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The shift towards online education challenges us to rethink not only how we teach but also how we build inclusive communities that reflect the world’s vibrant diversity. This understanding is central to the mission of Excelsior University, and its Chief Diversity Officer, Daniel Pascoe Aguilar, PhD, MDiv.
Max Webber, Co-Host of The Interview, sat down with Daniel to discuss issues including accessibility and inclusion in education, the challenges of engagement for online institutions, and the strategic plan effort to transform Excelsior University into a multicultural organization.
My name is Daniel Pascoe Aguilar and I’m Chief Diversity Officer at Excelsior University. I grew up in México, but I came to the United States for graduate school – and I’ve been here ever since. I've been in higher education now for 23 years in the integrated spaces of career development and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Excelsior University is a nonprofit online university that is uniquely devoted to providing educational opportunities to those who have been traditionally excluded from higher education. It was founded in 1971, and we now serve around 12,000 students.
We’re approaching this from a number of fronts. Firstly, we have a Centre for Social Justice as part of our institution, which focuses on three areas: facilitating sharing, learning, and dialogue; enhancing access to post-secondary education; and facilitating the intercultural development of Excelsior and our partner organizations. A huge emphasis of our work is on helping the institution to think differently in a way that leverages the engagement of all students and community members as we help to develop the next generation of leaders. Also, a goal of our strategic plan is becoming a multicultural organization, including a number of sub-goals specifically devoted to facilitating dialogue, expanding access, and developing interculturally. For example, our JEDI Framework is specifically designed to meet Excelsior stakeholders where they are as well as to help us all share a vision, identify where we are and how we want to grow, and move forward as an organization in challenging our assumptions, improving our behaviors, and finding ways of making an impact in our student experience at Excelsior and our broader communities.
Online education allows students to pursue their learning and development at their own time, place, and pace. That opens doors to populations who have historically been under-represented in higher education. Living on campus is financially inaccessible for a lot of students, so online education helps increase access.
In addition, one of our strategic plan goals is becoming a multicultural institution, including three key emphases. Firstly, we strive to be inclusive in everything that we do and embed inclusive practices at the heart of all our efforts. Secondly, we seek ways to leverage the collective intelligence of our learning and working community to enhance our performance as an institution. In other words, how do we encourage and harness the perspectives, ideas, skills, and knowledge of all members of the university so that we can be the best organization we can be? Diversity isn’t only a moral responsibility, it is also an opportunity to enhance our performance. And thirdly, we seek multicultural impact within and beyond the organization.
It’s definitely a challenge because there are so many factors at play. Excelsior University is not only an online institution but it also offers instruction asynchronously. So students don't need to be present at the same time of day. If you have a single parent who can only study at 11 o'clock on a Thursday night, it’s unlikely that there will be a synchronous class at this time. Part of our approach is the availability of rope teams, which we also call representation and support villages, around our students based on how they identify or the industries that interest them – we have 20 of them, built around what matters to our students. They create a kind of online campus where students can find 365/24/7 interaction with different community members that align with their values and interests. Half of them are industry-focused, and half of them are identity-focused. We have a range of them, from criminal justice and business to LGBTQIA+ and parent rope teams. As part of them, we facilitate conversations, guest speakers, panels, and activities for each of these rope teams. So the idea is to develop a space where students can find support and engage in open dialogue about the issues that matter to them.
We try to take a multifaceted approach. We know how difficult it is for students; many of them are working multiple jobs, and are juggling their studies with raising their families and advancing their careers. So we can’t just ask them to drop everything to come and attend one of our conversations. Each rope team has a fully integrated online space, with information or content that's fed from multiple systems to create a rich learning environment – whether that’s curated content or opportunities to engage in experiences or connect with mentors and other community members. We also have databases of internships and jobs related to the corresponding rope team, as well as links to professional associations, related courses, blogs, videos, resources, etc. There are opportunities for students to engage and communicate with other people in the rope team, even if they need to do so during the weekend or a holiday break. We don’t want to push students or force them into following our schedule; we understand their time is valuable, so we need to fit our schedules around them.
As human beings, we are highly complex individuals. But when we interact with others, we have the tendency to see their perspectives or experiences as less complex than ours. So my approach is about trying to see the humanity in others and to show mine to them – to think about what life would be like in their shoes.
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