Advocacy

SiteImage7

In addition to the specific programs of the Big IDEAs, Mini Grants and the IDEA Fund Endorsed award, IDEA Fund Trustees generally advocate for the promotion of the Fund’s values within the University. Through meetings and communications with alumni, administrators, staff, students, community members and faculty, IDEA Fund Trustees are committed to staying abreast of, collaborating on, and sponsoring events, programs, committees, symposia and appointments that serve its values. Examples of this are collaborations on past annual MLK celebration events, sponsorships of symposia, statements of support and concern to University leadership on topics that are relevant to the Fund’s mission, and providing mentoring support to minority/underrepresented students, faculty, and staff at the University through focused alumni networking and contacts.

IDEA Fund Trustees look to the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to help make us aware of relevant areas for advocacy, and the Voices of Diversity page of their website provides up-to-date news information on topics related to diversity and equity at the University of Virginia. In addition to the many schools and departments of the University, from the Carter G. Woodson Institute to the Batten School, we have allies in related alumni, friend, and faculty groups that are working hard to entrench the values of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access at the University.

These include (but are in no means limited to):