In recent years, William Jewell College has pushed for increased diversity and inclusivity on campus and in the community through Radical Inclusivity efforts. The Hilltop Monitor will be conducting an investigation into the efficacy, past and future of Radical Inclusivity efforts at Jewell through curricular offerings. 

The investigation will be published in multiple parts, each of them emphasizing a different perspective on institutional changes, both recent and historical. This article is the first to be published in the series and it will focus on the Critical Thought and Inquiry (CTI) program, Jewell’s core curriculum and CTI 150 in particular. This article will focus on the CTI program from 2016 to the present, as the curriculum underwent changes and development in relation to diversity and inclusion during that time. 

Dr. Gary Armstrong, professor of political science and associate dean of the core curriculum, provided some insight into the CTI program and its relationship to Radical Inclusivity in order to give context for diversity and inclusion within Jewell’s curriculum.

The core curriculum is at the heart of Jewell’s identity as a liberal arts college. According to Armstrong, the College’s mission is lived out in the core curriculum. The core curriculum was instituted as a means of encouraging cross-disciplinary academic experience conducive to developing critical thinking and is now a primary locus of diversity and inclusion within the curriculum.

Armstrong says in 2016 there was a recognition of a need for change on the part of the student body and the faculty regarding the core curriculum. The political climate at the time prompted the College to make improvements regarding diversity and inclusion and improve communication between BIPOC and other minority students and the faculty, staff and wider College community.

“There was a feeling that events around the world and in this country indicated that we needed to focus more on [diversity and inclusivity measures],” said Armstrong. “We know that this is important. We know that our students are going to have to lead a world that will be very different than the world of their parents and grandparents. And while they’re here, this is a time for us to have really good conversations.”

Three guidelines structured the conversations. First, the faculty wanted students to reflect on their identity. In other words, it was crucial that students come to realize the ways in which they are positioned socially, racially and economically. 

Secondly, students should be able to reflect on how their identity is shaped by the kinds of social relations which they are taken up, whether consciously or unconsciously. By coming to understand the ways in which their identity has been shaped by certain sociocultural norms and by certain social interactions, students would then be in a better position to make cross-cultural comparisons. 

Third, students should be able to grow in their capacity to have discussions on these difficult questions having to do with race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality. It is not enough to merely be aware of identity-related issues – the College determined students should be able to engage in a conscientious dialectical endeavor in an attempt to reach some kind of consensus on hotly contested issues. 

The faculty created CTI 150: Identity and Society – a 7-week course required for all Jewell students – from these guidelines. They voted unanimously in favor of undertaking the development of CTI 150 in 2016. 

The faculty decided to structure the course by emphasizing the importance of guaranteeing that a set of common outcomes were realized, without setting a rigid syllabus. In this way, the faculty members could play to their own expertise in order to facilitate an already difficult conversation between students in the classroom. The ultimate end of CTI 150 was to create a space for difficult conversations, guided by the three common guidelines previously mentioned.

After five years, CTI 150 will be reviewed for its efficacy and evaluated according to metrics obtained from IDEA surveys. Armstrong claims the results of these surveys show that, compared to the general population of students, Jewell students are relatively competent in areas of intersubjectivity, which he says are related to diversity and inclusion efforts.

Armstrong cites three areas in which recent emphasis on Radical Inclusivity – including faculty workshops and the work of Dr. Rodney Smith, vice president for access and engagement – has had an effect: on the politics of representation, on the importance of grace and diversity as a measure of demographic representation, whereas inclusion is something else which the college should seek to promote more conscientiously. 

Students and faculty can face difficulties in voicing their own opinions and experiences, especially when their peers are not representative of their own backgrounds. He argues that it is easier to engage in the politics of representation. For example, in an attempt to hear a diversity of opinions, a professor may invite a student to speak and subconsciously expect the student to represent the entirety of their identity group. To do so is to encourage damaging essentialist thinking, which ignores the nuances of identity even with an in-group. Armstrong explains that professors must encourage students to speak without expecting representative opinions.

Armstrong thinks it is important to instill in students a kind of graceful philosophy when entering a space for difficult conversations. He stresses that not every conversation having to do with identity politics should be a “really intense conflict of ideologies.” 

