DEI Workshops

As part of our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, the University of Portland offers educational programming for students, faculty, and staff to increase knowledge and understanding of issues pertaining to race, class, culture, ability, ethnicity, gender, age, and other aspects of identity. Our workshops are designed to confront racism, foster inclusion, enhance campus climate, and increase equity. Since each member of the community is responsible for creating a welcoming and equitable environment, these workshops are designed to empower individuals to support this work.  

We provide regularly scheduled and on-demand workshops and trainings. We also partner with numerous units and individuals on campus and in the community to provide interactive, productive, respectful, and applicable workshops. Most workshops are scheduled to be 3 hours long and will be conducted via Zoom until further notice. 

A sub-committee of the Student Affairs Diversity Committee created the framework for these workshops. The sub-committee members include: James Peña, Ian Robbins, Anne Boyle, Eduardo Contreras, and Yuri Hernández Osorio. 

Student Trainings/Workshops Completed for Spring, check back for updates for Fall '21

• Description: In this workshop, we will explore the challenges of being a BIPOC-identified community member in predominantly White spaces. These obstacles range from experiencing microaggressions, dealing with imposter syndrome, and being the educator for our White-identified peers, while also working through our own racial trauma. In this workshop, we will share how resiliency, self-care, and cultivating a strong support system can help us heal in these activating spaces, in order for us to continue to be a part of sustainable change. We hope to hold space for open dialogue, processing, and supporting one another. 
• Presenters: Dr. Theresa K. Chan (she/her) and Dr. Karin Jong-Mee Garber (she/her) 
• BIPOC students ONLY  

• Description: In this workshop you will explore your social and positional identities and their relation to others. In relation to your identity, you will also have the opportunity to consider your own bias. Through examples and structured conversation, you will also learn about the ways in which systemic and institutional racism, sexism and other forms of oppression, influence personal bias in ways that perpetuate inequity. By the end of the workshop, we will offer ways to mitigate bias. This workshop requires pre-work including but not limited to worksheets, videos, and more. 
• Presenters: Dr. Eduardo Contreras (he/him) and Yuri Hernández Osorio, MSW (she/her)     

• Description: This presentation will review how identity impacts the lives of minority populations, particularly those who are racial, gender, and sexual minorities. Participants will leave this course with increased understanding of how to make spaces more inclusive, relevant history of minority communities, how intersecting identities create systemic barriers, how to recover from mistakes, and ways in which you can build more authentic relationships with marginalized students. 
• Presenter: Erin Waters (she/her)

• Description: This recorded webinar acts as an educational resource for organizations and individuals seeking to deepen both their professional and personal practices toward centering those who navigate society from its margins. By the end of the workshop, participants will have learned actionable steps on how to unlearn anti-Blackness, cultivate mechanisms of resistance to it and better understand how to identify and analyze structures that perpetuate mass marginalization under global capitalism as an entry point for action.
• Presenter: Ericka Hart, M.Ed., D/s (she/they)

Pre-requisite and More Information  

• Trainings/workshop that are listed and offered are free at no cost to you 
• Please keep an eye on any restrictions to trainings for example some are intended only for faculty, staff, students, etc.. 
• Participants will be required to RSVP via Engage 
• Participants may be required to do “pre-work” before entering training. If this is the case, you will be notified when signing up. Pre work may include; readings, case-study reviews, online videos, implicit association tests, or other reflection exercises. 
• The listed trainings will be offered once a semester (Summer, Fall, Spring)  
• You are only allowed to sign up for a training once. For example, you may only register for “Understanding One’s Own Identity & Implicit Bias” once even if it is offered again.  
• Signing up is first come first serve-- at the moment we do not have capacity to reserve spots 
• Each training has a capacityy based on the facilitator and topic (details posted above).  
• Please be mindful when signing up for more than one training a semester to allow more people to participate  
• Completion of training(s) may be shared with your supervisor/department if requested by them  
• Trainings will last up to 3 hours with embedded breaks  
• Trainings will take place over Zoom unless otherwise communicated 
• Please contact oiedi@up.edu as soon as possible to request any accommodations related to a disability.