Inclusive and Intercultural Excellence is coordinated by the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID). OID works with the Office of Student Life, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of Off Campus Study, and the various IIE committees on campus to strategically plan and implement programs, structures, and processes. 

The Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) was created in the fall of 2006. The mission of the office is to help integrate the core value of IIE across the Wells campus. This includes collaborating with staff, faculty, students, alumnae/i, and community members. OID works closely with the president, dean of students, the dean of the college, director of off-campus studies, and the campus IIE committees to help design, implement, and coordinate IIE programs and policies. 

Shared Vision

Results from Inclusive and Intercultural Excellence Forum on Creating Shared Meaning, March 31, 2009

Themes
 
Wells College hosted a campus-wide forum in February 2009 to explore the importance of Inclusive and Intercultural Excellence at Wells. Participants were asked why IIE is important to Wells College. Based on these answers, three themes emerged. These three themes and participant’s responses that form these themes are below. 

(1) Wells College’s mission, commitment to social responsibility, and institutional success is predicated on inclusive and intercultural excellence.

1. It is core to a liberal arts education
2. It is core to Wells’ mission
3. It is important for the public perception of Wells College
4. It is the social responsibility of an institution to attract diverse students
5. Supports the college’s responsibility for creating global citizens
6. Wells’ responsibility to create engaged and thoughtful citizens in a pluralistic democracy
7. If Wells didn’t pursue IIE, it would stagnate as an educational institution 
8. Necessary for an institution to be excellent
9. Social responsibility of helping create a more equitable society

1. It broadens our worldview
2. Provides an opportunity to understand different ways of learning
3. It helps us understand and accept people of different persuasions and perspectives
4. Allows us to hear voices and perspectives that we might not always hear
5. It provides an open space where students can learn new things  
6. Pushes us to “embrace new ways of knowing, think critically, reason wisely and act humanely” by understanding how people see things differently
7. Strengthens our off-campus study opportunities
8. Provides us the skills and knowledge to respectfully understand perspectives that are different than our own
9. Helps us understand how to constructively respond to conflicting perspectives and experiences
10. Necessary for students to have intercultural skills and knowledge to succeed upon graduating
11. Helps us understand the intersections of identity
12. Helps us cultivate empathy
13. Helps us improve our listening skills
14. Cultivates an inclusive mindset
15. Helps each of us be more aware of our own prejudices and assumptions 
16. Provides opportunities to understand how Wells “works”, whom to contact, how decisions are made
17. Increases awareness of issues that affect others
18. Improves the advising of students
19. It makes us better human beings

(3) Inclusive and Intercultural Excellence creates constructive interpersonal and intergroup relationships, and a positive and welcoming campus community.

1. It will help people feel welcome to our community
2. It will help improve the flow of communication
3. It will help improve campus climate
4. It will build better relationship between groups of students
5. Opportunities to strengthen community by bringing students, staff, and faculty together
6. It provides a vibrant and dynamic community 
7. Allows Wells to create safe spaces (both inside and outside the classroom) where people can converse genuinely and respectfully without being judged –even if it is not politically correct 
8. Opportunities to have diversity of thought
9. Create trusting and respectful relationships
10. Opportunities to clarify misunderstandings and assumptions
11. Opportunities to be a part of a group with one identifies
12. Provides a positive experience of being part of Wells College

	Faculty, Staff, and Students at the Deconstructing Difference Event
	Student Poster from Deconstrucing Difference
	Fulbright Scholar Huia Tomlins-Jahnke of Massey University, New Zealand Visits Wells and Speaks on Indigenous Research and Educational Methodologies
	Huia Tomlins-Jahnke visits a Women's Studies Class at Wells