The National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) at UT seeks to equip participants to facilitate conversations to advance inclusive excellence and promote coalitions to address shared societal challenges through workshops that focus on developing leadership skills for students, faculty, and staff.
Theory and Philosophy
- Training teams of peer leaders is the most effective way to empower people to take leadership in reducing racism and other forms of discrimination.
- Programs to welcome diversity require an ongoing institutional effort.
- The establishment of proactive training programs that build strong intergroup relations are more effective than programs that respond to specific incidents of racism or crises.
- Programs that welcome diversity need to include all the visible and invisible differences found in a workplace or community.
- Diversity training programs that are based on guilt, moralizing or condemnation often rigidify prejudicial attitudes.
- Anti-racism programs are most effectively conducted with a hopeful, upbeat tone.
See the national NCBI website for more detailed explanations of each of these principles.
UT NCBI offers year-round leadership workshops that aim to create a more inclusive campus environment. Participants in the team-led workshops acquire practical skills for shifting prejudicial attitudes and also learn how to become more effective allies for one another.
