Cultures and Community Project

Welcome to Whitworth's Cultures and Community Project Website, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Whitworth University is currently undertaking a five-year planning process and revision of Educational Principles and curriculum and is committed to a thorough review and redesign of its multicultural offerings to reflect an understanding of America's pluralist culture.

The goal of Whitworth’s "Cultures and Community Project" is to promote campus understanding of cultural differences, and to increase students’ ability to participate in a culturally diverse society. This goal will be met through institutional planning, curricular infusion, faculty development, and community collaboration. The project’s four specific objectives are to:

Define multiculturalism in the context of the American experience, and develop an institutional model for implementing a new multicultural curriculum in core general education courses. At the same time, the project will encourage additional individual efforts, on the part of faculty.
Provide training and resources for faculty development, including Symposia on Diversity and Community, resulting in the creation of new, permanent, multicultural courses.
Establish permanent links between local, diverse communities and the College, such as establishment of a Diversity and Community Advisory Board. And
Determine the extent to which the project has met its goals and objectives, and make recommendations to Whitworth’s General Education Task Force regarding continuation of various program elements. The project will also pilot a cohort model for students, which will make available to students multicultural service learning and mentoring opportunities.

This program begins in September 2000, and is supported by a $75,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation plus appropriate institutional matching funds.