Suffolk University will hold its first Ram Inclusion Week Monday, Feb. 3 through Friday, Feb. 7. The program will feature opportunities for education and dialogue, such as workshops and panel discussions, as well as vibrant celebrations, including a dance performance, a poetry slam, and a cultural cuisine night hosted by Suffolk student affinity groups.

“The events we’re hosting during Ram Inclusion Week not only recognize and celebrate the diversity within the Suffolk community, but will also engage students, faculty, and staff in conversations on the importance of inclusion both on and off campus,” says Cameron Breither, assistant director of the Center for Student Diversity & Inclusion.

Suffolk’s long history of opening access and opportunity to all, including traditionally marginalized populations, is now woven formally into the University’s new strategic plan, Suffolk 2025. The University’s Diversity Task Force conceived Ram Inclusion Week to support this imperative and bring it to life in a meaningful way, according to Joyya Smith, vice president for Diversity, Access, and Inclusion.

“Everything that we're doing is in alignment with where our University is attempting to go,” Smith said. “My hope is that Ram Inclusion Week will be a jump start for some of the diversity and inclusion initiatives to remind everybody that diversity and inclusion belong to us all.”

The idea of a single initiative that brings together all of Suffolk’s efforts at building diversity and inclusion first surfaced three years ago in discussions of the Diversity Task Force. It gained further momentum following Suffolk’s participation in the Leading for Change Higher Education Diversity Consortium, a group of New England colleges and universities committed to building diversity best practices. The consortium challenged its members to go beyond using research and data to identify racial achievement and opportunity gaps, and to craft actionable steps to close those gaps for students.

“We can talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, or any initiative for that matter,” says Smith, “but until you actually start trying to implement things, you know, the talk is just that.”

The Diversity Task Force came up with four action items: increasing professional learning opportunities for faculty and staff; strengthening outreach programs to surrounding off-campus communities around Boston; using data collection and focus groups to get a clearer picture of diversity on campus; and developing curriculum enhancements that expose students to more issues of race and ethnicity.

A fifth action item is Ram Inclusion Week, itself—an event that ties the other four items together.

“We were able to capitalize on some things that are already occurring,” Smith said, pointing to workshops at the Center for Teaching & Scholarly Excellence and religious and atheist gatherings at the Interfaith Center that will take place during the week, “and then also offering an opportunity for people to join us and help us expand our view of diversity and inclusion.”

That opportunity to join the conversation—to be heard—is central to the cause of inclusion, Smith said.

“Inclusion starts with being open to someone's perspective. But not only being open, not only listening, but also allowing the person to contribute. You can have representation from all sorts of groups—race, gender, ability, sexual orientation, intellectual differences—but without inclusion, it means nothing.”

Ram Inclusion Week kicks off at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in the Sargent Hall fifth-floor Blue Sky Lounge. President Kelly will deliver opening remarks, and the campus team members from the Racial Equity and Justice Institute/Leading for Change Diversity Consortium will provide an overview of the five action items that will deepen Suffolk’s institutional infrastructure for Suffolk 2025’s Racial Equity Imperative.