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We don't need to go it alone - reflecting on the Multicultural Institute

Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice
July 13, 2015 Jace Kirschner NASPA

The phone call came at just the right time: I was smack in the middle of October (OUTober Pride Month at Northeastern University) and I was exhausted. The kind of exhaustion many student affairs professionals who work in multicultural or LGBTQA centers will be familiar with: being an office of one (or two), pulling off a full calendar of programs by spending far too many late evenings on campus, while simultaneously juggling the needs of a community depending on you to advocate for them at every turn.

It was at a moment when I asked myself, for not the first time, if I should have stuck out a computer science major instead.

And then I picked up the phone.

On the other end was a close colleague in the counseling center. She was calling because she had just finished a session with a student who named me, in particular, as the person who made it possible for them to stay at Northeastern. My colleague explained that while she couldn’t tell me the student’s name, she wanted me to know that I was making a difference.

Those four words are what every one of us wants to hear, and the answer to why most of us stay in such positions to begin with.

“You’re making a difference.”

And I remembered why I quit computer science.

I will confess I started working in LGBTQA and multicultural affairs a bit by accident. When I received my acceptance from the University of Vermont in 2007, I fully expected I would remain in residential life or campus activities. Landing the role as the graduate assistant in the LGBTQA Center changed that – not immediately, but over the course of two years as it slowly occurred to me that I couldn’t imagine myself doing any other kind of work.

So it was: seeing my own identities, my own story in students who were struggling to succeed or excel at the university, and understanding the tangible difference I could make for them as an advocate in the administration, pushed me inexorably toward LGBTQA services.

Arriving at Northeastern in my first position out of grad school, I saw the commonalities in my own path forward and those of other underrepresented communities. I built connections to colleagues who were running other cultural centers. Together, we tackled mutual issues – the lack of leadership opportunities on campus for students of color and LGBTQA students; policies on campus that disproportionately impacted those we served; the need for comprehensive staff training that focused on supporting multicultural and LGBTQA students.

Over time, I learned the importance of building community and coalitions. This is not work that can be undertaken alone – it will leave us burned out, overwhelmed, and ineffective. We need others to partner with, to learn from, and to turn to in times of crisis.

Now that I work for NASPA’s Educational Programs team in Washington, D.C., I will be participating in the NASPA Multicultural Institute for the first time. It is an opportunity I wish I had been aware of as a staff member, or that I had taken the time to fully examine what it has to offer. It’s easy to get so caught up in day-to-day activities that we miss out on moments like this one, particularly when we are in offices that only have one or two staff members.

For those dedicated to building inclusive campuses, however, the NASPA Multicultural Institute is an incredibly valuable resource. It creates a venue to build partnerships with folks from other institutions with whom we might not otherwise have the chance to connect.

It gives us an opportunity to learn best practices from others who have already overcome particular road blocks or impasses.

It provides an avenue to talk about the myriad current events that impact us both personally and professionally, from Black Lives Matter to Supreme Court decisions on same sex marriage and the Voting Rights Act.

But most of all, it affords us a break from the routine of being “the only one” doing the work, and reminds us how many others there are out there also plugging along in weeds doing what we can to affect positive change.

I’m definitely looking forward to my time in Miami this December – I really hope that you’ll be joining me there, and that you will submit a proposal to bring some of the great work you do to your colleagues.