An Introduction to Associate Dean of Inclusion and Belonging Cristina Garcia
By Sarah Laud, Staff Writer
(Photo courtesy of Cristina Garcia)
At the end of last year, Gettysburg College hired Cristina Caridad Garcia as the Associate Dean of Inclusion and Belonging under the College Life Office.
A first generation student from New York, Garcia got her undergraduate degree in English from Siena College and her graduate degree in College and Agency Counseling from SUNY Plattsburgh.
Before coming to Gettysburg College, Garcia has been in many administrative positions at higher education institutions. Most recently, she was the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Stevenson University.
“The timing is the most exciting thing,” Garcia said.
Garcia said that being surrounded by new staff members and faculty who have a desire for action is very motivating. She explained that the division of College Life has been reconstructed. The college has new hires who are, according to Garcia, ready to tackle steps to put work into action.
College Life has four different branches: Student Success, Co-Curricular Engagement, Wellness and Safety, and Inclusion and Belonging. These branches act as sub-areas that each have additional departments.
Inclusion and Belonging oversees the Office of Multicultural Engagement, Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, International Student Services, and Religious and Spiritual Life.
According to Garcia, the College wanted to have an overarching supervisor for each branch of College Life in hopes to enhance what is moving forward on campus and the collaborative relationships established between campus partners.
This year, the Diversity & Inclusion Office (D&I) will be evaluating the results from the most recent Climate Survey. D&I has asked Garcia to co-host gender and identity based discussions for students to come and talk about the results of the survey and help identify key areas for improvement.
“We are getting ready to have clarifying conversations and put things into action after the Climate Survey and community responses,” Garcia said.
Garcia explained that her role and the main goal of the overall Inclusion & Belonging area is to make campus more welcoming and affirming, especially for anyone with a marginalized identity.
“I don’t want coexistence, I want to move us beyond acceptance and into celebration of difference and diversity; I want to get us to a place where we are not just compliant, but friendly and intentional with our actions in regards to inclusion,” Garcia said.
“Anyone can have diversity with just numbers,” Garcia said.
According to her, the most important part of diversity is how people feel on campus.
“By creating a space that allows people to feel included, we are hopefully making systemic change, and improvements on an individual level as well,” Garcia continued.
Garcia uses the workflow image below to show her view on the different attitudes when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
(Graphic courtesy of Cristina Garcia)
“My goal is to work with the departments in my area, across the division, and others across the college to move Gettysburg along this spectrum of attitudes to become a place that is more accepting and celebratory of difference while aiming for more friendly and intentional planning and growing when it comes to inclusion,” she said, referring to the image.
Garcia also wants to be realistic in her approach.
“It will certainly take time, and this will not include everyone all of the time, but if we can get the majority of campus to approach diversity and inclusion in this way Gettysburg will truly be a ‘great place,’” she said.
According to Garcia, what makes the efforts of Inclusion and Belonging at Gettysburg different from other institutions is that the college is filling administrative positions while others have not. Garcia explained that the number of employees focused on the area of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in a school of this size is typically much smaller. However, Gettysburg College currently has 13 employees working in these areas in College Life alone.
Currently, formal programs run out of the different departments underneath Inclusion and Belonging. One that is unique to the office-head herself is “Creating Connections with Cristina.” Garcia is hosting informal chat sessions on the first Friday of every month for students to come have discussions about their experiences on campus.
Inclusion and Belonging has partnerships with other campus groups such as the Office for Student Activities and Greek Life (OSAGL), Residential Education, and the Center for Student Success. In addition, there is an effort by Garcia and her team to create a peer-education group on campus focused on topics such as DEI, social justice, racial justice, and inclusion among others. According to Garcia, the peer-education program will be an opportunity for students who are passionate in such topics to go through additional training to become on-campus educators themselves.
“In terms of Greek Life,” Garcia said, “we are building the foundation, reinforcing what is there and building upon it.”
Inclusion and Belonging is continuing to educate the leaders in Greek Life on campus. To do so, Garcia said there are diversity chair meetings with fraternity and sorority chapters.
“This generation is very just-minded and environmentally conscious, but also care about wellbeing, not only for themselves but for others,” Garcia said. She plans to harvest this passion and use it to captivate the college community further.
