With Hilbert’s Unity Within Our Community month kicked off, things look different, but many events are available for the Hilbert College community.  

The Stand Up to Bias information session was hosted by Jeff Papia, Vice President of Mission Integration and Campus Ministry, via Zoom last month. Here students learned how to repair and restore the Hilbert College community by responding and standing up to bias.

Through the collaboration of faculty and staff Stand Up To Bias was revived with an intent to provide the community with a reliable source to strive and build unity. 

“We want to have a process by which to address these things because at Hilbert, and by being Franciscan we care about our community, we care about relationships and we want to make sure that everybody is happy, healthy and successful here at Hilbert and these harmful actions can prevent that from being so,” Papia said.

The event explained the procedure to fill out the Bias Incident Reporting Form, which can be completed by any individual at the Hilbert website. The event also educated students that this may be an ongoing process, but with the guidance and resources provided they will be able to reflect and grow despite the circumstances. By walking through the procedure students were made aware of the importance of their safety and how closely each investigation will be monitored. “I want to see numbers. We know there are incidents happening,” Papia said. 

“The goal is to make room for those expressions in so far as it’s healthy in so far as the dialogue is constructive, in so far is the goal and the intent is to learn in and throughout your expression and in so far as it creates a space where everybody can feel comfortable sharing their identity with us,” Papia said. “As a Franciscan community we cannot tolerate bias.” 

For more information, students, faculty and staff can visit the Hilbert College website http://hilbert.edu/bias or can reach Jeff Papia at jpapia@hilbert.edu and Gregory Roberts, Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students groberts@hilbert.edu.