Center for Diversity, Inclusion & Multicultural Affairs (CDIMA)

The Center for Diversity, Inclusion & Multicultural Affairs (CDIMA) serves as the hub for social justice and diverse programming at UDC. It is committed to mobilizing historically marginalized students to build power on campus. The CDIMA fosters an equitable and inclusive campus culture that intentionally values the personal, intellectual, and academic growth of all students , while prioritizing the experiences of international, undocumented, LGBTQ+/Non-binary and 1st-generation UDC students. During the summer of 2020, founding director Trinice McNally founded the Social Justice Ambassador (SJA) fellowship as a leadership development program for UDC students interested in learning the knowledge and skills needed to advocate for issues that impact historically marginalized people. SJAs received  the opportunity to deepen their leadership skills, develop programs, and participate in a combination of workshops, retreats, and volunteer opportunities that are intended to make a difference on campus and in their local communities.

SJA fellow Shabre West developed the UDC LGBTQ+ advisory board, a council committed to shifting conditions for trans and queer students on the UDC campus. The council was founded to consult and advise the UDC administration about LGBTQ+ concerns, needs, address questions, and track progress of accomplishing the goals of the LGBTQ+ advisory board.

Please support the Inaugural Kiburi Scholarship

As The Alliance Group (T.A.G) President and a SJA Fellow, Shabre is committed to promoting acceptance,  fostering an LGBTQ+ inclusive climate, and educating the UDC campus community through intergroup dialogue, awareness events, community engagement, and national and local partnership. The CDIMA has teamed up with the LGBTQ Advisory Council during LGBTQ history month to launch the Inaugural Kiburi (“Pride” in Swahili) Scholarship for LGBTQ+ identified students in honor of the one most celebrated, black &  openly gay performance poets of his generation, Essex Hemphill. Essex Hemphill graduated from UDC in 1982 with his bachelor degree in English, and in the spirit of reclaiming black queer history at HBCUs, the scholarship is named in his memory and honor, and his commitment to speaking truth, living authentically, and confronting the oppression & discrimination of black LGBTQ+ people.

We have a goal of raising $5,000 to support LGBTQ+identified students in their studies at UDC. LGBTQ+/Non-binary students at HBCUs historically have faced a hostile social and institutional environment. In 2005, TAG (the only LGBTQ student-led organization at UDC) was founded as a response to the lack of resources and support for the LGBTQ+ community. It was later rechartered in 2018 to foster an LGBTQ+ inclusive climate and educate the UDC campus community.  Black Queer people have a history of being erased or invisibilized at HBCUs, and this scholarship is a reclamation of Essex Hemphill to support LGBTQ+ students who are in need so they, too, someday can make history.

Please support the Inaugural Kiburi Scholarship this LGBTQ+ history month, consider assisting our efforts, and become a fundraiser.

To learn more about CDIMA, visit our website:  https://www.udc.edu/cdima/

Contact CDIMA: trinice.mcnally@udc.edu