By eliminating barriers to student success the CIR is designed to decrease retention and graduation equity gaps for historically underrepresented and underserved students. The CIR fosters an environment where students’ cultural strengths and counter narratives are validated and celebrated. Our values are: academic and professional empowerment, identity development, cultural wealth, intersectionality, and community wellness.

1. Support students’ academic, personal, and professional success.
2. Cultivate students’ growth, self-discovery, and self-efficacy skills through academic coaching.
3. Remove barriers to student success by identifying and supporting students’ basic needs.
4. Promote health and wellness as a vital part of student success.
5. Foster students’ sense of belonging to the Center and the campus community.

Academic and Professional Empowerment: The Center supports students in developing a clear vision of their personal goals and degree path. We empower students to define what success means for themselves and support their attainment of these academic, personal, and professional goals.

Identity development: We prioritize the ongoing exploration, education, and research of marginalized social identities and the intersections of various identities.

Cultural Wealth: Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model represents a framework to understand how students of color access and experience college from a strengths-based perspective. Yosso defines six forms of cultural capital: aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistance. The Center seeks to support students in understanding the cultural capital (talents, strengths, and experiences) they bring into their college environment as defined in Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth model.

Intersectionality: As a multicultural center, we intentionally want to bring various intersections of identity together in order to critically examine, dialogue, and heal multiply marginalized identities through programming and support.

Community Wellness: We believe that mental health and wellbeing are an inherent part of student success. We promote a culture of wellness and balance by providing spaces for students to engage in community and self-care.