Employee Affinity Groups
Get Involved
An Affinity Group is a group of faculty and staff linked by a common purpose, ideology, or interest. Affinity Groups play a vital role in ensuring an inclusive environment where all are valued, included, and empowered to succeed. They can provide a collective voice for faculty and staff with common interests, and are affiliated with and can receive funding support from the Office of Inclusive Excellence. As a member, you can play a vital role in ensuring an inclusive environment where all are valued, included, and empowered to succeed.
Whether you are a student, faculty, or staff member, you can get involved in promoting inclusion and equity on campus by participating in campus events, joining a student club, or joining a campus affinity group.
"When I first started at CSUMB, an LGBTQ+ Affinity Group did not exist. Knowing that this is now a resource that not only myself and current employees can partake in, but also new employees, is such a comfort and support to me. I've already begun to make new connections on campus and develop a sense of camaraderie that I otherwise would not have."
The LGBTQ+ Staff/Faculty Affinity Group exists to provide an opportunity for queer faculty and staff to connect socially, advocate for and empower LGBTQ+ students, develop partnerships with community-based LGBTQ+ advocacy and social efforts, and advance diversity and equity initiatives on CSUMB's campus and in the surrounding community.
For more information contact: Dave Reichard dreichard@csumb.edu and Steven Goings sgoings@csumb.edu
- For more information contact: Marylou Shockley mshockley@csumb.edu and Phuong Nguyen pnguyen@csumb.edu
The African American Heritage Faculty and Staff Alliance is a group of dedicated CSUMB faculty and staff purposed with providing community for one another and supporting the University's students. Re-established in 2009, the Alliance continues to grow as the demands for diversity and inclusion widen and deepen. It seeks to be an integral part of the community as the campus continues to grow and works with various campus partners including the Otter Cross Cultural Center and the Office of Inclusive Excellence.
African American Heritage Faculty Staff Alliance - Meets the third Wednesday of Month
Location: 3rd Floor Library Conference Room 3145
For more information email: aahfsa@csumb.edu
La Colectiva hopes to create a space for folks to cultivate community, build authentic connections, engage in peer mentoring, and strategize ways for survival and success. We also want to advocate to enhance our well-being and sense of belonging to forge a more empowering campus climate by promoting a more representative composition of faculty and staff, and in other ways. Additionally, we seek to build coalitions with other staff/faculty affinity groups and alliances to advocate on behalf of our students, ourselves and various other communities on campus. We hope you can make it to our first social event and help us all start the semester in the community!
We meet every third Thursday of the month. For more information, please join our Facebook group and/or fill out the Google form.
The Native American Council (NAC) is a group of dedicated faculty and staff.
NAC serves three purposes:
- To provide community and support for students;
- To build community and continue campus relations with tribes;
- To advise campus administrators on issues relevant to the support of Native students, faculty, staff and alumni.
For more information contact: nac@csumb.edu
The White Employee Anti-Racism Collective (WEAREC) brings together faculty, staff, and administrators committed to white engagement with anti-racism. We will build courageous conversations about race and social justice; provide a place for storytelling and reflection about how we cultivate white anti-racist identities; strengthen allyship with BIPOC faculty, staff, administrators, and students; and support white anti-racist inquiry and growth on campus.
Some goals for group engagement:
- Investigate how whiteness and white supremacy shapes our experiences as CSUMB employees
- Foster, support, and advocate for white anti-racist inquiry and growth on campus
- Provide a place for storytelling to deepen understanding of white antiracist ancestors, challenges, and problem-solving
- Create problem-solving spaces to consider if we are showing up as a white anti-racist co-workers and how we might better do so
- Build community and support each other as learners and facilitators around anti-racism work
- Offer an entry point for developing white anti-racist identity and white anti-racist engagement in our workspaces, committees, leadership positions, etc.
- Organize campus community opportunities for white antiracist professional development
For more information contact: rkersnar@csumb.edu
We facilitate the inclusion of veterans, military members, and their families into the CSUMB campus community. We collaborate with campus partners to support recruitment, retention, comradery, and the ongoing success of our veteran community. For more information contact: Steve Mackey smackey@csumb.edu
Islamic/Muslim Employee Affinity Group
The goal for this affinity group is to commune with, share ideas, passions, and simply support and validate one another with our existence and survival here at CSUMB.
For more information contact: Dr. Ibrahim Shelton gshelton@csumb.edu