Attend second annual Mercy Summit for Equity and Inclusion on April 8

On Friday, April 8, Salve Regina will host its second annual Mercy Summit on Equity and Inclusion in the O’Hare Academic Building. This full-day event is sponsored by the Presidential Commission on Equity and Inclusion, and it’s the University’s hope that the summit will see wide participation from the campus community.

This year, the event will be held in person, which will be a refreshing way to discuss such important topics.

In Salve Regina’s Strategic Compass, the University identified “inclusive community” as one of the key components of a Salve Regina education. Events such as the summit create settings for the University to engage in meaningful dialogue about how the community can achieve inclusivity and improve as a mercy institution.

What to expect at the summit

The Mercy Summit on Equity and Inclusion encourages faculty, staff and student participation. The morning’s events will begin at 8:30 a.m. with breakfast and end at 11.:30 a.m. for lunch, which will be provided for participants. The summit will begin with a keynote speaker in the morning, as well as a community-based discussion focusing on the findings of the campus climate survey and the roadmap for Salve Regina’s future work on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Starting at 12:30 p.m., there will be break-out educational concurrent sessions for further training and dialogue in various matters that pertain to DEI. There are sessions that are specifically designed for for faculty, staff and students. Dr. Kelli J. Armstrong, president of Salve Regina, will give closing remarks at 3:15 p.m., and at 3:30 p.m., there will be a wine and cheese reception in Ochre Court.

Participants can sign up for the morning, and they must also sign up for each break-out session in the afternoon that they might like to attend.

For a full schedule and to register for the morning as well as the break-out sessions, go to the summit’s webpage.

Keynote speaker

Photo by Adam Glanzman

The keynote speaker, Dr. Régine Jean-Charles, will present on the topic “Notes on Belonging:  Making Justice the Center of DEI” at 9 a.m. in the Bazarsky Lecture Hall.

Dr. Jean-Charles is a Black feminist literary scholar and cultural critic who works at the intersection of race, gender, and justice. Her scholarship and teaching in Africana Studies includes expertise on Black France, Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean literature, Haiti, and the diaspora. She is the author of “Conflict Bodies: The Politics of Rape Representation in the Francophone Imaginary,” as well as the forthcoming “Looking for Other Worlds: Black Feminism, Literary Ethics, and Haitian Fiction” and “A Trumpet of Conscience for the 21st Century: King’s Call to Justice.” She is also a regular contributor to media outlets like The Boston Globe, Ms. Magazine, WGBH, America Magazine, and Cognoscenti, where she has weighed in on topics including #metoo, higher education and issues affecting the Haitian diaspora.

For a full schedule and to register, go to the summit’s webpage.