The Mission of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility (DEIA) Committee is to examine the institution with a critical lens by acknowledging our diversity, creating a culture of unity, developing equitable practices, promoting an inclusive and fully accessible environment for all students and community members.
This space is meant to be a social justice seeking, anti-racist space where all minds, bodies and feelings are welcome and challenged to be life-long learners.
On behalf of Columbia College, the DEIA Committee facilitates work toward ten working goals:
The Columbia College DEIA committee is dedicated to racial justice and is committed to healing, reconciling, and dismantling racism. This commitment is rooted in the belief that all members of our community are valued and needed.
As an institution of higher learning, Columbia College is obligated to address structural racism and the inequitable and racialized outcomes it produces. We also have the professional responsibility to be civil, respectful, decent, and fair to all people. The violence against, bias toward, and inequitable treatment of all human beings, particularly people of color, will not be tolerated. To that end, we will work as a community and with stakeholders in our College to address these ongoing issues and to counter racist views and practices.
The DEIA committee recognizes that our varying experiences and participation in systems of power and privilege make ongoing conversations about race and institutional racism challenging. Therefore, we commit to advocate for policies and practices that provide solutions to dismantling oppressive and discriminating systems and develop new strategies related to racial justice. We will also strive to foster a culturally diverse environment that is free of discrimination, bigotry, and hate speech.
We are dedicated and committed to this path of social justice and welcome others to walk with us in the journey.
The DEIA committee begins each meeting session by reading the following land acknowledgment. Please feel free to use this acknowledgment in any of your meetings as well.
For millennia, Indigenous Peoples of the Southern Central Sierra Me-Wuk have honored, protected, and stewarded this land we cherish. We acknowledge the land on which we stand is the unceded traditional home of the Central Sierra Me-Wuk Peoples including local sovereign Tribal Nations such as the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, the Chicken Ranch Rancheria Me-Wuk Indians of California, the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, the Jackson Rancheria Band of Miwuk Indians, the Ione Band of Me-Wuk Indians, the California Valley Miwok Tribe, and other California Indian and Indigenous Peoples who now live here.
We recognize the years of ill-conceived policies, and the breaking of sacred covenants in regards to Native Peoples.
In order to bring healing to the land, we acknowledge the wrongs in our history against Native Peoples and commit to honoring them and building positive relationships in order to move toward a brighter future.
(Affirmed by DEIA Committee 3/25/2025)
Native america heritage library guide
Disabled student resources guide
