Skip to main content

Welcome Message from Provost Ivan Evans

 

ERC has always been “the college with the largest number of international students”. We take pride in our reputation and so it is my great pleasure to again welcome students from all over the world to ERC. The need for international cooperation and justice seems to become increasingly urgent with each passing year and ERC is proud to help students engage the major challenges of the day, not least of which is the danger that environmental degradation poses to all of us. Our commitment to global social justice is anchored in Making of the Modern World, ERC’s writing program, and amplified by service programs within the US and across the world. These programs enable our students to grow not only as individuals but also as members of communities that straddle borders and exemplify our common humanity. 

My great hope is that all ERC students will learn by doing, getting into what the civil rights leader John Lewis called “good troubles” as they improve the world around them. Students participate in ERC’s service projects by taking ERC and MMW Global Seminars in many different cities across the world, joining environmental programs in California, working with First Nation communities in the American Southwest, participating in the Human Trafficking and Sexual Slavery workshop, interning with social justice NGOs in California and abroad, and tutoring students in Math in San Diego high schools. These are just some of the opportunities that help ERC students become engaged world citizens. 

AT ERC, we strive to make the student experience as international as possible and I look forward to developing even more global service programs in the coming years.

ERC’s Commitment to Diversity

In Eleanor Roosevelt’s expansive vision of humanity, all people have the right to forge identities that are intimately meaningful and enjoy rights that protect and celebrate their humanity. This spirit infused the Declaration of Universal Human Rights which she drew up in 1948. For Eleanor Roosevelt, “universal human rights begin ... in small places, close to home... Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, and equal dignity without discrimination."

Drawing from our namesake’s compassion and legendary engagement with the world, Eleanor Roosevelt College commits itself to a vision of diversity, equity, and inclusion that fosters world citizenship and inspires students to actively transform society through scholarship, leadership, and service. Eleanor Roosevelt College espouses a distinctively global vision of diversity, welcoming students, and embracing their intersectional lifestyles and values.

The Provost and staff of ERC commit to the following:

  • We will uphold a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion in all our work and remain vigilant about implicit bias, which all individuals possess to varying degrees.
  • We will create a welcoming space for staff and students to discuss and explore their own identities and biographies, mindful that all of us have been socialized in exclusionary societies that marginalize and stereotype Others.
  • We will develop programs that intentionally reject language, behavior, and conceptions that judge or disrespect the cultural practices of the host communities that our students and staff interact with.
  • We will embrace an approach of “learning through listening” as an essential technique of world citizenship, intercultural respect, and personal growth.
  • We will intentionally develop programs that emphasize practical service and cultural exploration as distinctive forms of engagement with the world.
  • We will provide opportunities for students and staff to engage in scholarship, leadership, and service within the college and by working with voluntary and professional organizations at home and abroad.

 

Ivan Evans

Provost of Eleanor Roosevelt College

.