Office of Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging

The Office of Inclusion and Diversity has developed a contact list which can be accessed here.

Free Money for Your Bright Ideas!

Do you have a burning idea related to diversity, inclusion or equity you’d love to implement at the College? Consider applying for an Innovation Grant to seed-fund your idea! Innovation Grants are open to both employees and students, and proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis. Priority will be given to proposals that are action-oriented and contribute to long-term cultural change, but all ideas are welcome! For details and to apply, visit the Diversity Innovation Fund webpage.

One College, One SGA

The Student Government Association (SGA) proudly serves HACC’s student body to bring students’ voice to the administration and provide academic success and leadership programming to the student body. As the College continues the good work of the reorganization, so does SGA. Please take a moment to learn more about our student leaders’ great work:

Officers - Due to the remote environment and the College’s reorganization, the campus SGAs are functioning as one unit. Please find a list of officers below:
1. - SGA Gettysburg Campus President, Chloe Knill, cdknill1@hacc.edu
  - SGA Lancaster Campus President, Makaela Moatts, mjmoatt1@hacc.edu
  - SGA Harrisburg Campus President, Conrad Zimmerman, czimm1@hacc.edu (Spring 2021)
  - SGA York Campus President, Andrea Flynn, akflynn1@hacc.edu
  - SGA Vice President, Chloe Buckwalter, cbuckw1@hacc.edu
  - SGA Treasurer, vacant
  - SGA Secretary, Abagail Robillard, afrobil1@hacc.edu

One College SGA Constitution and Bylaws - All officers have worked diligently throughout the fall semester to create a new Constitution and Bylaws that mirrors the efforts of the One-College reorganization. Currently, these documents are under editorial review and will be presented to students and all shared governance groups in February 2021. This process has been challenging, but the leadership has risen to the task and provided very comprehensive documents.
Clubs - Chloe Buckwalter, SGA Vice President, has chaired a committee to update club forms and the advisor manual to reflect the new Bylaws. The committee has held an advisor and officer meeting in early November and recorded this event to share with anyone who could not attend. This committee is also preparing for a spring Advisor/Officer Roundtable in early February. Please reach out to Chloe Buckwalter with any questions.
SGA Hangouts – The SGA recognizes that students need an informal space to connect with fellow students. Starting Jan. 25, 2021, the SGA began to host Zoom sessions by students for students, to chat, ask questions, and engage with clubs and programs. Conrad Zimmerman will be leading this endeavor. SGA Hangouts will be held every Monday starting at 3:30 p.m. and Thursday at 5 p.m. Zoom link: http://bit.ly/sga-hangouts
Senators and Volunteers – Throughout the fall semester, returning senators and volunteers have been reappointed to their roles. SGA is currently looking for interested students that would like to know more about these roles and privileges. Please reach out to wabrubak@hacc.edu with any inquires.
Elections – In March 2021, the SGA will hold a new process for elections. Three elected officers, known as the Advisory Council, will oversee the collegewide SGA, alongside Campus Executive Vice Presidents. There will continue to be campus-based SGA officers to listen to and represent the students at those campuses. Each campus will collaborate with the Advisory Council continuously to provide inclusive and equitable representation and programming collegewide.
Committees –
1. - Scholarship Committee - This SGA committee is working to evaluate campus SGA scholarships and ensure that each campus is represented.
  - Student Involvement Fair Committee - This committee is collaborating to provide asynchronous and synchronous programming for the Spring 2021 Virtual Student Involvement Fair. Please mark your calendars and watch for more details coming soon for this great event being held on Wednesday, February 10, 2021.
  - Ethics Committee – A collegewide SGA Ethics Committee has formed and is receiving training to guide the SGA according to the current SGA Constitution and Campus Bylaws.
  - Forms Committee – The SGA Forms Committee is working on a new Cognito form to streamline their election application process and collaborating between campuses to streamline processes and forms. Due to the remote environment, this has challenged SGA leadership to evaluate the necessity of certain forms and align all forms with the requirements of the new Constitution and Bylaws.

HACC’s SGA has demonstrated professionalism, time management, organization, inclusivity, equity and compassion during the last semester. All leaders within the SGA have recognized the challenges that each staff member, faculty and student is facing during this time and worked to ensure that their decisions reflect the best interest of the students. The Student Involvement team would like to thank and congratulate all SGA Officers, Senators and Volunteers for their continued hard work.

If you are interested in getting involved in the SGA or want to learn more, please reach out to Wendy Brubaker at wabrubak@hacc.edu.

Week 0: Dr. Gannon and the Praxis of “Plus One” Towards Universal Design

During his recent visit to HACC, Dr. Gannon challenged HACC to embrace equity in higher education by utilizing Universal Design Theory. Dr. Gannon demonstrated how design, when done poorly, is weaponized. Certainly, this invokes a strong reaction - weaponized design! Does poor design do such damage? Indeed, design when not accounting for all the variances in the human experience, intended or unintended, does cause harm. Moreover, this applies to learning. Dr. Gannon shared excellent examples of how this occurs.

As an institution of higher learning, fostering a love of learning should be our first priority. I believe we can widely agree that we want to create spaces where students can fully embrace the learning HACC offers. Yet, discussions of creating accessible courses quickly turn from excitement to overwhelming dread. As educators, we want learning to flourish, and yet there is still so much to be done to rise to the standard of full accessibility. It is understandable that faculty may become overwhelmed with the many tasks ahead.

Dr. Gannon offered a pathway out of the dreaded and overwhelming tasks - the praxis of the “Plus One.” Identify one action towards accessibility in your course or program. Consider how you could take one step to incorporate Universal Design in your approach to teaching, your course design, the products used in the learning, and even how you assess the learning. Implement that shift towards accessibility with that one item. Once that is accomplished, move on to one more step in adapting accessibility and universal design into your praxis. Continued pursuit of identification and compliance towards Universal Design will result in fully accessible courses. This approach is doable, sustainable and necessary.

Student Access Services will continue to be a resource as you begin your praxis of Plus One.

SAS’s Stellar Advocates for Accessibility

Thank you to the following HACC faculty and staff members who have gone above and beyond to assist SAS students: Stephen Irvin; Center for Innovation and Teaching Excellence (CITE) Universal Design Roundtable Presenters: Tamara Girardi, Claire Knowles, Corinne Syster, Moderator: Valerie Gray, and the 41 faculty who attended this training on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021; and the 164 faculty who attended Dr. Kevin Gannon’s Universal Design for Learning presentation on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021.

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