By Marty Dubecky, Staff Writer

The Student Success Equity and Inclusion Canvas page aims to provide ample resources for underrepresented students at Xavier. The page was established in May 2021 by student intern Rue Crittenden and Assistant Directors for Student Success Whitney Menser and Autumn Richards.

Last spring, Xavier felt the effects of nationwide turmoil surrounding racial injustice, representation and marginalization, the group said. With prompting from Crittenden, the trio started to form the Canvas Student Success Diversity and Inclusion Resources page.

“With the murder of George Floyd and racial tensions, we realized, ‘We need to do something to make sure that students feel like they have a community and students feel like they feel included,’” Richards said.

The page was created with the intent to provide as many resources as it could to aid any student who needs it. 

Those resources include information about the Center of Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) as well as art and entertainment created by members of minority groups. 

The resources aim to represent as many marginalized groups present at Xavier as possible. 

“Rue also spent a lot of time… looking at podcasts and books and movies that students could find from specifically a person of color and their viewpoint or their creation, so we really thought that was an important part of it, too,” Menser said.

Crittenden, Menser and Richards acknowledged that this is a difficult and ever-changing problem. They plan to keep the page updated with the fluid environment of Xavier. 

To keep the page updated and to hear from students, the Canvas page schedules regular announcements to which students may respond. 

Additionally, it contains all of the contact information of those running the page. Students are encouraged to reach out to Crittenden, Menser and Richards with any questions, comments or concerns. 

The trio hopes the page will be an important resource for not only marginalized students, but any student who wishes to educate themselves about those issues. 

Crittenden spoke about the importance of the page for students and for the culture of Xavier.

“People deserve to be celebrated,” Crittenden said. “Not every time should the university address marginalized groups when there is an issue like slashing a banner. It’s my hope that this is a step for people to be seen and heard because we want feedback on this.”

The page is available for all Xavier students via their Canvas account.