View of Saint Joseph Hall, a stone building with terra cotta roof tiles, through the trees

DEI Resources

Chestnut Hill College is committed to maintaining a safe and equitable campus for all.

Below you will find resources, including educational, academic, and physical resources to which all in our community have access. We hope these resources will serve to make all feel welcome on our campus and help to increase awareness and understanding in pursuit of our mission to “serve the Dear Neighbor with an active love and without distinction.”

Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

If you would like to meet with the co-leaders of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, contact them or visit their office locations:

Kim Walczak M.S., M.B.A. (She/Her/Hers)
Interim Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Saint Joseph Hall, Room 204
215-248-7097

Meet the DEI Council

Kim Walczak, M.S., MBA – Interim Director of the Office of DEI, Co-Leader of the DEI Advisory Council, Instructor of Business

Aziz Nathoo – Co-Director of DEI, Co-Leader of the DEI Advisory Council, Muslim Chaplain for the Office of Mission and Ministry

Anna-Ryan Bender, M.Div., Director of Campus Ministry

Faith Kellermeyer, M.A. – Associate Director of Creative Design and Content Strategy

Nancy Levitt, M.Ed. – Student Teaching & Field Experience Coordinator

Stephanie Maria-Rios, M.S. – Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions

Ryan Murphy, Ph.D., – Assistant Professor of Sociology

Janeyshka Ortiz – Psy.D. Student

Hilton Oyamaguchi, Ph.D. – Assistant Professor of Biology

Michael L. Reig, JD – Assistant Dean for Operations of Academic Affairs, Registrar

Denise Saurenann, M.A. – Executive Director of Graduate Admissions

 

Community Resources

A Message from the Community – Chestnut Hill, PA Institutional Leaders Joint Statement: “Racial Equity is the Only Path”

The Chestnut Hill Institutional Leaders group is composed of 13 of Chestnut Hill’s respected and long-standing organizations (including the College), representing various aspects of Chestnut Hill life: the arts, education, community, horticulture, medicine, environment, media, and business. All of the member organizations are listed at the bottom of this unanimous declaration.

RACIAL EQUITY IS THE ONLY PATH

A message from the Chestnut Hill Institutional Leaders

Once again, we find ourselves grieving the unjust loss of life and acts of violence against Black Americans in our country. As a group of community-based organizations that work together and collaborate on a regular basis, we unequivocally condemn violence, standing in solidarity with other communities and with every person who rejects hatred, racism, bigotry, intimidation, and social division.

 As leaders of various Chestnut Hill institutions, we want to make it known that:

We believe that Black Lives Matter.

  • We maintain that peaceful protest and informed discourse are foundations of American democracy.
  • We believe that racism creates inequity and inequality in economic and educational opportunity, housing, health care, and environmental security.
  • We pledge to work toward the elimination of racism and the social inequities, by working together collectively, and being proactive in our individual activities, as never before in order to create a more just, inclusive, and peaceful society.
  • We commit to awareness, growth and action through self-examination, recognition and dismantling of power imbalances where they exist, and institutional accountability within our organizations.

Signed jointly by:

Chestnut Hill Business Association
Chestnut Hill College
Chestnut Hill Community Association
Chestnut Hill Conservancy
Chestnut Hill Hospital
Chestnut Hill Local
Crefeld School
Friends of the Wissahickon
Morris Arboretum
Norwood-Fontbonne Academy
Philadelphia Cricket Club
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
Woodmere Art Museum

 

Educational Resources

BIAS REPORTING KEY DEFINITIONS

Protected Classifications:  The law prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex/gender, race, age, color, religion, national origin, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, genetic information, marital status, and military and military veteran status.  These are protected classifications under the law.

Discrimination:  Any unlawful distinction, preference, or detriment to an individual as compared to others in the terms or conditions of his or her employment or education on the basis of his or her protected category status.

Target:  The person alleged to have been subjected to conduct in violation of this policy.

Respondent:  An individual accused of conduct that might be a violation of this policy.

Hate Crime: Criminal homicide, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, arson, larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, or destruction/damage/vandalism of property, in which an individual or group is intentionally targeted because of their actual or perceived race, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, or disability. 20 U.S.C. §1092(f)(1)(F)(ii).

Bias Conduct/Incident: Completed, attempted or threatened abusive or hostile acts against persons, property or an institution, where such acts manifest evidence that the targeted person/group was intentionally selected on the basis of the their actual or perceived age, class, color, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, gender expression, marital/familial status, national origin group, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, veteran status including a Hate Crime.

Bias Harassment:  A Bias incident that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person’s employment or education, or creating a hostile employment or educational environment, and has no legitimate relationship to the subject matter of a course or academic research. In evaluating whether such an environment has been created, the College will consider the alleged conduct from both a subjective and objective perspective. Specifically, it will evaluate that alleged conduct from the perspective of a reasonable person in the alleged Target’s position, considering all the circumstances.

Confidentiality: Confidentiality means maintaining as confidential, to the extent possible, all matters related to a bias incident on a criterion of need to know.

