{"id":312470,"date":"2026-10-23T04:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T04:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312470\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T04:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T04:54:09","slug":"community-town-hall-addresses-a-lehigh-for-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/312470\/","title":{"rendered":"Community town hall addresses \u201cA Lehigh for Everyone\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice President for Equity and Community Donald Outing led a community town hall in Fairchild-Martindale Library on Wednesday, outlining recent updates from the \u201cA Lehigh for Everyone\u201d<\/a> strategic initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the town hall, Outing also presented the results of the Higher Education Data Sharing Campus Climate Survey, which assessed levels of harassment and discrimination on campus, and was released to students in March 2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA Lehigh for Everyone\u201d strategic plan initially began in 2022. According to Christine Lake, the project\u2019s manager, years one through three focused on surveying various aspects of the Lehigh community. Year four, she said, involves different aspirations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the meeting, Outing presented three priorities for year four of the strategic plan to a room of 15 individuals and approximately 20 attendees on Zoom. The priorities were the four level Belonging framework, the Belonging Roadmap and Title VI bystander training.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Four Level Belonging framework<\/p>\n

Outing said that a large part of the work being done by the strategic plan team \u2014 composed of Outing, Lake and Katherine Lavinder, vice president for student affairs \u2014 was crafting a shared definition of \u201cbelonging.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outing said this definition is informed by the prongs of the Four Level Belonging Framework \u2014 self, campus, profession and world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also said the team crafted a \u201cbig question\u201d to stimulate community conversation around what belonging looks like on Lehigh\u2019s campus. He said they\u2019re planning to disseminate it to the Lehigh community soon. The question reads, \u201cwhat does it mean to belong to oneself, to a campus community, to a professional path and to the larger world?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis framework,\u201d Outing said, \u201cgives us a shared way to discuss belonging across the university without forcing a single static definition on the campus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using the framework, he said the team hopes to have at least 50% of \u201cacademic and administrative units\u201d incorporate the question into their conversations throughout the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither Outing nor Lavinder offered a timeline for when this question would be implemented into these \u201cunits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavinder expanded on Outing\u2019s introduction to the framework plans, explaining how one of their primary goals is to \u201cgrow the capacity for community-building conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also said enrolling at least 25% of the undergraduate and graduate student population in Title VI bystander training and having students complete the training by the end of the academic year will help them reach this goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lavinder said they\u2019re aiming to have 25 to 30 trained facilitators across campus and 500 students in formal community-building conversations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Jessica White, the Equal Opportunity Compliance coordinator who was also in attendance at the town hall, Title VI<\/a> pertains to issues of discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, nationality and shared ancestry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lavinder said the Title VI training functions are an initiative of the work of the anti-discrimination working group<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we met with student groups in the spring, across groups, what we heard again and again was that bystander intervention training works,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes us feel comfortable with content that can feel challenging and difficult, and it gives us tools that feel usable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lavinder said the bystander trainings will equip students to recognize concerning situations, weigh safe and realistic response options in the moment and connect peers with support and action-based resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outing and Lavinder said the student outreach needed to initiate these trainings will likely be facilitated through the Belonging Roadmap, steering committee and the community impact committee, recently established by the anti-discrimination working group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this time, however, no timeline has been decided on when student outreach for the trainings will be conducted or which students will be contacted and enrolled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are steps before we get to \u2018how\u2019 and \u2018where,\u2019\u201d Lavinder said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to decide what platform we\u2019re going to use, whether that\u2019s online, whether it\u2019s in person, and I think a lot of those things are going to dictate how it plays out and how we decide when and how folks will interact with more information.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Belonging Roadmap\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the presentation of the framework, Outing highlighted the belonging roadmap and steering committee and their corresponding belonging roadmap. He said it consists of six bodies of work \u2014 a shared definition, dashboard, resource inventory, fellows program composed of faculty and staff fellows, inclusive pedagogy and an advisory board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outing said one graduate student sits on the committee, while the rest is composed of faculty and staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe roadmap really builds on work that\u2019s already underway,\u201d he said. \u201cWe set it up to minimize the amount of new programming that we create, and really to draw on those successful programs that have already been tried and true here into the work that we\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Outing, a part of the belonging roadmap and steering committee\u2019s work also involves reinvigorating the work of the council for equitable community<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outing said during his presentation that the council for equitable community hasn\u2019t been operational in years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the belonging roadmap and steering committee\u2019s work would extend to re-thinking how the council could evolve in its role as an advisory board for the Office of the Vice President for Equity Community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outing also said the committee has made progress this semester on drafting the shared definition and building the \u201cresource inventory.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Work on the fellows program, dashboard, inclusive pedagogy and advisory board, Outing said the work will carry into the spring 2027 semester and beyond. He said for the fellows program, in particular, it\u2019s in the very early stages of development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A review of the 2026 Campus Climate Survey results<\/p>\n

In the town hall\u2019s final minutes, Outing unveiled data from the 2026 Higher Education Data Sharing Campus Climate Survey, which polled the community in the aftermath of multiple racist incidents <\/a>occurring on Lehigh\u2019s campus in succession. The survey first opened to students, faculty, staff and administrators in a school-wide email on Mar. 16 and closed on Apr. 17.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe survey is capturing perceptions during a period of heightened concern about racism, safety and belonging,\u201d Outing said.<\/p>\n

Outing said the school struggled to boost survey participation, noting that just 8% of the undergraduate population and 4% of the graduate population submitted responses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lehigh found that of those who participated in the survey, 44% of non-binary, 30% of transgender and 45% of Muslim respondents reported discrimination or harassment. Out of all respondents, 17% reported harassment or discrimination of some kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The data also demonstrated a \u201cless favorable climate\u201d and poor support for non-binary and LGBTQ+ respondents. The campus climate for Black employees was deemed \u201cless than favorable\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

Outing said multiple times during the meeting that while this data is important to take seriously, it only represents a small portion of the community\u2019s experiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Closing out the event, he said he believes Lehigh is a \u201creally good place\u201d for most students, but many are frustrated with these \u201cepisodic\u201d incidents of discrimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lag time, so unfortunately, students don\u2019t really feel the effects of their input to this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s really the next group that comes behind that will see the impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outing said students\u2019 short duration on campus informed the project team\u2019s decision to pilot programming for faculty and staff before piloting any for students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lake said she\u2019s proud of the project\u2019s accomplishments so far, but believes there\u2019s more they can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s work that\u2019s ever finished because students change, faculty change, it\u2019s a constantly evolving process about the things that we learn about each other, both as individuals and as a larger group,\u201d she said. \u201cTo me it is very energizing and exciting to create a space where people can come and be the best \u2018them\u2019 that they can be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vice President for Equity and Community Donald Outing led a community town hall in Fairchild-Martindale Library on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8918,4784,119,121,120,1197,1198,295],"class_list":["post-312470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-7-minute-read","tag-administration","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-feature","tag-student-and-campus-life","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}