At Trinity College, we seek to honor the range of differences that mark us as distinctive. We are firmly committed to making ours a community of learning more fully reflective of the racial, cultural, and social diversity that is America’s greatest strength. At the same time, we are working to create an environment that encourages mutual respect, interaction, and engagement. We believe Trinity should be a place where those who live, work, and study here see difference not as a threat but as a challenge and a stimulus to learn – about others, about the larger world, and about ourselves.
Several offices at the College focus attention on issues of diversity and gender. The Women’s Center is a place of advocacy, support and welcome for all members of the greater Trinity community, with a key emphasis on promoting gender equality, better understanding among women who differ along lines of culture, economic class, or sexual identity, and respectful interaction between women and men. The Office of Multicultural Affairs, significantly enlarged in 1999 in accordance with Trinity’s most recent Strategic Plan, is charged with galvanizing the College’s efforts to embrace diversity and grapple with the challenges posed by encounters with differing cultural perspectives and experiences. In collaboration with other offices, Multicultural Affairs promotes intercultural dialogue and supports initiatives to promote a more inclusive environment.
One important program supported by Multicultural Affairs is Promoting Respect for Inclusive Diversity in Education (P.R.I.D.E.). Through P.R.I.D.E, a group of upper-class students serve as peer mentors for first-year students, offering special outreach to students of color, international students, and others from groups underrepresented at Trinity, and promoting multicultural awareness among members of the community as a whole.
Cultural Houses have been established to serve as bases for various cultural communities as well as centers for promoting cross-cultural learning and dialogue. Those Houses held in trust by student organizations in collaboration with Multicultural Affairs include 65 Vernon Street (Asian American Student Association); La Eracra, at 69 Vernon Street, (La Voz Latina); Umoja House, at 72 Vernon Street, (Imani); and 114 Crescent Street (Encouraging Respect of Sexualities), which serves both as a gathering place for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender students and allies, and home to the newly created Queer Resource Center. The Zachs Hillel House, at 74 Vernon Place, serves as the campus center for Jewish religious and cultural life, and is administered by Lisa Kassow, director of Hillel at Trinity.
A number of student organizations have been formed to celebrate heritages, explore contemporary social issues, and/or promote personal and growth. Among these are the Asian-American Student Association (AASA), Encouraging Respect of Sexualites (EROS), Hillel, Imani – the Black Student Union, the Caribbean Students Association (CSA), La Voz Latina (LVL), Men of Color Alliance (MOCA), the Multicultural Affairs Council of Student Government (MAC), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), International Students Association, Trinity College Gospel Choir, Trinity Coalition of Black Women Organization, Redefining Ideal Beauty Standards (RIBS), Sexual Assault Task Force, and Trinity Women’s Organization.
Trinity adheres to a principle of non-discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, handicap, or national or ethnic origin throughout its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other College-administered programs.