Inclusiveness is often used to force homogenization or to create the image that we are a "melting pot" of identities, creating a single notion of culture and community. This conference actively rejects those ideologies as doing harm to the full range of identities and the eventual community. Inclusiveness leads to a synthesis of thoroughly understood and strongly declared identities, which lead to actions that shape the good of a realistically diverse community.

Conference on Inclusiveness

Dramatic changes in who we are and what holds us together in a richly diverse society strongly suggests that the nature of our citizenship may be very different in the future. Each year seems to bring more and more complexity in who we are, how we relate, what has been our several and particular histories, and what will be our future together. Students in higher education today need to be thinking about their personal and professional roles not just after they graduate, but twenty and thirty years from now. Success at almost any level, as individuals or as a society, will depend upon our willingness as citizens to establish effective levels of inclusiveness. Our personal leadership skills and readiness to make ethical choices will be vigorously challenged by the events and people we encounter within an extraordinarily complex community with ties that reach across the world. Values, histories, symbols, and life patterns and other dimensions from many cultures will be present in our own. This conference will examine the citizenship dynamics and expanding responsibilities within the global society of the future. More specifically, this conference will bring focused attention to the principles of inclusiveness, equality and our active role as citizens within the global society. Featured Speaker Shanta Driver is a graduate of Harvard, an attorney and the National Coordinator for United for Equality and Affirmative Active (UEAA), a Detroit-based organization dedicated to building a new civil rights movement like the one that secured affirmative action in the first place. A 25-year veteran of civil rights struggles, Ms. Driver is an articulate and passionate advocate for a fresh vision of an integrated society, she travels the country rallying grass-roots support in the fight for social equality. UEAA organized and directed the student intervention in "Grutter v. Bollinger," the Supreme Court-bound landmark affirmative action case involving the admissions practices of the University of Michigan Law School. Ms. Driver also serves as National Director of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. BAMN is a national civil rights organization fighting in defense of affirmative action and integration.