Buffalo State Receives 'INSIGHT Into Diversity' Award for Third Year
For the third straight year, Buffalo State has received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.
The national award recognizes only U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate outstanding efforts and success in diversity and inclusion. Buffalo State will be featured along with 91 other recipients in INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s November 2015 issue. Although the SUNY system as a whole was recognized this year, Buffalo State was the only college within SUNY to receive the 2015 HEED award.
“The fact that Buffalo State has been named a HEED recipient for the third year in a row can be attributed to ongoing campus-wide efforts to address diversity in numerous forms and to continue to make Buffalo State the kind of campus in which all students, faculty, and staff feel included,” said Karen A. Clinton Jones, Buffalo State’s chief diversity officer and director of the Equity and Campus Diversity Office.
“From hosting the unique Anne Frank social justice conference each fall to offering a variety of programs targeted toward first-generation and low-income students, to the research efforts of our faculty, our international and study abroad programs, and collaborative partnerships with community based organizations, Buffalo State always has diversity front of mind,” she said. “Also, the campus has active organizations in place for students with disabilities, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, as well as students of numerous ethnic backgrounds.”
Buffalo State is continuing its “Diversity Dialogue” program series that began in 2013 and brings awareness to sexuality, disabilities, gender quality, socioeconomic status, and race. Also, the college offers Equity and Campus Diversity mini-grants that provide financial assistance to projects, workshops and activities that have institutional impact and support diversity as described by the college’s mission statement, core values, and strategic plan.
“The HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees—and best practices for both—continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion. We take a holistic approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across a campus,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.