About the CRCC Initiative
The Culturally Responsive Campus Community initiative was created to enlighten, educate, and ignite conversation around creating a more equitable and just campus environment for all students, faculty, and staff at Illinois State University. It is our hope that the efforts of this initiative evolves into Illinois State University becoming a fully inclusive and culturally responsive campus community that ameliorates the inequitable experiences and outcomes of the entire ISU family. The Cultural Responsive Campus Community initiative serves to ensure Illinois State University and the surrounding community continues to commit to an inclusive and culturally responsive campus for all stakeholders.
Mission
The mission of the Culturally Responsive Campus Community is to enlighten, educate, and ignite conversation and action around campus to create a more equitable and just campus environment for all students, faculty, and staff at Illinois State University. The CRCC committee also strives to find creative and effective solutions that will create a fully inclusive and culturally responsive campus community that ameliorates the inequitable experiences and outcomes of the entire ISU family.
Background
The idea of having a Culturally Responsive Campus Community is based on the work of seminal scholars such as:
- Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995), who developed culturally relevant pedagogy, a theoretical model for teachers of Black K-12 students "that not only addresses student achievement but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate” (p. 469).
- Geneva Gay (2000) who defined cultural responsive teaching as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively" (Gay, 2002, p. 106)
- Django Paris (2012) who developed culturally sustaining pedagogy, a theoretical stance that “seeks to perpetuate and foster—to sustain—linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling" (p. 93).
- Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) who defined intersectionalty as the combination of multiple marginalized identities leading to further oppression. She writes "because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated" (140).
The work of these and many more Black, Indigenous, and Scholars of Color (BISoC) are foundational to the purpose of CRCC, which is to create a culturally responsive environment on the campus of Illinois State University and in the surrounding communities it serves. Thus, we must pay homage to those who paved the way.
Goals
The committees goals are as listed
1) Inform the campus and community about issues surrounding the intersectional issues surrounding marginalization and oppression:
- Race
- LGBTQA
- Religion
- Ability
- Ageism
- Sexism
- National Origin
2) Equip faculty with Culturally Responsive Strategies to be used in the college classroom
3) Be at the intersection of faculty to faculty, faculty to student, and student to faculty, student to student
4) Help our students gain a better understanding of white privilege and being culturally responsive
5) Create a strategic plan for implementing diverse practices throughout campus
Contact
For more information regarding the Culturally Responsive Campus Community Conference or the initiative at large, please contact a member of the CRCC committee at:
Dr. Christa Platt, chair
Email: CRCC@ilstu.edu
Web: CRCC.IllinoisState.edu
Phone: 309-438-5752