Promoting Safety & Inclusion

     Safety and inclusion are important for development and learning to occur (Strange & Banning, 2001).  Failure to consider one can negatively affect the other.  The fear for personal safety or feeling unwelcome are both detrimental.  The main challenge in achieving campus safety and inclusion is that those sharing the dominant characteristics are more likely to feel safe and included.  A separatist approach may help to initially create an opportunity for congruence, however, over time, it may result in greater exclusion from the campus environment.  Strange and Banning (2001) also noted that groups that are distinguished by race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation are the most likely targets for verbal harassment. 
     Psychological safety and inclusion does not only mean that students are not threatened or harassed.  It involves a sense of mattering.  Mattering includes five aspects:
1.  Feeling noticed.
2.  Feeling important enough to be cared about.
3.  Feeling empathy from others.
4.  Being needed.
5.  Feeling appreciated for one's efforts.
For students to get involved in campus activities and academic programs they must feel that they matter.  The campus environment is experienced differently based on a person's ethnicity, race, age, class, ability, and sexuality.  Why advocate for safe and inclusive campus environments?  They allow student to be more actively engaged and enhance learning and development. 

Strange, C. C., & Banning, J. H. (2001). Ch 5: Promoting safety and inclusion. In Educating by design: Creating campus learning environments that work (pp. 113-136). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.