Staff gets diversity training

Sam Gauntt Contributor

AACC is requiring fulltime faculty, staff and administrators to complete a new series of diversity training this school year.

Interim Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Kellie McCants-Price described the training, which began in the fall, as a “threetwo-one plan.” The plan requires all full-time faculty to complete three diversity training seminars hosted by the college and two classes or training sessions of their choosing. Each faculty member also will create a project related to IDEAL—Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access and Leadership.

The college offers professional development classes, including Diversity 101; Understanding and Interrupting Unconscious Bias; and Fostering Inclusion, Sen- sitivity and Respect in the Workplace.

Interim Coordinator of Inclusive Excellence Forrest Caskey said the two elective courses “could be at the college or externally, like getting a certificate or attending an event or something where they’re learning something about DEI.”

The college also requires participation in a longer-term goal or project.

“We want everyone to lieve it’s been done.”

… establish one goal that’s related to diversity, equity and inclusion that is in some way related to their role at the college,” McCants-Price said.

Caskey, an academic literacies professor and the adviser for the Genders and Sexualities Alliance, a student club, said although the college offered diversity training in the past, this is the first time it has been required for faculty.

In King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, he called for racial equality.

Coates said the breakfast was a way to guide “younger voices to discover their voice.”

“The MLK breakfast to me is a sign that it’s still possible to realize Dr. King’s dream, because there’s still a platform,” said Coates, who has founded multiple businesses, including clothing company Modern Priestwear. “And wherever there’s still a platform, there’s an opportunity for voices to be heard.”

“5781: The Post-Pandemic Mandate,” a book Coates published in 2020, helped inspire the speech.