KH: Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging—and the belonging piece is incredibly important—is directly related to our ATI goals. We are committed to making sure that every single student who comes to Muhlenberg feels as though they are valued, that they have a voice, that they are part of the community, that they belong. That actually has been part of our success in enrolling, but then also making sure that our students are retained and that all students are able to accept all of the amazing opportunities that we have here.
ECN: Can you share some of the secret sauce? Were there any specific kind of innovations that came about?
KH: I would say for us it was not necessarily any specific program. It was taking what we already had and aligning it very much with the needs that our current students had—in particular our lower-income and moderate-income students. And then prioritizing it. Muhlenberg’s a place where there are no silos between academic affairs, student Affairs, the Career Center, etc. And so what we did, even before the pandemic and are currently doing now, is provide much more integrated student support across academic advising across the career center, across disability services, the writing center, and so on.
We do have a program called the Emerging Leaders Program, which had been started years ago, but we recently have been able to expand. It’s a cohort program for students from underserved populations where they come in for pre-orientation somewhat earlier than the other students in their first year. And the focus is on making sure that those students know what the resources are, that those students are able to connect with one another, and also to connect with peer mentors, faculty mentors, and staff mentors.