Retaliation:  Any act(s) or attempted act(s) to seek retribution against anyone who has reported an alleged bias incident or against anyone who has participated in an investigation or related proceeding under this policy.  Prohibited retaliatory acts include, but are not limited to intimidation, threats, coercion, or discrimination.

Diversity Terminology

  • Asexual: someone who does not experience sexual attraction.
  • Biracial: a person who identifies as coming from two races; a person whose biological parents are of two different races.
  • Bigender/Dual Gender: a person who possesses and expresses a distinctly masculine persona and a distinctly feminine persona and is comfortable in and enjoys presenting in both gender roles.
  • Bisexual: a person who is attracted to people of their own gender as well as another gender.
  • Cisgender: a description for a person whose gender identity, gender expression and sex assigned at birth align (e.g., man, masculine and male).
  • Ethnicity: the culture of people in a given geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion and customs.
  • First Nations People: individuals who identify as those who were the first people to live on the Western Hemisphere continent; people also identified as Native Americans.
  • Gender: social, cultural and psychological traits linked to males and females that define them as masculine or feminine.
  • Gender Identity: refers to a person’s internal, deeply felt sense of being a man or woman, or something other or in between, which may or may not correspond with the sex assigned at birth; because gender identity is internal and personally defined, it is not visible to others.
  • Heterosexual: a person attracted to members of another sex or gender.
  • Homosexual: a person who is attracted to members of what they identify as their own sex or gender (the terms Gay and Lesbian are preferred).
  • Intersex: a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive organs, sexual anatomy or chromosomes that are not considered “standard” for either male or female.
  • LGBTQIA: an inclusive term for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual.
  • Microaggression: brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership
  • Multiracial: a person who identifies as coming from two or more races; a person whose biological parents are of two or more different races.
  • Multiethnic: a person who identifies as coming from two or more ethnicities; a person whose biological parents are of two or more ethnicities.
  • Pansexual (also referred to as omnisexual or polysexual): referring to the potential for sexual attractions or romantic love toward people of all gender identities and biological sexes; the concept of pansexuality deliberately rejects the gender binary.
  • People of Color: used primarily in the United States to describe any person who is not white; the term is meant to be inclusive among non-white groups, emphasizing common experiences of racism.
  • Prejudice: is a preconceived judgment or opinion, usually based on limited information
  • Queer: an umbrella term that can refer to anyone who transgresses society’s view of gender, sexual orientation or sexuality.
  • Questioning: refers to an individual who is uncertain of her/his sexual orientation, gender or identity.
  • Race: refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics that result from genetic ancestry. Sociologists use the concept of race to describe how people think of and treat groups of people, as people very commonly classify each other according to race (e.g., as African-American or as Asian). Most sociologists believe that race is not “real” in the sense that there are no distinctive genetic or physical characteristics that truly distinguish one group of people from another; instead, different groups share overlapping characteristics.
  • Racism: prejudice plus power; a cultural phenomenon; systemic subordination of members of targeted racial groups
  • Religion: a system of beliefs, usually spiritual in nature, and often in terms of a formal, organized denomination.
  • Sex: separate from gender, this term refers to the cluster of biological, chromosomal and anatomical features associated with maleness and femaleness in the human body. Sexual dimorphism is often thought to be a concrete reality, whereas in reality the existence of Intersex individuals points to a multiplicity of sexes in the human population. Sex is often used synonymously with gender in this culture. Although the two terms are related, they should be defined separately to differentiate the biological (“sex”) from the sociocultural (“gender”).
  • Sexual Orientation: refers to the gender(s) that a person is emotionally, physically, romantically and erotically attracted to. Examples of sexual orientation include homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual and asexual. Trans and gender-variant people may identify with any sexual orientation, and their sexual orientation may or may not change before, during or after gender transition.
  • Social Identity: involves the ways in which one characterizes oneself, the affinities one has with other people, the ways one has learned to behave in stereotyped social settings, the things one values in oneself and in the world, and the norms that one recognizes or accepts governing everyday behavior.
  • Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing
  • Transgender: has many definitions. It is frequently used as an umbrella term to refer to all people who deviate from their assigned gender at birth or the binary gender system. This includes transsexuals, cross-dressers, genderqueers, drag kings, drag queens, two-spirit people and others. Some transgender people feel they exist not within one of the two standard gender categories but rather somewhere between, beyond or outside of those two genders.
  • Transsexual: refers to a person who experiences a mismatch of the sex he/she was born as and the sex he/she identifies as. A transsexual sometimes undergoes medical treatment to change his/her physical sex to match his/her sex identity through hormone treatments and/or surgically. Not all transsexuals can have or desire surgery.
  • Unconscious Bias: social stereotypes that individuals form outside their own consciousness, we all have them as a result of our need to socially categorize

 

Academic Resources

LOCATION OF GENDER NEUTRAL RESTROOMS

There are three gender neutral bathrooms on campus:

St. Joseph Hall, 5th Floor – Next to Red Elevator

St. Joseph Hall, 1st Floor – prior to the entrance of the music hallway

Fournier Hall, 1st Floor – next to Global Education Office