Team Criteria

The ArTT is committed to the intensive and long-term work of racial justice and equity at the college; the commitment is for two years, with a reevaluation at the end of that time to discuss team members’ continuing commitment. The ArTT must be reflective of the diverse Columbia College Chicago community. Our hope is to gather a team that, in its unified commitment to antiracism work, represents a cross section of social identities, positions in the institution, and skills in order to undertake the multifaceted work of leading an audit, and ultimately transforming the college, moving it towards becoming a more equitable institution. Members of the team need to be affiliated with the college in one or more of the following ways:

• Current student at Columbia or alumni
• Currently employed by Columbia
  • Full-time/Part-time faculty (Part-time faculty should reach out to CFAC for assistance in submitting an application)
  • Full-time/Part-time staff 
  • Columbia Administration
• Current member of the Columbia College Chicago Board of Trustees

We are looking to build the ArTT with people who are willing to do the long-term evolving work around antiracism. They must understand both, that this work is goal-oriented and that shifts will happen as we learn more. It is long-term yet, needs to address the exigencies of the moment, in order to match the myriad sources of racism using a myriad of tools.

We will foreground marginalized voices and experiences. We assume both that no single person can accommodate all the tools we will need for this work, and that each individual will bring multiple perspectives and skills. Our hope for the team is as follows:

• The foundational spirit of the ArTT is radical collaboration. We are seeking team members who can approach this work with vulnerability, humility, transparency, and accountability. This multifaceted work requires a wide range of skill sets (e.g. conflict mediation, data management, marketing), talents (e.g. creativity, healing, storytelling, adaptability), and professional perspectives (e.g. First-generation student experience, trauma-informed counseling, facilitation, pedagogy, fundraising, scholarship).
• Academic institutions are hierarchized organizations, and Columbia College Chicago is no exception. This work will only be successful if we are able to bring people from different places in the institution in conversation with each other. We are looking for members from across the college’s institutional roles and positionalities—staff, faculty, students, leadership—to spearhead and lead the college in this antiracist initiative.
• We are committed to recruiting people from a wide variety of social identities and subjectivities, such as those based on race, gender identity and/or expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability, social class, religious traditions/ spiritual practices, immigration status, as well as people who are neurodiverse.