Mission and Vision

Mission

The Multicultural Life and Diversity Office plays a crucial role in fostering a living, learning and working environment that encourages all members of the SUNY Cortland campus to engage in promoting dialogue, collaboration, and community building around the intersections of personal and social identities in relation to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. It is through these efforts that we strive to empower and educate students, faculty, staff, and the greater Cortland community with skills and knowledge to advance their personal, cultural, intellectual, and social development to work towards building a more inclusive campus climate.

Vision

The Multicultural Life and Diversity office at SUNY Cortland aspires to create a common vision for situating diversity, equity, and inclusion as necessary core values of academic excellence. Through intentional assessment, programming and training, MLDO fosters a community that is culturally aware and committed to the integration of diversity, equity and inclusion in academic and co-curricular spaces. MLDO understands that an appreciation of diversity and human difference serve as the foundation of graduates who are prepared to thrive and contribute to a global citizenry. MLDO aligns collaboratively with the SUNY Cortland strategic plan as well as the mission and vision of the SUNY System Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion by offering compelling evidence through research that the richness of human difference is necessary in achieving academic excellence. MLDO facilitates conversations across the institution and within the membership of the SUNY Cortland community that focus on the need for every person at SUNY Cortland to hold themselves responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion as well as creating a climate where every person feels valued and welcome.