Without Diversity and Inclusion, There is No Customer Service

One of my favorite things about the UTA community is our broad diversity. UT Arlington has first generation college students and legacies, young students and old students, American and immigrant students.  We have white students and black students and every-ethnicity-in-between students.

If you have not read the mission statement of UTA Libraries, it states in part that we are “dedicated to elevating the research and scholarship of our diverse communities.”  A key to fulfilling this is paying close attention to those last two words – diverse communities.

We are here to support all library users, and this begins before they start their research. I have visited spaces in which I did not feel welcomed, and I decided not to return.  That’s the last thing I want for the users I serve at UTA Libraries.  For most of our users not returning would be detrimental to their academic success.  The resources needed for college level work and research are expensive!  Everything having to do with higher education is expensive.  This makes our responsibility to our users that much greater.  In order to keep our community productive and scholastically successful we need to make anticipating their needs a priority.

Having a diverse staff helps us accomplish this.  Staff with disabilities help us remain mindful of how users with disabilities move around our space.  Staff who were first generation college students help us understand what aspects of college life might be confusing.  We aim to meet the needs students who are not like us as well.  Our spaces and services are not put in place for one type of student, especially during this COVID-19 outbreak which is forcing us to adapt our services.  Our staff is limited in our experiences and we will always have blind spots.  As we work to correct those we welcome the input of our users and community so that we can address your needs.  If you have thoughts or ideas related to this, please add a comment below.

Together we will elevate the research and scholarship of our diverse communities regardless of what hurdles are put in front us through 2020 and beyond.