“Sometimes you’re going to go in as a diplomat, and you’re to figure out: are there points, despite our disagreements, of common agreements and possible common action?” said Armstrong. 

The key to such conversations, according to Armstrong, is to remain respectful and to recognize that we are all human beings prone to make mistakes, especially when it comes to topics as difficult as those having to do with diversity and inclusivity. 

“Hopefully we are creating a zone… [where people can say], ‘Look what we’re dealing with, we have to touch. Let’s give each other some grace if we touch something that’s too hot and then we get burned,’” Armstrong said. 

Smith’s work emphasizes that the College should bring more energy to increasing inclusivity on campus, as diversity is a measure of demographic representation while inclusivity is a matter of belonging and cannot be unnaturally forced. Faculty workshops have been exploring what it means to have an inclusive community. 

Armstrong holds that, in terms of CTI 150, the core curriculum has been adapted well to meet the demands of rather unprecedented times. The core curriculum has some courses designated by a DU (United States Diversity) or a DG (Global Diversity) tag, which Armstrong claims are crucial to the furtherance of a student’s development of an intellectual in an increasingly global and intersectional environment. 

Due to COVID-19, the College has faced challenges in continuing its Radical Inclusivity work. Armstrong asserts it is more important now to continue to take note of classroom dynamics as much as possible and to try and learn from teaching and learning in these strained conditions. He explained that there may be certain online learning strategies that can be later used to supplement learning post-pandemic.

The College’s focus on Radical Inclusivity will continue to shape the CTI program. Armstrong said that further considerations should include the future of the Sacred and Secular courses and that restructuring may be necessary once several capstone course professors retire in the near future.

The history of William Jewell College dates all the way back to the mid-nineteenth century when the College was established in 1849 by prominent men in the Baptist Convention and in the community, well-supported by a large donation from William Jewell. From 1849 to 2003, Jewell was a Baptist college. During the Civil War, the campus was shut down and turned into grounds for a hospital, lookout, and a stable. It was not until the 1920s that Jewell welcomed women to the campus, and even later in history, they welcomed their first full-time Black student, Bill “Pee-Wee” Summers, in 1961.

Today, the campus looks completely different. Jewell remained expensive and therefore inaccessible for many individuals until recently. The College is attended by mostly white students and a low percentage of culturally diverse students. However, the admissions department is working hard to make the campus as diverse as the surrounding Kansas City area. 

Eric Blair, vice president of enrollment and marketing, was ready and willing to share many different numbers, marketing strategies and all the efforts that have been implemented to diversify the campus. When talking about diversity, Blair acknowledges the wide field of identities – including BIPOC, low-income, first-generation, disabled, LGBT, international, LatinX students and more. 

“We want to be more accessible as an institution to students. Taking that down from a verbiage or policy to the operational sense, we are being as representative as possible in our materials, in our visuals, and in our language,” said Blair. 

Blair said that in recent years Jewell has started a “holistic” admission process.  The program began because Jewell’s admissions team realized standardized tests like the ACT or SAT are sometimes a significant barrier, especially for students in low-income areas. Now, when looking at applications, these test scores are no longer a barrier. Admissions wants to see prospective students in the workforce and in any other community involvement possible. Blair says this puts an equity lens on the admission process so they can identify students of promise who otherwise may have slipped through the cracks because of standardized tests. 

During the pandemic, many schools have done away with the need for these, often costly, tests. But Blair stressed that this has been an ongoing conversation at Jewell for years now, and they have no intention of stopping this holistic admission process after the pandemic. 

“Most students didn’t pay anything near the published tuition, but that got lost in that sticker price,” said Blair. “It was counterproductive to the message of accessibility to say ‘here’s this big price out here. We’re an elite private institution, you have to have an elite pocketbook to access the institution.’ This just wasn’t the case, so we worked to clarify that.” 

Both the departments of financial aid and admissions hope this message will debunk the idea that, for a Jewell education, you have to have a pocketbook bigger than the campus itself. Blair said admissions wants students to come to campus and see themselves before even committing to Jewell. They want to have multiple different communities available from the moment a student steps onto campus in order to celebrate as many students as possible. Blair emphasized that representation matters, and while this conversation of representation is important, the numbers speak for themselves.

