Principles of Community Week reaffirms Virginia Tech’s diverse and inclusive campus
Each spring, Virginia Tech celebrates its Principles of Community through a weeklong series of educational events, workshops, and discussions.
Principles of Community Week celebrates individual differences and common experiences; encourages a collective sense of community, diversity, and excellence; and reaffirms an individual and institutional commitment to Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). These principles reinforce aspirations for a diverse and inclusive campus, where people can freely express and explore ideas in an atmosphere of empathy, civility, and mutual respect. They speak to what Virginia Tech hopes to be as an institution.
At the core of the Principles of Community is the fundamental belief that Virginia Tech is a community built on respect for all people, and each of its members shares in the responsibility for upholding its values. Every March, during the week immediately following spring break, the Office for Inclusion and Diversity hosts Principles of Community Week to reinvigorate and reaffirm our commitments to these principles.
According to 2022-23 enrollment data, 40.4 percent of the fall incoming class was underrepresented minorities or underserved students, which includes Pell-eligible students, first-generation students, and veterans.
As associate vice provost of diversity education and engagement, Michele Deramo leads education and training initiatives that advance the university’s diversity strategic goals. She emphasizes that Principles of Community Week can serve as a catalyst for introspection as well.
“It’s a way for us all to reflect on our own standards for treating others with honor and respect,” Deramo said. “We can ask ourselves, 'How do we live out the Principles of Community Week every day?'”
During March 11-15, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to participate in dozens of workshops to learn skills for calling people into community and holding each other and ourselves accountable.
“We will also offer links to self-directed learning opportunities,” Deramo said. “While some workshops will be in-person, many will be hybrid or virtual. You can participate in a planned event, enroll in a professional development session, make a personal connection with someone new, or nominate someone you feel embodies the principles for a Principles of Community Week award to actively engage during the week. We’ll make more information available as we finalize details.”
The events are designed to enable faculty and staff put what they learn into action for their students.
“All colleges and university entities here at Virginia Tech have diversity directors,” she said. “They can decide how the principles matter in their own classrooms or residences and adapt programming or syllabi accordingly.”
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Janice Branch Hall of the Pamplin College of Business makes a point to incorporate the Principles of Community whenever possible. She shares her own undergraduate experience, encouraging students to focus on their purpose beyond themselves.
“We can’t fit our destiny or our purpose into another person’s, and vice versa,” said Hall. “Your purpose is uniquely designed for you. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made to carry out a purpose that is bigger than ourselves. Don’t shy away from making mistakes, that builds your grit. Say yes to opportunities outside of your comfort zone so you can foster passions inside yourself that you didn’t even know existed. Your purpose is not about you. It must go beyond ourselves, for there is way too much work to do in this world.”
While specific events and workshops are still in the planning stages, the 2024 commemoration will focus on integrity.
Learning from the experiences that shaped Virginia Tech as an institution allows us to acknowledge those aspects of our legacy that reflected bias and exclusion.
March also will mark the 100th anniversary of the Virginia Racial Integrity Act and the Sterilization Act, enacted by the Virginia General Assembly. These laws prohibited interracial marriage, promoted eugenics, and ushered in a long period of discriminatory racial designation administered by the government.
A series of panels, lectures, and exhibits will be offered on March 16 – the end of Principles of Community Week – to remember and critically assess the legacy of these acts.
“Virginia led the nation in compulsory sterilization to reduce ‘undesirable’ traits,” said Victoria Ferguson, director of the Solitude-Fraction site. “And the Racial Integrity Act provided legal grounding for policies that segregated people of color from whites, effectively creating a divided or caste system.”
Ferguson is an enrolled member of the Monacan Indian Nation of Virginia with expertise in researching science methodologies to support historical information.
The Virginia Tech Principles of Community were first endorsed by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors on March 14, 2005. They were reaffirmed in 2019 for gender identification. Exemplary individuals who embody the principles have been recognized through an awards program since 2014.
