She 'snapped awake' during the 2020 riots. Now she's implementing a new DEI mandate at SUNY.
Assistant Environmental Science Professor Kimberly Coleman, a newly announced fellow, began 'reimagining' her work after the the social unrest of 2020.
The inaugural SUNY Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice fellows will help the university system with carrying out its new social justice course requirement for all students.
Assistant Environmental Science Professor Kimberly Coleman of SUNY Plattsburgh, who “snapped awake” during the BLM protests and riots of 2020, has been selected to be one of 15 fellows for the SUNY system’s inaugural Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice program.
Coleman will now be tasked with implementing SUNY’s new DEISJ mandate that is required for all students to graduate across all 64 campuses.
[RELATED: UC-Davis students demand ‘environmental justice’ degree]
“The State University of New York decided that all of its students need to have a common understanding about the history of discrimination in the United States, about the benefits of a diverse society and about the important concepts of justice and equity,” said Coleman.
“To do this, (SUNY) created a new general education requirement and created a fellowship program for faculty who are interested in pulling together resources to support the implementation of that new requirement,” she continued. “In short, all SUNY students will learn these concepts, and the fellows will help ensure that SUNY faculty are prepared to teach those concepts.”
Coleman, who teaches courses about environmental justice, indicated that after the unrest of 2020, social justice and equity needed to be at the heart of her work as a professor.
“Then in 2020, I really ‘snapped awake’ watching the way Covid impacts were playing out across the country and watching the news coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement,“ she said. “I realized I needed to change the way I was operating. I formed a mentoring relationship with a colleague who studies issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice, and I started reimagining my work with justice at the [Center for Earth and Environmental Science].”
Launched in 2021, SUNY’s DEISJ initiative features a 25-Point action plan to produce equitable outcomes in student success and representation.
The newly announced DEISJ fellows like Coleman intend “will help shape the new SUNY DEISJ General Education knowledge and skills area by mentoring faculty across SUNY who are developing or seeking to develop courses that fulfill the DEISJ knowledge and skills area.”
The fellowship program will last until June 2024 and will pay fellows an additional $15,000 to support faculty in developing courses that meet the DEISJ requirement.
Coleman received her PhD in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation from Virginia Tech.
Campus Reform has contacted all relevant parties for comment and this article will be updated accordingly.
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