“Our BIPOC students have increased from single digit numbers to 27 percent over the last couple of decades,” Blair said. “That was sped up in the mid-2000s, so really in the last 15 years. We are trying to do more.”

When thinking about the BIPOC percentage in the Kansas City Metro area, Jewell wants to be as representative of the region as possible. He says they have a goal to have over a third of the campus be racially and ethnically diverse.  The class of 2024 is the most diverse in the history of the College, which demonstrates a commitment to these goals. 

Blair emphasized that this number can be skewed in multiple ways. If they said the school is 36 percent diverse in a broad sense, they also have to acknowledge that the cohort grew, clarifying that the last class grew 12 percent. Incrementally, the number grew, and this is their main focus. 

Blair stated that without a “huge tapestry” of backgrounds, students cannot enjoy a rich classroom experience. Jewell wants to continue welcoming as many students from as many backgrounds as possible for the sake of diversity and learning but also from a monetary standpoint. Blair knows that the campus needs students to pay the bills and keep being sustainable as a not-for-profit institution but also knows that only doing this with white students is not helpful to the campus mission. 

“We are not fulfilling our mission if we found ways to be sustainable through only white students,” Blair said. “Yes, we could meet the goal to be sustainable, but we would lose the other mission of creating a diverse campus that all students could enjoy.” 

It appears as though Jewell is pushing hard to make the campus as diverse as possible to make as many students as possible feel welcome. In the coming years students, faculty and staff will keep voicing concerns and pushing for change. Despite progress not always being explicitly clear, conversations are continually being had in conference rooms (or, more likely, Zoom calls) about how to improve Jewell’s diversity and inclusion.

As past incoming classes continued to break down barriers with increasingly diverse student populations, William Jewell College was faced with a choice last spring: remain stagnant or evolve to serve these students. 

According to Pharamond Guice, director of the Academic Achievement Center, opting for the latter meant Jewell needed to address important questions about equity in their classrooms. With such growth in student diversity, it becomes more likely that individuals are coming from underrepresented backgrounds, meaning they may not be as prepared for college as other incoming students. And so, with the incoming class of fall 2020 being the most diverse in the College’s history, it was finally time to “talk about the blisters” in higher education. 

“What does it look like for students sitting in a classroom space and not a lot of other students look like them,” Guice said. “Whether it’s in terms of race, ethnicity, or even gender? What does it mean for a student who comes from a school district that doesn’t have… as much resources as a more affluent [one]? That looks at some really minute details but we are really pushing hard to make Jewell an inclusive and equitable place.”

However, since the needs of a student may vary greatly depending on their individual circumstance, developing a one-size-fits-all support system would be ineffective. On the other side of the issue, identifying and helping each and every incoming student who may be in need of extra support would be nearly impossible.

With this problem in mind, Provost Dr. Anne Dema gathered Guice and Dr. Gary Armstrong, associate dean of the core curriculum and professor of political science, for breakfast on a “cold and miserable [early February] morning” last year, as Guice recalls – a meeting that would catalyze the development of an extensive resource titled the Shape Your Future (SYF) program. 

The program follows participants through their first year at Jewell, providing them with support and resources in an effort to close the gap in equitable disparities that students of underrepresented populations might encounter. Select student participants are invited to enroll in the program during the summer before their first semester at Jewell. During its inaugural year from Summer 2020 to Spring 2021, the program had 46 participating first-time college first-years and transfer students.

As stated in its course description on Moodle, the SYF program aims to empower students “to be self-advocates, to foster belonging, to serve their community and future professions and to be agents of change,” while exploring topics such as “equity in education, advocating for self and community [and] how to use influence to make change.”

Starting in July, students attend plenary Sunday sessions that introduce a weekly topic through a two-hour presentation and group discussion. Then, later in the week, students meet in small groups with a program guide, who is a current Jewell student, or mentor to reflect on the completion of self-directed exercises.

“Having the plenary sessions and several sessions [lets] participants bounce back and forth as their schedule allows,” Guice said. “The smaller group sessions were very intentional about creating [personal] spaces that are for the participants so they can get to know their guides and…each other. The fact that we’re able to grow this thing so organically, as an outsider to the student experience, I can tell you it’s amazing to see.”

