Diversity Profile
Affirmative Action - Susquehanna University is committed to making every effort to enhance the diversity of our community – students, faculty, and staff. The hiring process is important to achieving our strategic goals to recruit and retain staff from diverse backgrounds. Through the affirmative action process, we work together to ensure a diverse community while remaining diligent in our commitment to selecting the most qualified candidate for open positions.
My name is Lisa Scott and I am the Special Assistant to the President, Chief Diversity Officer and Assistant Provost for Student Success and Engagement. Diversity today has moved from a previous focus on numbers (though critical mass is still important) and programs to the idea of Institutional Capacity.
In an article titled, “Reframing Diversity as an Institutional Capacity,” Professor Daryl Smith of Claremont University writes, "Now the fundamental question is, are our institutions building the capacity to support their missions in a diverse society, and how? Building capacity for diversity means setting diversity at the center of the institutions mission. It means broadening the discussion beyond admissions or undergraduates and varying it according to the institution’s mission, location, and context." (Read the full article.)
Indeed, it will be important for all of us to be thoughtful and intentional to introduce diversity initiatives that can be sustained at the institutional level. It is through these efforts that we achieve institutional transformation and educational benefits of a diverse campus.
Lisa Scott
Read Bio
570-372-4415 or scottl@susqu.edu
Center for Diversity and Social Justice
514 University Avenue Selinsgrove, PA 17870 - Location: Degenstein Campus Center, Lower Level
Phone: 570-372-4037
Fax: 570-372-4747
oma@susqu.edu
Diversity Matters at Susquehanna. Through our commitment to academic excellence, in which diversity is a core element, we affirm the dignity and worth of all persons and strive to ensure that all in our community feel supported in their differences. Current and emerging research underscore the positive educational benefits that manifest in a diverse living and learning community.
As an institution of higher learning, we understand that we will be judged increasingly by how well we prepare our students to succeed in a smaller, flatter and increasingly diverse world. We intentionally seek to create opportunities for understanding the ways that power and privilege influence individual and collective behavior and systems, and to use that knowledge to guide us productively inside the classroom and beyond. 
In the classroom, on the campus and beyond
We use experiential learning to engage students in a multicultural education that prepares them for life in a diverse and interconnected world. Our new Central Curriculum, taught by a diverse faculty with different viewpoints and experiences, challenges students in their ways of perceiving and knowing the world. The unique Global Opportunities (GO) requirement prompts students to experience ways of knowing and being that are unfamiliar, and to reflect on those experiences. In the process, we expect that all students will examine their world view and how it is constructed.
A diverse and vibrant campus community fosters relationships marked by mutual curiosity and respect. Students, faculty and staff are supported in these relationships by the Chief Diversity Officer, Center for Diversity and Social Justice, Center for Civic Engagement, Office of Residence Life, and the Bias Response and Education Team.
The university also understands its physical and emotional connection to residents of the Susquehanna River Valley. Arts and educational events open to the community create possibilities for healthy dialogue regarding difference. Relationships built through interaction and dialogue with the greater Selinsgrove community serve to broaden and enhance the community in which we live and learn.
Training Resources
Online Resources
Cultural Interest:
Asian Cultural Association – promotes awareness, education, support and student interest in Asian and Asian-American culture in the Susquehanna community. 
Black Student Union – works to enhance awareness of minority culture and issues in today’s society, and works to educate students about the value of diversity.
Diversity Council – provides guidance to multicultural student organizations and events of Susquehanna University.
Gender and Sexuality Alliance – conducts educational programs to help create awareness for sexual diversity and combat preconceptions concerning homosexuality.
Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness (HOLA) – encourages an understanding of and appreciation for Hispanic culture in the Susquehanna University community.
SU International (SUI) – encourages students to share cultural experiences that promote understanding of different countries and their customs.
Signature Programs:
Higher Education Associations:
The university is located in Selinsgrove, Pa., a town of about 5,000 situated on the banks of the Susquehanna River, 50 miles north of the state capital, Harrisburg. The campus is about 90 minutes from the Pocono Mountain recreational areas, and about a three-hour drive from New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Community Programs:
In addition to serving its primary mission in educating full-time undergraduates, Susquehanna University offers a number of enriching programs for the benefit of others. These programs tap into the talents and expertise of dedicated university faculty, staff and students and take advantage of the university’s exceptional facilities.
Programs for the Community:
Music Preparatory Program
Saturday Science
Swimming Lessons
Kids’ College:
Summer Camp
Junior Writers Workshop
Programs for Seniors: