Initiatives & Programs
Initiatives & Programs
The Office of Campus Enrichment works to foster a culture of belonging by creating programming that affirms and facilitates shared learning and academic connectedness amongst the campus community.
Culture of Belonging Programs
The Office of Campus Enrichment collaborates with partners across the School to foster inclusion by offering a menu of welcoming and affirming programming to support the success and retention of our diverse campus community. Annual programs include Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI); Welcome Week BIPOC student, faculty, and staff reception; faculty and staff affinity gatherings; Student Affinity Groups; Multicultural Affinity Communities; and the Cultural Oasis and Affinity Group Open House.
DEIA+AR Development and Learning
The Office of Campus Enrichment coordinates, facilitates, and collaborates with campus partners to provide school-wide opportunities for development and learning for students, faculty, staff, and SAIC leaders. The staff are internal content experts and partners who can co-create training, workshops, and educational programs based on departmental and SAIC community needs and interests.
Student Affinity Groups
If you are a student who would like to get involved with student organizations on campus, we encourage you to attend the annual Student Group Fair and to visit Engage SAIC to explore student groups or email campusenrichment@saic.edu so we can share how to join, establish, or reestablish a student affinity group.
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- Arab Culture Club (ACC)
- African Student Association (ASA)
- BLK@SAIC
- Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA)
- Hapa, Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders (HAAAPI) @ SAIC
- SAIC Hillel
- IEUM production
- Indigenous Student Association (ISA)
- Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (IV)
- SAIC Japanese Cultural Association
- Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
- Korean Graduate Student Community (KGSC)
- Korean Student Association (KSA)
- National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS)
- Organization of Asian Artist Propagation (OAAP)
- Saudi Students Association (SSA)
- South Asian Student Association (SASA)
- Taiwanese Graduate Student Association (TGSA)
- Transfiguration
- SAIC Trans Artist Coalition
- SAIC UNIDXS
The Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI) Committee
As an outgrowth of SAIC’s ongoing commitment to redress institutionalized racism and advance racial equity, the purpose of Shared Read—our annual, School-wide reading of a text—is to create a foundational and integrative learning experience for us to collectively cultivate anti-racist awareness and ways of being. The formal and informal engagements we develop through the Shared Read are integral to our development of a shared repository of knowledge that invites us to stretch ourselves by embracing new ways of thinking and being in the classroom, studio, and office—and beyond. If you are interested in teaching the book in your courses, using it in programming, would like to begin a book club, or simply would like a copy of the book selected for this academic year, please email campusenrichment@saic.edu.
Annual Shared Read
The Heritage Awareness Programs and Initiatives (HAPI) Committee is a collaboration of students, staff, and faculty whose primary purpose is to offer learning opportunities and foster a sense of belonging by honoring the heritage of historically marginalized communities in order to cultivate a more inclusive School. HAPI is committed to affirming and honoring these communities through the creation of partnerships and programs designed for all SAIC community members to learn more about the richness of diverse cultures, art practices, histories, and contemporary lived experiences.
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This year’s book is Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. For more information or to request a copy of the book, please email campusenrichment@saic.edu.
Anti-Racism Library Resources
SAIC is committed to redressing institutionalized racism and advancing racial equity and creating an inclusive community that actively opposes racism in all its forms against all communities of color.
Members of the school Anti-Racism committee and the Library have curated a non-exhaustive collection of resources, guides, compilations, reading, watching, and listening material for teaching, learning, programming. The resources are intended only to supplement the ongoing self-guided process of learning about diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and anti-racism. For a deeper dive, visit our Learn & Unlearn: Anti-racism Resource Guide, a collaboration with the John M. Flaxman Library.
Acknowledging SAIC’s Native Land Occupation
The practice of creating and acknowledging the Native and Indigenous lands that SAIC occupies “demonstrates knowledge and sensitivity to contributions from diverse and/or multiple subject positions in relation to both the city of Chicago and broader global communities” (SAIC Research Studio 1 learning outcome) and lays the foundation for creating authentic and reparative relationships with Native and Indigenous communities, artists, and sacred lands. SAIC’s Anti-Racism Committee’s Land Acknowledgement subcommittee has curated support materials to help the campus community discuss and integrate the land acknowledgement into their courses, events, gatherings, and programming.
Social Responsibility & Global Awareness Infusion Grant
The Social Responsibility & Global Awareness Infusion Grant supports the research and resources necessary to make structural changes to courses that broaden, refresh, and address SAIC’s curricular requirements to advance students’ social responsibility and global awareness. Click here to learn more.