The program holds 12 learning weeks that are spread out over late-summer and the fall and spring semesters. Al Leone, director of the Tucker Leadership Lab and SYF program mentor, explained that each learning week is intended to foster development of a specific skill as students venture into higher education. The 12 learning weeks are further divided between three fundamental course topics centered around the theme of a student’s personal journey through college and beyond. 

The first course, titled “Gearing Up,” is designed to prepare students for their first semester in college. The second course, “Charting and Navigating,” engages students with concepts surrounding personal goals and potential challenges of the journey. The final course, “Expanding Horizons,” focuses on leadership and developing skills for problem-solving.

The self-directed exercises followed the learning week topics closely, allowing students to engage with the skills in a personal way. Students completed activities such as evaluating their identities and habits in the first course, mapping out their future goals in the second course and developing solutions to specific problems in the third course.

Additionally, student participants are paid a $200 stipend per course ($600 for the year) to attend the Sunday and small-group sessions as well as to complete the exercises. According to the “Expectations for pay” document on the course’s Moodle page, the stipend breaks down as follows:

• $25 for each Sunday plenary meeting (4 meeting per course; 12 total),
• $12.50 for each small cohort meeting (4 meeting per course; 12 total) and
• $12.50 for completing and turning in self-directed content (per week; 4 weeks per course; 12 total)

“Gearing Up” is held during four consecutive weeks in mid-July to early-August. “Charting and Navigating,” is held every other week from mid-September to late-October. “Expanding Horizons,” is held from late January to mid-March, with three learning weeks before spring break and one after.

Students will attend their last plenary session March 7 and their last small group later that week, officially graduating from the program by mid-March.

Leone led students through their first Sunday session in the program’s mid-July launch, introducing them to the foundational concept of the course and beginning with an introductory piece about preparation.

“Bilbo Baggins didn’t just run out the door the minute he met the dwarves,” Leone said. “He had to do some prepping; he had to talk to Gandalf. There’s all these things you have to do before we arrive at the start of our journey, and that’s really what the first section was all about.

The Sunday sessions are led by different faculty members to promote a variety of lesson styles and specialization in topics. Guice – also a SYF mentor – led a learning week that was focused on time management and how to prepare to prioritize learning in an entirely new environment.

“We’re planting these seeds early on in the program so that participants will connect the dots and start thinking these things through now before classes happen,” Guice said. “When I first started college, it was all new – stimuli, stimuli, stimuli, new classes, new people, new experiences, new, new, new – and it’s overwhelming. We are hoping to help participants take a step back and realize it’s not as overwhelming as it’s going to be [and] we can manage some of that.” 

Transitioning to college was especially overwhelming for many 2020 first-years. Like many others, first-year music education major and SYF participant Brynesha Griffin-Bey’s senior year of high school was cut short as schools suddenly switched to virtual learning platforms last spring – the time period that is usually intended to help senior students prepare for college.

“After the last months of my senior year were spent online and were nothing like I was expecting, I was even more nervous to go to college,” Griffin-Bey said. “I felt like through online learning, I wasn’t learning all of the important ending units of my senior year to the best of my abilities. And I tried to stay calm and level-headed, but I was very anxious and nervous with not knowing what to expect.”

According to Griffin-Bey, however, the SYF program was exactly what she needed to ease her anxiety as she transitioned to college during a pandemic. 

“Not only have I met new people from the program that I know I can rely on and ask for help if I need it, but the plenary and small group meetings keep me accountable and help me stay productive on the weekends,” Griffin-Bey said. “Also, the program helped me a ton during the summer leading up to August and move-in day: I got my iPad before my peers and figured out all of the Apple mechanics – since it was the first Apple product I owned. Just the little things, like getting introduced to Moodle early, have helped me feel more prepared and on top of things.”

Similarly, moving into the fall semester was difficult for first-year nursing major Jasmine Malisos. Although Malisos came to Jewell classified as a sophomore due to credits earned in high school, she was still new to the college experience, and she said SYF was a powerful resource in her specific situation.

“The program gives us resources to help us like tutoring and [recurring] Zoom meetings to discuss college or life to make sure we are happy and… that we are doing good in school,” Malisos said. “SYF has helped me become involved, gave me more friends and guided me through college. I definitely recommend the SYF program to incoming students because it is a fun and great opportunity that won’t be found anywhere else.”

