Some of the areas which will be touched on include Student Development Theory, tools for audience engagement, and audience considerations. By the end of this presentation, audience members will have a better idea of how to improve existing programs at their institution.

Luke Wolford is an Emporia, Kansas native, and grew up on a small Dairy Farm south of there. He graduated from Emporia State University with his Bachelor of Science in Sociology, and a Minor in Crime & Delinquency Studies. While finishing his Bachelor's Degree, he created the H.A.V.E.N. (Healthy, Accepting Venue and Educational Network) Program. Currently, Luke resides in Sugar Creek, Missouri, and is working towards his Masters of Art in Education, Higher Education Administration, with a focus in Student Affairs Administration at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

Attending diversity programs since the mid-1970s, the presenter has noticed that diversity program presenters regularly call upon stereotypes more often than not to make their points. Are we all born into stereotypical roles which never change? Dr. Janet Helms and other researchers have done considerable research to show that individuals in the "dominant or majority" groups and individuals in the "target or minority" group move through identifiable stages of maturity or development.

David Hoopes has also theorized that inter-cultural relationships generally move through eight or nine easily identifiable stages of levels of maturity or complexity after encountering differences in others.

These two broad areas of research give hope that we can all move beyond what we were given at birth and learn to relate better with different "others" if we wish to do so. By putting other individuals or ourselves into groups, we fall into a trap of fuzzy logic that suggests other people and we ourselves can quickly sum up a person based upon a few personality traits.

The work of Helms, Hoopes, and others suggest that all people are at differing levels of maturity in most of our multiple facets of personality or identity. The theoretical work provide ideas for diversity and inclusion activities that move beyond "which group do you identify with," "which group needs more assistance than others," and the use of adjectives to summarize individuals.

These theories also provide a basis to argue against "a few generic diversity programs" to welcome students back to campus during orientation. To truely welcome ever more diverse classes of college students back to campus each fall and to continue to include them in campus life, what is needed is an on-going discussion of the personality/identity theories of Helms and others WITH students on our campuses, from first-year through graduate school.

Come to this program prepared to share. You won't be asked to bare your soul, but you will be asked to consider some very personal questions about your own identity/personality and possibly to join in brief role-plays to demonstrate the concepts as we discuss them.

Michael Osterbuhr's bio is coming soon.

This session is designed to address the issue of supporting undocumented students in higher education. The presenter will facilitate a discussion related to concerns of various units on campuses across the state. Information about the recent Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy and its implications for our campuses will be provided.

Madaí Rivera's bio is coming soon.

Creating a visionary organization starts with defining the group's vision, mission, and values. Vision statements express what the organization wants to achieve; they are inspirational, aspirational, and future oriented. The organization's mission captures what it does today: its products and services, target clients or customers, and how it intends to compete in those markets. Values are the principles that guide the organization's behavior as it works toward achieving its vision; they help individuals to make ethical and effective decisions on a daily basis. Research indicates that visionary organizations significantly outperform their rivals1 and enjoy multiple associated benefits such as a motivated and committed workforce, a competitive advantage in recruiting, and increased customer or client loyalty.

As the world becomes increasingly globalized and people grow ever more interconnected, organizations have started to recognize the importance of embracing diversity. Boundaries that once firmly separated genders, religions, nationalities, races, cultures, etc. are becoming more porous, creating an eclectic, multifaceted marketplace for ideas, workers, and customers. Organizations that fail to adjust to this new reality will ultimately fall behind their peers. Yet many otherwise forward-thinking organizations have yet to explicitly acknowledge the value of diversity in their vision and mission statements (and to a lesser extent, their values). The reasons for this oversight and the effect it might have on organizational effectiveness are not yet fully understood.

In this session, we will discuss the strategic planning process, including characteristics of effective vision and mission statements and organizational values. Relevant research findings will also be presented, including results from a student project in the K-State McNair Scholars program in which over 70% of business colleges at 75 major universities were found to be very deficient in their coverage of diversity in their mission statements and other strategic documents on their websites. Participants should bring copies of their own organizational vision/mission/values statements to the session, so that they can apply insights gained from the seminar directly to their own organizations.

1 Collins, J.C., and J.I. Porras (1994), Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (New York: Harper Collins). Cited in Rothaermel, F. (2013), Strategic Management (New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin).

Information about these presenters is coming soon.