The Making Excellence Inclusive forum, which focuses on diversity, inclusion and equality, has begun to move forward with its transition from forum to an official organization.

Glenn Hild, the interim dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, said completing the transition from forum to an official organization would allow for Making Excellence Inclusive to have greater visibility, voice and possibly more access to resources to promote the principles of diversity, inclusion and equality.

Hild said the organization has a few goals for the forum going into the 2015 year. A website, which will be a resource to both faculty and students detailing information about Making Excellence Inclusive, is “currently in the construction phase.”

Hild said the site would have Making Excellence Inclusive’s mission statement and values, as well as valuable information to campus resources, events, offices on campus, academic programs and other Registered Student Organizations.

“(The) hope is both students and faculty will find these resources useful in improving campus environment for teaching and learning,” Hild said.

Making Excellence Inclusive has also continued to gather information about minority students from focus groups, which have taken place in previous semesters.

Additional focus groups and transcribing data have been planned for the spring semester as well. Hild said the goal is to involve students who will benefit from developing the skills needed for transcribing data.

Hild said the forum also plans on compiling a list of all groups related to diversity and inclusion on campus, as well as offering and promoting campus-related programs dealing with Making Excellence Inclusive.

“What I expect MEI will be doing is helping promote, inform the campus community of programming about diversity, equity and inclusion that will be available to both faculty and students,” Hild said.

The forum has learned that a lot of work still has to be done at Eastern in order to promote inclusivity; the overall mission of the forum has not changed, but the membership has continued to grow with representatives from more areas of campus, Hild said.

Roberto Hodge can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].