Office of Culture, Access and Belonging

CANR CAB Strategic Plan

OCAB Newsletters & Features

Newsletters

• News from the CANR OCAB- September 11, 2024
• News from the CANR OCAB- January 15, 2025

Definitions for Culture, Access and Belonging

Culture: A system of shared beliefs and values established within an organization or a group of people.

Access: Ensuring that all faculty, students, and staff have equal access to opportunities and resources, regardless of their abilities or disabilities; requires removing physical and psychological barriers that prevent people from accessing and participating in society to reach their fullest potential.

Belonging: The feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for members of different groups. It is when an individual can bring their authentic self to MSU CANR, AgBioResearch, and MSU Extension.

OCAB Mission

The mission of the Office of Culture, Access and Belonging (OCAB) is that it will serve as a resource that faculty, staff and graduate students within the units of the CANR use to:

• Develop intentional efforts to recruit and retain diverse faculty, staff and graduate students
• Enhance teaching, research and outreach

To this end, OCAB works with relevant departments to recruit diverse students, faculty, and staff; to support the professional development of members of our community from diverse and historically underserved backgrounds; and to represent and advocate for diverse representation in academic and professional fields in agriculture and natural resources.

Explore the programs, events, and resources we maintain to support our mission.

Goals

OCAB works with CANR and departments to assess the climate, coordinate discussions and plan different recommendations and actions. The overall goals include influence in the workforce, workplace and marketplace.

• Workforce: Attract and retain people and partners who bring their own unique perspectives and experiences.
• Workplace: Create a high-teaming culture to deliver ambitious results.
• Marketplace: Model inclusion in our college, campus, industry and surrounding community. 

Belonging Short Statement

Culture, Access and Belonging are important, interdependent components of everyday life in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) and are critical to our pursuit of academic excellence.

Our aim is to foster a culture where every member of CANR feels valued, supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals with an uncommon will. This includes providing opportunity and access for all people across differences of race, age, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, national origin, migratory status, disability/abilities, political affiliation, veteran status and socioeconomic background.

Belonging Full Statement

Culture, Access and Belonging are important, interdependent components of everyday life in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) and are critical to our pursuit of academic excellence.

For the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Culture includes characteristics of race, age, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, religion, national origin, migratory status, disability/abilities, political affiliation, veteran status and socioeconomic background. It also includes differences in backgrounds, ideas, thought, values and beliefs.  Embracing differences make us better learners, teachers, leaders, scholars, researchers, extension educators, employees and students. This is operationalized by embedding equity in all of our structures and practices.

Access requires providing justice, fairness and access to opportunities and resources for all members of the campus community. In creating and sustaining a climate where equity and mutual respect are intrinsic, we are nurturing a success-oriented, cooperative and caring college where we attract and retain people and partners who feel comfortable contributing their unique wisdom, perspectives and experiences.

To create a sense of Belonging you must value differences, acknowledge the impact of differences and to capitalize on those differences by drawing on the intellectual strength that produces innovative solutions from the synergy of our people. Our aim is to foster a culture where every member of CANR feels valued, supported and inspired to achieve individual and common goals with an uncommon will.

Land Acknowledgement

It is also important to take into consideration the land on which Michigan State University resides. See the Guide to Land Acknowledgements.

Foundational Principles

• In keeping with the responsible pursuit of our land grant mission, we acknowledge that the work of CANR takes place on Indigenous lands and in Indigenous spaces. Within the Great Lakes region, CANR resides on the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg—Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi people. CANR is committed to affirming Indigenous sovereignty, histories, perspectives, experiences and knowledges.
• Our disciplines have not been historically and are not currently representative of the diversity of perspectives and backgrounds that make up Michigan, our nation and our world.
• The future of our agriculture and natural resources disciplines depends on our ability to incorporate emerging, as well as historically marginalized people and perspectives into our science, our teaching, and all of our work to meet current and future challenges.
• As individuals, we all carry our identities into our personal and professional interactions. We encourage our community members to seek out opportunities to learn from those with perspectives different from their own.
• All of our work relies on our individual and institutional ability to build authentic and trusting relationships and partnerships across all aspects of human differences.
• The capacity to create inclusive environments is a professional leadership skill, and we strive to provide opportunities for our professionals to develop those skills.
• The processes CANR utilizes to admit, grade, recruit, hire, retain, evaluate and grant continuing status and/or tenure to our faculty staff and students are opportunities to embed principles of equity in our structures.
• The skills required to create and sustain inclusive environments and to work in diverse environments are vital to the success of our graduates in the future of CANR disciplines and professions.