Tools and Resources

This page is a growing list of resources to promote and encourage an inclusive culture at CCRI. If you would like to see a certain resource, please email us and we will gladly add it to this page.

Hispanic Serving Institution

The Community College of Rhode Island is proud to be formally designated as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). As an HSI, we remain committed to expanding educational opportunities and improving the academic attainment of Hispanic and low-income students; the support and promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education; and expanding and enhancing the academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability of colleges and universities that are educating the majority of Hispanic college students. Please find below some resources outlining best practices to be better equipped to serve as at an HSI.

• Servingness in Practice
  • Dr. Gina Ann Garcia breaks down "Servingness" as it pertains to HSIs. Servingness is a concept that Garcia, Núñez, and Sansone (2019) argue is a multidimensional and conceptual way to understand what it means to move from simply enrolling Latinx students to actually serving them. This PowerPoint presentation outlines how this concept can be integrated into the work of Higher Education.

• ¿Qué pasa, HSIs?

  • Dr. Gina Ann Garcia hosts this informative podcast, bringing you all the latest and greatest on what’s happening in HSIs. Join us as we explore the history and evolution of HSIs, culturally relevant and liberatory practices in HSIs, current and emerging research with HSIs, and the policies that shape servingness.
• Seal of Excelencia Framework

  • Excelencia in Education established the Seal of Excelencia, a national certification for institutions that strive to go beyond enrollment to intentionally SERVE Latino students.

    To support and reinforce institutional capacity to intentionally serve, Excelencia developed a framework that integrates essential components of transformation into a comprehensive institutional strategy for SERVING students. This framework represents learning from over 20 years of working with higher education institutions. Familiarize yourself with this framework to help align the work of your department with the best HSI practices.

Articles, Literature and Guides

• Biases and Generations Glossary
  • Terms, definitions, and examples of common biases, including a breakdown of generations.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary
  • A broad scope of terms and definitions relating to DEI.
• Sex, Gender, and Identity Glossary
  • Terms and definitions relating to gender and identity.
• Microaggressions in Every Day Life
  • A list of common manifestations of microaggressions that we should be mindful of as a community .
• Say This Not That
  • A guide to help practice inclusive language.
• The DNA of the DEI
  • The slideshow created by Dr. Ronald W. Whitaker II, EdD for CCRI's 2024 Equity Centered Professional Developement Day. These slides contextualize DEI work across the country and break down how DEI work is critical for cultivating spaces of belonging and driving outcomes on college campuses.

DVDs and Books

• Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement (DVD)
  • The definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life, and embodied a struggle whose reverberations are felt today.
• Tough Choices, Tough Times (Executive Summary)
  • Key findings of the book that outlines the bold and specific road map for transforming all levels of education—preschool through postsecondary education—to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing global economy.
• Strategic Diversity Leadership: Activating Change and Transformation in Higher Education
  • The ebook outlining how diversity work is best approached as an intellectual endeavor with a pragmatic focus on achieving results that takes an evidence-based approach to operationalizing diversity.
• Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do
  • Social psychologist Claude Steele addresses one of the most perplexing social issues of our time: the trend of minority underperformance in higher education.

• Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

  • Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Begin Again is a searing exploration of the tangled web of race, trauma, and memory, and a powerful interrogation of what we must ask of ourselves in order to call forth a new America.