As the program prepares to conclude its inaugural year, Griffin-Bey reflected on the skills she picked up along the way, stating that alongside learning many essential academic skills she also learned about herself as a person.

“This program has helped me realize my potential as a student,” Griffin-Bey said. “As a Black girl [at Jewell], it made me realize the impact that I can have for future Black girls on this campus. It also allowed me to see strong and true qualities inside of myself that I definitely wouldn’t be able to see all by myself.”

If you are a student at William Jewell College, you have heard about, been involved in or at least gone to mandatory Radical Inclusivity training. In the recent years, Jewell has made an active effort to diversify their population of faculty, staff and, most importantly, students. There have been multiple efforts taken to further this, but the newest upcoming addition is a collection stocked full of books that explore many different multicultural themes. Library services and the Black Student Alliance (BSA) have partnered together to implement a brand new collection within the library, named the Critical Foundations Collection. 

The Hilltop Monitor interviewed Rebecca Hamlett, director of library services, and Tavarus Pennington, junior communications and English major and BSA president. There are many other students and staff in the works with this project, including, but not limited to, Claire Henry, sophomore digital media communications major; Rodney Smith, vice president for access and engagement; and Catherine Dema, senior physics and Oxbridge history of ideas major and engagement chair of Gender Issues & Feminism. When sitting down with The Hilltop Monitor, Hamlett was energized and excited to start the conversation about the Critical Foundations Collection.

Hamlett explained what inspired the inclusive collection, sharing that the library last semester had started thinking about ways to diversify their current books and add content that covered a wide range of topics. Soon after, Pennington reached out about a similar topic, ultimately leading to a successful partnership that reached across students and staff. Hamlett said that the main goal of this library is to bring diverse voices into the texts available at Jewell. 

Hamlett gave most of the credit to the students involved, saying this is almost exclusively their project. To get this collection started, library services and the group of students involved reached out to numerous donors, starting within advancement offices at Jewell. The donations collected for this library to be implemented totaled up to $25,000. The collection started with about 50 initial titles being ordered from library services to be put in Curry Hall. Now, through collaboration from the multicultural organizations on campus and generous donors, they are up to over 150 new titles delivered to campus with more in shipment and hopes to expand to eBook resources in the near future. 

“It’s endless in theory. We don’t want to restrict what diversity means,” Pennington said when asked about what titles will be included.

The books included cover a wide array of diversity-focused texts, including, but not nearly limited to, BIPOC, LGBTQ, feminism, religion and more. 

“We wanted everyone who possibly could contribute to it, to contribute to it,” Pennington said. 

The price of the titles ordered so far totals up to about $4,100, so a significant portion of the $25,000 funding remains to add more titles to the collection.

The library is hoping to add more to this in the near future with donations from alumni, the faculty and staff giving campaign and any donations they receive. The hope is high to grow this collection even further and keep the Critical Foundations Collection thriving. 

Ideally, this collection will be open this month and have a COVID-19 friendly launch party. They also hope to have book discussions, collaborations and to have authors come to campus to lecture and engage in many more conversations about inclusivity at Jewell. Essentially, the library and the students involved wholeheartedly agreed to take this further than just providing these books. 

The library and students are also committed to making the collection accessible and easy to find. The featured collection will be on the main floor of Curry Hall. The rest of the titles will be on the second floor of the PLC in the Tower Room, which will provide easy check-out. The library stressed that they understand that a topic like diversity is always changing, and they will be taking title recommendations for the collection at this link to accommodate for this fact. All recommendations are encouraged, and the library will endeavor to purchase all of the titles it can for the collection. 

You can also email Hamlett, Peter Johnson or library services with suggestions. Overall, this collection plans to to further the efforts Jewell is putting in to create a diverse and accessible campus. The Critical Foundations Collection will give students who fall into these underrepresented categories a place where they can be heard and seen, which was ultimately the inspiration behind the collection.

“[To me, Radical Inclusivity looks like] dropping all of the barriers, pushing all of the disparities that are created… all of that goes away,” Pennington said.

This collection is also intended to provide students who are outside of underrepresented communities opportunities to educate themselves and learn from multiple perspectives. These books and resources will further the concept of being the Critical Thinking College() and challenge the traditional means of higher education.