The Presidential Advisory Committee on Inclusion (PACOI) will host a listening session on Wednesday, March 1 as part of Diversity Dialogues Week. Students are invited to share their concerns, ideas and proposed strategies on how to make the University of Portland a more diverse and inclusive campus.
A panel will share some thoughts and experiences to start the conversation, but the rest of the session is reserved for hearing student concerns and suggestions. The task of the PACOI, which was formed by President Fr. Mark Poorman last year, is to review the items discussed at the listening session and then present recommendations to the president of the University.
Joane Moceri, dean of the Nursing School and co-chair of the committee, explained that the panel will not put forth their own ideas but will instead focus on hearing student suggestions. She also mentioned that last year’s listening session was highly informative for the panel.
“We’re really hoping that lots of students will attend and bring their concerns and bring their solutions,” Moceri said. “It’s not just listening for the sake of listening, but to take these ideas and make recommendations to the President.”
The event also aims to be technologically interactive, and will be putting out doing real-time survey questions for the audience to fill out on their computers or phones.
Moceri emphasized that the listening session is to engage students as much as possible and gain insight from them.
The event will be from 5-7 p.m. on the quiet side of The Commons.
