Building Equity-Focused Communities: Innovative Campus Designs for Uplifting Black and Brown Students

11-11:50 a.m.

Location: Cassatt B

Type: Informative/panel Facilitated dialogue

Audience: Linked Courses, Coordinated Studies, Living Learning Communities, Residential Colleges

Presenters: Aracelis Marie Sanchez-Guerrero, Dominican University

This session addresses the unique challenges faced by Black and Brown students in higher education and how innovative designs can create access, close equity gaps, and uplift students authentic selves. This session will highlight Dominican University’s Chicago Campus project, which exemplifies the power of a living, learning community integrated within the students' actual community. Learning communities, as defined by the National Learning Communities Association (NLCA), intentionally integrate curriculum and co-curriculum, emphasizing community-building among faculty, staff, and students. The Chicago Campus model includes innovative designs such as utilizing the city of Chicago as a campus, living and learning in the communities students came from, leveraging strategic corporate and community partnerships for support, and providing wrap-around support services addressing social determinants of health. Participants will engage in activities and access resources to consider the needs of Black and Brown students through a trauma informed lens, and be challenged to think through the ways they can build holistic equity-focused systems in their own work.