Campus and Community Engagement (CACE), a unit within the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, aims to nourish a UAB climate and culture through the promotion of social responsibility and inclusive excellence via education, training, service, and the advancement of intercultural appreciation. Together, we seek to leverage the university's mission and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion as a resource to foster greater academic discourse that leads to intentional community engagement, particularly for historically underrepresented and marginalized communities through four focus areas: education access and success, climate and intergroup relations, research and scholarship, and community building.
Objectives
- Build and strengthen partnerships with diverse businesses, industry, educational institutions, civic and community organizations with a focus on historically underserved and underrepresented populations;
- Connect reflective, caring, and highly skilled practitioners and scholars to facilitate and support awareness, access, and community building in and beyond the borders of UAB;
- Foster a climate of respect for the free exchange of knowledge and ideas dedicated toward problem-solving in a diverse, rapidly changing, and increasingly technological global society;
- Form partnerships with a range of constituents to effect change from the local to national levels and throughout the world; and
- Provide timely response to inquiries and develop connections to campus resources to support community engagement initiatives.
Guiding Competencies
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Leadership
Help participants gain knowledge and demonstrate leadership skills that coincide with our values of social responsibility and inclusive excellence.
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Innovation
Continuously research and explore opportunities to deliver original and imaginative approaches to problem solving that’s reflective of UAB’s best and brightest.
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Inclusive Excellence
Continuously invite, include, consider, and invest in the individual and collective ideas, energy, and resources from individuals across the campus and surrounding communities.
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Intersectionality
Through programming, students, faculty, and staff will explore interlocking layers of societal and cultural functions in an effort to scrutinize, challenge, and ultimately combat cultural norms and misinformation.
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Student Advocacy
We aim to support student success by leveraging our resources to identify and assist students matriculate to and through UAB by providing personal, academic, professional, and financial support.
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Outcomes and Accountability
We continue to commit ourselves to an ongoing process of assessment to determine our effectiveness in support of ODEI mission and values. We do so by creating measurable objectives, identifying outcomes and benchmarks, communicating the results of our efforts against those benchmarks, and continuously seeking ways to improve based on those measures.
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Transformation through Self-Examination
As advocates and leaders, we hold a responsibility to challenge our own traditional ways of thinking and knowing to expand our horizons. This means confronting our personal, academic, and institutional biases and belief systems head-on through education, dialogues, and shared experiences.