Endicott College opens Center for Belonging & Inclusion

Paul Leighton, Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
·2 min read

Sep. 20—BEVERLY — Endicott College has opened a Center for Belonging and Inclusion on its campus in Beverly.

The new center, which was formerly the college's Interfaith Chapel, will serve as the "campus hub" for inclusive programming and activities as well as spiritual life, according to the college.

"This is a day that's been years in the making," Brandi Johnson, Endicott's vice president and chief diversity officer, told the crowd during a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this month, according to a press release from the school.

Johnson said the Interfaith Chapel was established at Endicott in 1978 to serve as a beacon for students and community members of all religious beliefs. She said the opening of the new center "represents an expansion — not an eclipse — of that original mission, which is really about community."

Endicott College had 2,904 undergraduate students in 2021, according to its website. Nine percent were minority students.

JP Miranda, a business and management major at Endicott, called the Center for Belonging & Inclusion "a step in the right direction in making this campus a more inclusive environment for people like me."

"I see this as a new beginning in moving the needle on creating a sense of belonging within our community," he said.

The college's Office for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging will sponsor several events on campus this fall. Those include talks by disability speaker Christina Irene on Oct. 4; former NFL quarterback Don McPherson, author of "You Throw Like a Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity," on Oct. 19; and Sean K. Ellis, who spent more than 21 years in prison for a robbery and murder he did not commit and whose story was chronicled in the 2020 Netflix documentary series "Trial 4," on Nov. 9.

Endicott also held the semester's first "Dine & Dialogue" session on Sept. 14. The sessions bring together students, faculty and staff over breakfast and lunch for group discussions on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging on campus.

Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, pleighton@gloucestertimes.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.