West Texas A&M University’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion is an effort to enhance the University experience for all qualified students, faculty, staff, and visitors, including those who are multicultural, first-generation, female, and LGBTQ.
West Texas A&M University is a University that is open to all individuals, regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, or veteran status.
The University has campus-wide and community programs and activities that encourage student, faculty, staff, and community interactions and that make the campus more welcoming to students, faculty, staff, and community visitors.
In addition to the University’s Equal Opportunity/Nondiscrimination statement, the University uses the definitions that the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) created to define inclusion and diversity.
The AAC&U defines inclusion as "the active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect-in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathetic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions".
According to the AAC&U, diversity is defined as "individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religious, or other affiliations".
The Office for Diversity and Inclusion implements intergroup and individual dialogue and collaboratively implements programming and activities in the spirit of these definitions in order to promote a supportive campus climate where all students, faculty, and staff are celebrated and valued and where multiple perspectives are welcomed and respected.