The Saint Joseph’s College community commits itself to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) as an expression of our shared Core Values, the Critical Concerns of the Sisters of Mercy, and Catholic Social Teaching. We carry out these values through our authentic embrace of the many dimensions of diversity among our students, faculty, staff, and alumni and the cultivation of a sense of belonging for all.

Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mouhamadou Diagne, leads this community-wide effort. He leads the JEDI working Group and Bias Response Team (both composed of faculty, staff, and students) to build an equitable, just, and inclusive St. Joseph’s College of Maine. Our intentional and consistent focus on the multiple and intersectional dimensions of JEDI will help ensure that SJCME is an institution where “community grows,” where all members of its community can flourish and feel a deep sense of belonging.

→ Read the full Call to Action Against Racism

Hannah Michael, student research

Building a Just, Equitable, Diverse, and Inclusive Saint Joseph’s College of Maine

This vision expresses our explicit commitment to dismantling racism and other systems of oppression at SJCME. It envisions a school actively engaged in examining policies, systems, and practices, and implementing change where necessary to ensure the college is in alignment with this vision. Particular attention will be paid to identifying explicit and implicit racism, white supremacy, sexism, ableism, and other systems of oppression in the classroom, curricula, and pedagogy, and to working towards their eradication.

The work also requires that members of the school community personally engage in the ongoing self-examination needed to unlearn and heal from internalized racism, oppression and unconscious and conscious bias. The Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion helps equip community members with the knowledge and skills to be a threat to inequity. Individual, interpersonal, and institutional commitments to anti-racist and anti-oppressive work are all necessary to confront and redress racist, sexist, and oppressive systems. These commitments are foundational to “growing community.”

JEDI Initiatives

Talbot Scholarship Program

JEDI Care Team

JEDI Committee

Contact

Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Harold Alfond Hall, Room 423
jedi@sjcme.edu
(207) 893 - 7707

Who We Are

Talbots

Justice*

The “duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them” (Catechism of the Church). In particular, justice has as its goal solidarity with the marginalized and the dedication to examine and address oppressive social structures.  True justice is based on love which manifests itself as mercy that seeks restoration where there has been brokenness and injustice.

Equity

Equity means to eliminate Inequity: the unfair distribution of material and non-material access and opportunity resulting in outcome and experience disparities that are predictable by race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, home language, or other dimensions of identity.

Equity is the active, deliberate, and ongoing process of eliminating all forms of bias and inequities, such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, ableism, and other forms of bias and discrimination; and developing policies, practices, and cultures that ensure a fair distribution of access, opportunity, and participation.

Diversity

The range of human individual group differences, including but not limited to race; age; ethnicity; gender; gender identity; national origin; religion or ethical values system; sexual orientation; physical ability or attributes; socio­-economic status.

Inclusion

The creation of opportunities for historically underrepresented and marginalized populations to be involved and empowered in all facets of the college, such as academic experiences, co-curricular activities, campus employment, community-based programs, internships, etc. An inclusive college values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of its members.

→ Read about our History, Mission, and Values