Our expectation is that faculty and staff would seek to know our students and be committed to their growth and success. Attention should focus on the equality of all peoples and to Berea’s inclusive mission to facilitate thriving for all learners. Faculty and staff should aspire to inclusive and equitable approaches that

• are based in knowing students in the richness and complexity of their varied multiple and intersecting identities and in working to understand and appreciate those identities;
• meet students where they are, challenge them appropriately to develop, foster their success, and celebrate the assets they bring from their own contexts to the academic community;
• teach, mentor, supervise, and advise in inclusive ways that foster all students’ success.

Additionally, faculty and staff should strive for self-awareness and commit to one’s own development.  Faculty and staff are expected to invest time and energy in gaining or deepening self-awareness of power and place and to ongoing identity development work.

To meet these expectations, Berea College commits to offering opportunities for learning, growth, and development. Opportunities on and off campus are numerous with many such opportunities being led by the Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion.