The EQUITY MATTERS II Leadership Summit, a panel on reimagining campuses to ensure inclusive resiliency after the pandemic, will tackle these significant challenges facing university and college campuses. The open dialogue will culminate in the third program in summer 2021 and a new study to be published next year.
The expert panel, moderated by architectural journalist and editor Wanda Lau, will offer a lively discussion among university leaders and campus planners working toward enhancing the value of each student’s learning experience and institutional life in higher education, with a focus on social equity. Panelists will represent a broad array of institutions, including historically Black colleges and universities and those with underrepresented student populations or significant Latinx or Native student enrollments. The EQUITY MATTERS II conversation will explore:
- Significant challenges built into the very fabric and physical experience of institutions of higher education.
- Methods for engaging students to assess and evaluate those planning and architectural shortcomings.
- Considerations of historically segregated housing, economic and health barriers, inadequate integration of facilities for underrepresented students, and other physical attributes of access and equity.
- How these challenges are being exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and its long-term changes, as well as shorter-term effects such as physical distancing and outdoor learning.
The panelists seek to answer an urgent question: If higher education is meant to provide an equal platform for all to move forward, how do we recognize and help surmount the unequal access and challenges of underrepresented students with better planning and more inclusive design?
