EDI Voices

EDI Voices

Welcome to EDI Voices! In this forum, we center the diverse voices and experiences of people throughout our UCLA community and highlight important contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion.

For this issue of EDI Voices, members of our EDI Student Advisory Board offered insights on what equity, diversity and inclusion means to them.

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To me, as an EDI Advisory Board member, equity, diversity, and inclusion means acknowledging and supporting groups on campus that have traditionally been overlooked. There is a wide range of backgrounds that students and staff come from that we should be embracing and providing services to so they have a better chance to succeed in higher education. And we do our best on the Board to uplift these voices.

Alex De Santiago

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[Equity, diversity, and inclusion] pushes beyond the status quo—the “we hear you” and “we will keep you informed.” It is a participatory, transformative, and collective process that defers to directly affected communities and builds out systems of accountability. As a student with an invisible disability, I navigate EDI with an intersectional framework because we never know what others are going through and how their experiences and identities compound. I approach EDI conversations with curiosity and ask “why?”, “for whom?”, and “how can I best support?”

Delaney Ivey

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[Equity, diversity, and inclusion] means that every person feels supported, celebrated, and proud to be a member of their community. For me, being a part of the Student Advisory Board (SAB) has highlighted how critical it is for groups to learn from and support one another in their efforts. As representatives of the UCLA student body, each member of the SAB has faced unique challenges and brings diverse perspectives to the table, but the EDI platform serves as a means for us to stand together so that we may be a more effective force in furthering campus equity and inclusion.

Matthew Orihuela