The 13^th annual Georgia Tech Diversity Symposium was hosted Sept. 15, 2021.

Hispanic Heritage Month takes place annually Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 across the nation as a time to recognize and celebrate the various contributions, cultures, and extensive histories of the American Hispanic and Latinx communities. “Hispanic Heritage Week” was first observed in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson, but was extended to a monthlong period under President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

To ensure that none of the more than 26,000 students, faculty, and staff that make up the Georgia Tech community is deprived of the chance to fully participate in the Institute’s offerings, President G.P. “Bud” Peterson has established a new committee.

The President’s Committee on Disabilities and Access will determine if campus barriers — whether physical or technology-related — adversely impact access to Tech’s programs or services anywhere across the 400-acre campus, which houses some 238 buildings and other structures.

In July 2020, with support from its Diversity and Inclusion Division, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) launched six employee resource groups (ERGs) to foster a more inclusive work environment at GTRI.  ERGs at GTRI drive opportunities for employee engagement, education and training, recruitment, retention, and community outreach. One of these groups, ACCESS@GTRI, was created for employees who identify as having a visible or a nonvisible disability.

Following a national search, Diley Hernández was selected as associate vice president of Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (IDEI) at Georgia Tech. Hernández began her new role on July 6, reporting to Archie Ervin, vice president for IDEI and chief diversity officer.

There’s one thing that faculty, staff, and students seem to agree on — Georgia Tech is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment.

This is one of the pieces of information learned from last spring’s Climate Assessment survey, which was conducted to help define and assess Tech’s progress toward achieving a culture of
collegiality.

Regular people telling real stories. That’s what struck Diversity Roundtable first-timer Alan Katz about the 2014 iteration of the discussion-driven workshop on inclusion and diversity hosted by the Office of Human Resources. The experience consisted of a morning storytelling salon and an afternoon luncheon. 

“The effort was down-to-earth,” said Katz, assistant dean for Finance and Administration in the College of Computing. “It was all about people talking from the heart.”

Georgia Tech is the recipient of a the 2014 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award, a national honor recognizing U.S. colleges and universities that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. The recognition comes from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, a diversity-focused publication in higher education. Tech will be featured, along with 82 other recipients, in the magazine’s November 2014 issue.

Each January, the Georgia Tech community comes together to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and rededicate itself to his vision.

This year, Julian Bond, social activist and former chairman of the board of the NAACP, will give the keynote address at Georgia Tech’s fourth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture, on Jan. 14 at 3 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom. 

50 years ago this June, Ronald Yancey took an important step — well, several — in Georgia Tech’s history as he donned his regalia and walked across the stage as the only black man among 300 graduates and the first African-American student to receive a degree from the Institute.

His proud achievement did not come easily but was earned through years of perseverance, trials, tribulations, and loneliness.