Jacob Seamans: Launching a Multicultural Recognition Calendar for Social Media
December 28, 2022
As Hanukah and Christmas pass, and we enter the third day of Kwanzaa (today is dedicated to the principle Ujima, or Collective Work and Responsibility), it is a good time to share with the Ridgewater community a project that has been in development for several months, and is the result of partnership between the Marketing and Communications team and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): a multicultural recognition calendar.
The new multicultural recognition calendar is intended to help us recognize and learn about the broad swath of backgrounds and experiences shared by Ridgewater’s faculty, students, staff and community. These recognitions range from Labor Day to Christmas to Ramadan to President’s Day to International Women’s Day to National Nurses Day, and much more. These days were selected to help us celebrate and better understand people from across our community, many of whom have traditions or experiences unfamiliar to others, but have come together to learn, work and live with us and our fellow Warriors.
Many of these days will be celebrated on our social media channels, with a special focus on sharing information from trusted sources to help members of the community to better understand one another. However, some of these holidays may be celebrated with events, either virtually or in-person. Those events, along with the other college events, can be found on our Events Calendar at ridgewater.edu/events/
Creating a multicultural recognition calendar is hard work. Creating one that balances the needs of a living community, the business needs of a college, and that doesn’t overwhelm our audiences is even tougher. Though these recognitions are important, we don’t want to overwhelm our followers with recognition days, and we have other important information we need to share with our audiences. This has led to tough choices about how to limit the number of recognitions while still authentically representing the wide range of people and cultures that make up our community. We recognize that the result is imperfect, but we ask for understanding and guidance as we continue to learn.
This calendar is not the final version, or the end of a conversation — it is the beginning. We want and need feedback from our community to help recognize and celebrate all members of our community, both to fill in areas we missed and to help guide us as we make decisions about the days we recognize. If you would like to suggest any updates to the calendar, or wish to share feedback, please complete our feedback form.