Diversity Statement

The School of Art and Design at San Diego State University is dedicated to educate, support, and empower our diverse student body to become active participants in the evolution of art and design. We seek to prepare curious and engaged creative practitioners and empathetic scholars that will develop their unique voices and create positive change in local and global communities.  

In drafting this document and engaging in this work, we invited input from stakeholders across our School. In the summer of 2020, the School of Art and Design held a town hall in which we listened to the lived experiences of our Black and Latinx faculty members and students. Collectively, we brainstormed ways that we could create a more inclusive space for everyone. In addition to this initiating conversation, we created shared documents, a shared resource drive, held breakout sessions with charted reflections throughout the academic year, and engaged members of the community in dialogue, including local high school students, alumni, and donors. 

The School of Art and Design is committed to cultivating a creative and collaborative community that values the wellbeing, voices, and perspectives of all our diverse members. Though the School of Art and Design has long considered itself an inclusive institution, the Black Lives Matter movement of summer 2020 served as a catalyst to urgently reexamine our diversity and inclusion efforts and to make some immediate changes to that end. We are actively working toward goals that will shift our teaching practices, curricula, and school culture to be anti-racist and decentralize whiteness.

Making the School of Art and Design a safe and equitable place of learning and creativity is a priority and we realize that it will always need reassessment to ensure justice for everyone. 

We are firmly committed to the ongoing research and assessment of our school’s climate in an effort to improve equity and justice for all of our students, staff and faculty. Our expansive diversity and inclusion committee is focused on Curriculum, Culture, Growth and Community Outreach. Through our collective efforts, we seek to increase the diversity of our student body, professors, staff and guest speakers in a school that offers equity in the creative and problem-solving field and to cultivate a safe environment for all voices.

View and Download a copy of our  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan.