We strive to create a training environment that promotes self-awareness, skills development, and experiences that enable our graduates to develop and share knowledge regarding multicultural and diversity issues as well as to provide effective, culturally sensitive services to a variety of individuals in our society. We believe that this is best accomplished through a multifaceted approach; hence, we are committed to recruiting a diverse student body, infusing diversity and multicultural training throughout our curriculum, and promoting an environment in which diversity is valued and respected. We integrate the critical multicultural competencies for training that were developed by the American Counseling Association and by the American Psychological Association throughout our training program. We also “oppose racism in all its forms,” in alignment with the APA resolution on APA, psychology, and human rights, as well as APA’s October 29, 2021 Apology to People of Color for APA’s Role in Promoting, Perpetuating, and Failing to Challenge Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Human Hierarchy in U.S.
Recruiting a diverse student body
We believe that multicultural competency is supported by classroom learning that integrates diverse viewpoints and a broad range of experience. The reciprocal training that students provide to each other through active discussion, sharing of opinions and experiences, and through respectful discovery of values, biases, and attitudes beneath interactions, course content, research results, etc. is an irreplaceable asset to the training environment. Thus, we attempt to recruit a diverse student body, particularly with respect to ethnocultural group membership, second language skills, first generation and lower SES status, sexual-minority status, and experience with oppressed or marginalized groups.
The majority of our students identify as members of American ethnic minoritized groups, LGBTQ+, and/or first-generation college students. We do not request information about sexual orientation or religious affiliation in application materials or formally gather this information. However, discussion of the intersection of religious beliefs, cultural norms and assumptions, sexual orientation, and the intersection of professional and personal (cultural, religious, sexual orientation) identity development is raised in doctoral seminars, practica, meetings with advisers, and other venues on a regular basis. Typically, between 15-25% of our students identify as male.
Incorporating multicultural training throughout our curriculum
In coursework such as Psychological Assessment and Theories of Career Development, the appropriateness of assessment and interventions for clients of different ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ clients, clients with disabilities, and other client populations are integrated. Our course Counseling Diverse Populations provides students with the opportunity to explore their own values, biases, and attitudes around a wide range of multicultural and diversity topics, to review research and practice literature, and to explore their own identity.
Many courses including Supervision and Consultation, Child/Family Interventions, etc., integrate ethnocultural, SES, sexual orientation, immigration status, and other types of diversity in readings and class discussion. Courses generally focus on human diversity, issues of poverty and social injustice, and on how to ethically and responsibly provide prevention and intervention within environments that perpetuate systematic oppression. The population of the Eugene/Springfield area is predominantly non-Hispanic White (about 81%), and this is reflected in clients served by our students in practica. Our practicum sites provide opportunities to work with clients from widely ranging educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, our rapidly growing Latinx population (about 25% of elementary school children in our local district are identify as Latino/a and/or Hispanic) and our well-established Spanish Language Psychological Service and Research (SLPSR) Specialization provide increasing opportunities to engage with and serve these diverse communities. Faculty members attempt to integrate theory and practice related to understanding the role of human diversity into each course. Our goal is to continually improve our attention to human diversity, equity, and inclusion in classes.
Promoting an environment in which anti-racism, equity, inclusion, and social justice are valued and respected
Faculty members attempt to model respect for diversity through verbal behavior and action, including through our research. To varying degrees, faculty members attend directly to issues that have covert racist, homophobic, or otherwise intolerant themes. This occurs, for instance, in the context of practicum supervision, and classroom discussion.
We acknowledge that conversations about race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and religion – and the power dynamics implicit in these and other topics – are both difficult and vital to engage in. We strive to embrace and model environments where such conversations are the norm and core to the way we develop as scientist-practitioners. As faculty members and administrators, we take ownership of our limitations and acknowledge the ongoing need to actively assess our biases, develop multicultural competencies in our various roles within the academe, and be proactive and engaged in our continued growth.
We select students who demonstrate a commitment to equity, inclusion, diversity, and to engaging in this growth process. Students, to varying degrees, address diversity issues in and outside of the classroom, and faculty encourage attention to human diversity and multiculturalism in student research endeavors. Faculty and student scholarship reflects attention to and valuing of diversity, as evidenced in the student dissertations and faculty profiles provided on our website.
