So that we can learn from each other, we encourage mutual respect based on a recognition of human dignity. We take seriously our obligations to each other as individuals and as members of the community.

At Trinity, you will discover, learn from, and make friends with talented students and teachers who offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives, yet share your passion for learning. You can join and work with groups that represent our fundamental diversity or you can pursue your own particular interests. We believe that Trinity is a magical place where great dreams are dreamed and great actions begun. Proud of the splendid variety of dreams, hopes, and accomplishments here, we hope you will join us and enrich our community by your presence.

From Karla Spurlock-Evans, Dean of Multicultural Affairs and Director of Affirmative Action
“Trinity College is firmly committed to making its community of learning more fully reflective of the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity that is America’s greatest strength. Of equal, if not greater, importance, we seek to create an environment that values and nurtures individual and group differences and encourages engagement and interaction. We believe Trinity should be a place where those who live, work, and study see difference not as a threat but as a challenge and a stimulus to learn—about others, about the larger world, and about ourselves. Understanding and respecting multiple experiences and perspectives will encourage a more authentic appreciation of our fundamental oneness as members of the human family. In short, by promoting diversity and intellectual exchange, we wish not merely to mirror society as it is but rather to model society as it should and can be.

’Diversity, quality, and excellence are intertwined and inextricably linked,’  Trinity President Evan Dobelle [1995-2001] asserted upon the launch of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Trinity’s vision for the future is guided by the conviction that a richly diverse community of students and faculty is central to achieving excellence in higher education.  Students and faculty from different cultural backgrounds invariably introduce unique perspectives from which to view traditional subjects as well as press for the study of new areas of interest. When we encounter individuals who do not share our cultural “givens,” we are challenged to read more widely and deeply, to think more critically, and to synthesize new ideas as our intellectual position is interrogated by another.

As we enter the 21^st century, air travel, computers, and the collapse of national economic boundaries have provided America with a new next-door neighbor—the entire world. Furthermore, as we move forward into the new century, traditional American notions of “majority” and “minority” will fade, as this nation is peopled in ever larger numbers by individuals from many races, cultures, and countries. As we observe these changes, we are reminded that students who have been well served by their college experiences will have learned to sit comfortably with difference. Both at work and at play, all of us will be required to move across cultural as well as national boundaries. Those who flourish will have learned to sit comfortably with discomfort, as well—the discomfort of not fully knowing or controlling the terrain on which one travels or of not being able to lean back against the cushion of what is familiar and culturally reinforced. But those who thrive in the new world before us will also have learned—perhaps at Trinity—to revel in the excitement and energy, the clang and clamor, of boundless creative potential unleashed when the experiences and perspectives born of divergent cultural experiences collide. And they will delight in the interweave of voices, smells, tastes, rhythms—the strands of multiple cultures becoming the fabric of community.”

From the President of Trinity College, Evan S. Dobelle (1995-2001)
“Trinity’s diversity goals are ambitious.  They also are appropriate.  Most importantly, they are achievable. Success will depend not merely on strong leadership throughout the College but also in large measure on the extent to which we are able to derive energy, commitment, and a sense of common purpose from those things that bind us together as a community of learning.

As we move forward, there will be differences and perhaps even difficult times.   But, as Booker T. Washington advised, ’Success is not measured by the heights one attains, but by the obstacles one overcomes in its attainment.’

As an institution we have affirmed that achieving greater diversity and weaving multiculturalism into the very fabric of who we are and what we do are strategic priorities. Each of us has the potential and responsibility to make a difference.   Every day, beginning with today, we must recommit ourselves as individuals and as a community to the highest standards of civility and respect. We must not and will not tolerate actions or words that fail to meet those standards. Behavior that is disrespectful, uncivil, or hateful has no place here.  As we seek to become an even more diverse community, let us respect, value, and celebrate the diversity that already exists at Trinity College.”

Myrlie Evers-Williams, Former Chairman, NAACP
1997 Commencement Speaker at Trinity
“We gather today on the eve of a new millennium, when Americans should be examining their souls and their consciences, perhaps as never before. We know the litany of woes that threaten to discourage and defeat us as today's Americans: an uncertain and unevenly apportioned economy, increasing racial and sexual divisiveness, the tenuousness of our American future in a world that seems increasingly incomprehensible. It is well to talk about these things as you look at your future, because only the foolish ignore pain, which is a signal -- and a warning -- that something is wrong. But it would be equally dangerous to despair, for hopelessness is the greater folly.

While much is made of the supposed cynicism of your generation, I suspect that each of you has a wellspring of hope and idealism beneath the veneer of toughness that you sometimes put forth. The challenge I give you today is this: Find a cause for action every day of your life that will test your idealism and call forth your hope.”

From the Office of Multicultural Affairs

1999-2000 in review: A report from Dean of Multicultural Affairs Karla Spurlock-Evans

Becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar: A conversation with Dean Spurlock-Evans

Ensuring that all students succeed: Retention consortium held at Trinity

The texture of Trinity: multicultural student groups

The P.R.I.D.E. Program

From the Strategic Plan: Objectives and strategies for promoting quality and diversity at Trinity

Curricular initiatives

A sampling of academic courses focused on issues of multiculturalism and diversity

Gay and lesbian studies

Student-life initiatives

Alumni networking and outreach

Video of Ritmo de Pueblo, a Festival of Puerto Rican Music and Art

Trinity diversity in the news
Trinity Earns Top Ratings from Two New Publications: Trinity College has been ranked among the top colleges and universities for Asian-American and African-American students by two new national publications

Trinity Receives $50,000 Grant from Nellie Mae Foundation; result of groundbreaking conference exploring ways to create parity in graduation rates across all groups of students and promote highest levels of academic success.

Vijay Prashad, Trinity assistant professor of international studies, interviewed by The Chronicle of Higher Education: Prashad discusses discrimination against South Asians in America, May 12, 2000.

"Trinity's Inventive Hebe Guardiola-Diaz," profile of Assistant Professor of Biology Guardiola-Diaz, from The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education

"Lessons in Race and Love" -- featuring Trinity Professor Robbie McCauley, from The Hartford Courant

"A Photographer Comes Home" -- featuring Assistant Professor of Fine Arts Pablo Delano, from The Hartford Courant's Northeast Magazine

Selected Trinity press releases
Appointment of Karla Spurlock-Evans as Dean of Multicultural Affairs

Major gift in support of multicultural initiatives

Trinity Students Get a Dose of Reality in Professor Waite’s Sociology Class

Trinity Launches Safe Zones Project for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Students

Trinity to Establish Yiddish Book Collection with Support of Jewish Community Endowment Fund