By Julie Henriquez Aldana, Ph.D., Gabe Christian Solá, and Andi Richardson (NC ’99)
Newcomb Alumnae Association president Lisa Rice (NC ’83) conducts a Q&A session with Raven Ancar (LA ’21) about her documentary, The Veil
In these decidedly difficult times, Tulane has mobilized to further its diversity and equity initiatives throughout the institution. At Newcomb Institute, we have strived to understand student needs and focus on organizational changes through our Newcomb Inclusivity and Diversity Excellence (NIDE) Committee.
The Newcomb Inclusivity and Diversity Excellence Committee began in 2016 as a collective of Newcomb staff and faculty looking to understand diversity, inclusion, and equity practices at the Institute. Since then, the committee’s goals have shifted according to the needs of our students. In our search for transparency, we created a standing feedback form for students to share their experiences with us. Thanks to this survey, NIDE has utilized the responses to curate our initiatives. As a result, we added three student members to NIDE, and created individual action plans for each staff member to support our goals.
As a committee, we focus on leading diversity education efforts for the Institute, including all-staff retreats and once-monthly team conversations around wide-ranging topics from the mental health of our students to equitable classroom practices; we are currently working on the Strategy for Tomorrow, a university-wide strategic planning process to guide our equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and anti-racism initiatives for the next five years.
In these heavy days of action, calls to justice, and re-examining our position within oppressive systems, we are moved more than ever towards action. In Emergent Strategy, adrienne marie brown states that in movement, “there is always enough time for the right work.” NIDE is here to do the right work and continually grow our commitment to equity and justice.
The Newcomb Alumnae Association (NAA) has also launched an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Committee as a standing committee of the board to further the association’s commitment to collective learning and liberation through anti-racist practices. Newcomb College was a transformative institution as the first-degree granting coordinate women’s college in the United States and empowered women to be educated and economically independent. The NAA continues to evolve as a forward-leaning institution to develop practices and programs to welcome and support all people regardless of race, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, religious belief, socio-economic background, age, ability, body type, and national origin.
In June 2021, the ED&I committee hosted its inaugural event, a virtual town hall to discuss Tulane’s strategic vision and initiatives with Dr. Anneliese Singh (NC ’91), Tulane’s first Chief Diversity Officer. In October, the committee presented and moderated an interactive Q+A about The Veil, a documentary exploring W.E.B. DuBois’ concept of “the veil” and the Black experience at Tulane, directed by Raven Ancar (LA ’22).