One of the most important aspects of high-impact practices at a university is diversity, in which diverse students feel that they belong, and students can meet and work with people from diverse backgrounds. As a white, able-bodied, middle-class, cis-gendered male, I am aware of my position and privilege, and that I must do extra work to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive university environment. Part of this meant dedicating an elective course toward studying diversity issues.

The class directly helped me achieve my goal of identifying issues of bias and inequity as well as methods of responding and redressing them (1C). We also considered barriers that underprivileged groups experience in accessing materials (2B Reference), and possible methods of redressing these barriers, including empowerment of the patrons themselves (2A Information literacy, 2C Instruction).