Art Department Diversity Statement

The Art Department at Palomar College is dedicated to providing students with the knowledge, experience, and tools necessary for achieving educational and professional success. We believe in creating, fostering, and engaging community as an essential part of the college experience. We understand that the arts are essential to achieving strong societies, communities, and individuality.

This stands on the basis of equal opportunity for all persons; embracing our diversity to pursue equity. In the Art Department, we are committed to ensuring that all students, faculty, staff, and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or differing abilities, feel valued and respected.

We are dedicated to ending discriminatory practices in higher education, supporting inclusive efforts, and closing the equity gap in educational and professional advancement. We respect and value diverse life experiences and identities, and work to ensure that all voices are heard.

The Art Department strives to:

• Recognize diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity as critical to ensuring the well- being of our faculty, staff and student community.
• Acknowledge and dismantle inequities within our classrooms, policies, events, programs, and services.
• Explore unconscious bias, including potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
• Advocate critical thinking about systemic inequalities and their impact on our department and its faculty, staff and students.
• Practice and encourage transparent and respectful communication in all interactions.
• Embody Social Justice Leadership, with respect and tolerance as guiding values.

We expect all faculty, staff and volunteers to embrace this policy and to embody its values in both workplace interactions and daily practices.