DEI Week features over 100 sessions throughout campus

Friday marks the final day of USC’s third annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Week, which featured nearly 100 events across campus. Organized by USC Student Affairs and the Office of the Provost, the week showcased film screenings, virtual reality presentations, panel discussions and live performances.

Camille Gear Rich, the associate provost for faculty and student initiatives at the Gould School of Law, helped coordinate the events. She said one of the most important reasons for the week was for faculty and staff to gain a better understanding of the student body.

“Our goal here is to serve students,” Rich said. “Unless you understand the experiences and the background of the people that you’re attempting to serve, you can’t fully meet their needs.”

Rich said that when she helped create DEI week three years ago, there were less programs interspersed throughout the day. This year, the programs have expanded and included more people, including alumni, and events began as early as 8 a.m. and as late as 7 p.m.

“I’m just really excited and grateful to see that we are continuing to grow,” Rich said. “I never thought when I started this three years ago that we would grow from 20 events to 100 events … It’s now stretching across both campuses.”

In addition to one-off events such as the Wikipedia “Edit-a-thon,” in which participants were given the chance to diversify Wikipedia’s content during a set time period, the week incorporated events like the “Allyship Series,” which held conversations with people from different marginalized communities.

Debra Langford, assistant dean of Diversity and Inclusion for the Marshall School of Business, said this was the second year that Marshall graduate students established their own programming for DEI week. The Marshall Graduate Student Association hosted a program on Monday titled “Marshall Takes the Mic!” The event invited Marshall graduate students to have a discussions on the theme “Imposter Syndrome & Belonging.”

“We know that diversity and inclusion is important when you’re talking about business,” Langford said. “To be successful, you’ve got to have cultural competency, you’ve got to understand inclusion.”

Langford commended DEI Week for hosting events for diverse audiences  that were not only centered on addressing issues in race and gender, but also other identities such as veteran status.

“I think it has been absolutely outstanding,” Langford said. “Every one of the workshops that I’ve attended … the audience has been inclusive in terms of [gender, race, staff and students].”

Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work Renee Smith-Maddox organized the week’s events with Rich. She credited the Provost’s office for providing the support necessary for DEI Week to happen.

Smith-Maddox said she hopes students take more initiative in the future to help expand DEI Week in the future.

“Our students can take ownership and have agency,” Smith-Maddox said. “If your courses aren’t doing what you want your courses to do, if there is not a very expansive way of looking at diversity, equity and inclusion, then it’s time to ask.”

Smith-Maddox also encouraged students to take advantage of the campus cultural centers, Graduate and Undergraduate student governments and Student Affairs to launch their own initiatives to expand on the diversity of the USC community.  

Rich said one reason to be involved in DEI Week was, simply, decency.

“You should be interested in the world around you,” Rich said. “We hope that by providing these spaces for conversation … people will begin to appreciate those around them at a new level.”

Natalie Oganesyan and Andrea Klick contributed to this report.