From ARC to Washington DC
ARC Professor Dr. Bill Zangeneh-Lester recently participated as a featured speaker in Washington D.C. at the U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships (CFBNP) “Free to Learn: Inclusion & Accommodations for Students of All Faiths & None” conference.
Representatives from the U.S. government, including Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, and Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), addressed attendees in the opening plenary, which focused on the urgent need for inclusive school cultures. Subsequent panels and sessions focused on topics such as religious diversity and inclusion in pre-K-12 schools and on campuses of higher education; Antisemitism and the experiences of Jewish students; Islamophobia and the experiences of Muslim students; initiatives from the Department of Education to advance equity, civil rights, and more.
Dr. Zangeneh-Lester's work for the last 14 years has focused on educating community college students about American religious diversity and providing them with opportunities for constructive civic engagement. “My diverse community college students disagree about many things but are in near universal agreement about this: There is an urgent need to educate about twenty-first century American religious diversity and to provide religiously diverse students with opportunities for constructive civic engagement,” Dr. Zangeneh-Lester said. “Continuing to ignore America’s growing religious diversity does nothing to prepare students and educators to become informed, engaged, and mutually responsible citizens in today’s religiously diverse democracy. This is a constitutional imperative that is often overlooked in public life. As the Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke reminded leaders at the conference, 'There are no second-class faiths under the First Amendment.'”
For Dr. Zangeneh-Lester, this work is part of an intersectional approach to our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments at ARC to ensure that students are safe, supported, and valued as their whole selves. “What would it look like if every student were given an equal chance to succeed and to show up as fully accepted members of society? It would look like a community college—at least, that is my aspiration as a community college educator,” Dr. Zangeneh-Lester said. ARC has taken intentional steps to overcome hate-based threats and bullying and to foster an inclusive campus climate for students of all faiths and none. At the US Department of Education, Dr. Zangeneh-Lester spoke about the journey at ARC to create a more inclusive environment, such as the establishment of ARC's "Meditation Room," and our most recent accomplishment, establishing a Humanities and Religious Studies Department and a Religious Studies designator (RLST) for the Spring of 2023.
As representatives of the US Department of Education concluded at the conference, “America’s students are of many different religious or nonreligious affiliations—they are Protestant, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Jain, Catholic, Muslim, Sikh, agnostic, atheist, and so on—and even for students who hold the same tradition, how they observe that tradition might look different from their peers. When students feel safe and welcome enough to bring their full selves to school, they thrive. And for many young people, their religious or secular identity is a core component of who they are. Students do not check those affiliations at the door when they enter their school or campus community—nor should they feel pressured to do so.”
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