SELINSGROVE – “All are welcome”. That’s the message Susquehanna University’s new President, Jonathan Green, wants to be sure to send to the students, staff and the community.
“It’s important for all of us to be the best neighbors that we can be,” says Green. We see all around town, signs in three languages that are saying ‘No matter where you are from, we’re glad you are our neighbor’”. That’s the kind of spirit that is part of the founding mission of the institution,” Green adds.
Green comes to Susquehanna from Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU), where he served as co-chair of the University’s Council on Diversity focused on institution-wide initiatives aimed at creating an inclusive college campus.
“As an institution that’s focused upon education, I think that we need to model that in our rhetoric. We need to be as overt as we can in the ways in which we celebrate inclusion within our community, and shine a spotlight on that to help other folks who may not have had the benefit of being exposed to people who are different from them, in a way in which they’ve been able to develop an appropriate sense of respect,” adds Green.
Green spoke about the University’s efforts to create an inclusive and welcoming environment on campus in a recent one-on-one interview with WKOK. He also highlights those messages on his blog, “Views and news from the President of Susquehanna University” which can be found online at www.susquehannapresidentblog.com (Sara Lauver)
