By Sophie Foster
Opinion Editor
The Centennial Conference, of which the bulk of Washington College’s athletic teams are a part, recently unveiled its new diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy set to span the next three years.
According to the Strategic Directions for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plan, the conference “is committed to providing an equitable intercollegiate athletics experience among membership institutions that are committed to a holistic educational experience” and intends to create “a welcoming culture with a focus on healthy, meaningful, and inclusive student-athlete experience.”
This mission is set to include intertwined academic and athletic excellence, a focus on students, endeavors for integration, attention paid to inclusion, and an emphasis on integrity.
The plan breaks down its strategic endeavors into three central directions.
First is the supplementation of DEI-related learning opportunities by promoting awareness of educational resources, as well as expanding programs and initiatives for student-athletes.
Second comes the creation of visibility of conference-wide DEI communication and outreach. The conference aims to do so by increasing awareness among conference leaders, providing accessible resources to members of the conference, utilizing social media presences to enhance dialogue, and broadly growing awareness of DEI programming.
The third and final direction is the enhancement of inclusive policies and practices across all member institutions. There are three components of this ambition: the expansion of DEI-related procedures, the recruitment of diverse representation across the board in all conference roles, and the development of annual DEI progress reports.
According to Washington College Athletics, “the conference’s legacy of commitment to DEI has garnered national recognition, and the introduction of the strategic plan has provided the Centennial [Conference] with measurable goals and a clear direction for the future.”
The plan was also developed in partnership with Red Brick Road Consulting and Coaching, leading to a focused strategy that addresses the specific needs of the conference using research including focus groups and surveys, according to WC Athletics.
Clear and concise, this endeavor has the clear-cut potential to broaden necessary conversations among student-athletes and within the conference on the whole, particularly considering the conference’s history of attempts to indicate strategic DEI engagement.
In 2022, for example, the conference was named the NCAA’s Division III LGBTQ Conference of the Year by the Division III LGBTQ Working Group, according to the conference’s website. This award recognizes a department or conference office that demonstrates proactivity in creating and sustaining an inclusive culture for LGBTQ students.
According to the website, “the Centennial membership has committed to numerous actions including enhanced education, policy development, Athletics Diversity and Inclusion Designee participation, and engagement with Athlete Ally, a nonprofit LGBTQ athletic advocacy group.”
Only the years to come can exemplify whether or not this plan will prove to bolster the causes it claims to aspire toward. Regardless, though, it indicates that attention is being devoted at the leadership level to crucial needs in athletic spaces.
If we want to foster an inclusive, welcoming space in campus athletic spaces, WC should take that attention seriously and adopt it for itself as a community. There are numerous ways in which this can be done ¾ to begin with, the conference’s new policies themselves should be emphasized not only for student-athletes, but across the board at the College.
This should be taken as an opportunity to advance conversation, build dialogue, and impart lasting messages of inclusivity among college students impacted by this decision, but it requires proactivity and sustained intentions to achieve said impact at all.
Elm Archive Photo
Photo caption: Washington College athletics will be guided by new Centennial Conference DEI policies.