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A spirit that is not afraid

Office of Inclusion and Diversity expands grant opportunities

<p>Outside of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity in Auburn University's Harold D. Melton Student Center.</p>

Outside of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity in Auburn University's Harold D. Melton Student Center.

Auburn’s Office of Inclusion and Diversity is offering three new grant programs to students this school year.

Last year, the office started the Inclusive Excellence Programming Grant to assist in funding campus diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

 JuWan Robinson, Deputy Chief Diversity Officer of OID, said the project has brought underrepresented students to tour campus and learn about the University's facilities and potentially persuaded them to apply to Auburn's vet school  The program is open to anyone, but it is focused on serving the needs of underrepresented groups,  Robinson said. 

"Sometimes people just want to know their ideas are supported, and this is our way of doing it,” Robinson said.

Now, Robinson and  OID want to expand on this program with three new grants: the Office of Inclusion and Diversity Exploratory Research Grant, the Advancing Diversity Graduate Student Support Fund and the Employee Diversity Engagement Grant.

The OID Exploratory Research Grant will be focused on “scholarly research and creative activity,” according to Robinson. 

This grant is about supporting faculty wanting to do research that advances diversity in some way  Robinson said. "[The grant] allows us to invest in what we will call a seed project or a smaller project that will help them prepare for larger proposals.”

Similarly, the Advancing Diversity Graduate Student Support Fund will be aimed at supporting graduate student research. In addition to funding research itself, the program will help graduate students gain experience in their respective fields by sponsoring students' attendance at research conferences, for example.

“We’re asking people to talk about how diversity is a part of this in some way. How does it advance their career goals, but also how does this advance diversity in your field?” Robinson said.

Both of these grants are currently open to anyone who would like to apply.

Finally, the Employee Diversity Engagement Grant will be open for spring 2023.

“Whether an employee wants to go into a certificate program or a conference that's going to help them learn about diversity... we want to support that,” Robinson said. “We want to support people's ideas, their development into who they are, and who they're going to become as a professional.”

In addition to these new offerings, Robinson hopes to expand on existing programs. Currently, the OID sponsors 21 diversity-focused student organizations on Auburn’s campus.

”People are looking for that ability to work with diverse teams on complex tasks. We want our students to be as competitive as any other student going into a job or workplace, ” Robinson said.


Diane Pham | News Writer

Diane Pham, freshman in industrial engineering, is a news writer at The Plainsman.


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