Oakland University is committed to creating and supporting a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment for all community members. Diversity, equity and inclusion objectives are grounded in the realization that one cannot build a foundation of collaboration while focusing on differences between contributors. Instead, the foundation must be built on the shared aspirations, commitments and surmountable challenges of all. At OU, learning and diversity are inevitably linked by the common pursuit of knowledge and understanding.
On this OU Day of Giving:
Please consider a gift to the following fund:
The Native American Advisory Committee Fund supports OU's commitment to preservation of Native American land, culture and community. More specifically, funds will help with planting Native foods on this land, bringing knowledge-keepers to teach and lead ceremony in the community, provide materials for cultural practices (hide, beads, food preparation, clay-pot making, basket weaving, regalia creation), and language revitalization courses and tools. The Native American Advisory Committee liaises between Oakland University and the Indigenous community to ensure continued respectful relationship between the two, and to ensure a sovereign stewardship of this land by its original peoples. A return of Native land-practices to OU supports the health, culture, and land preservation of the campus and beyond. Our current project is to secure funding to plant native Paw Paw trees on this land. We hope to do so in the spring of 2023. Thanks to a generous gift from the Rochester-Avon Historical Society, donations to this fund will be matched dollar for dollar up to $500 total.
Starting in 2019 as an Honors College student thesis, in 2021, this idea transformed into reality when the university approved and officially adopted a land acknowledgment statement. This statement demonstrates a public show of respect to Native peoples who have been historically marginalized from American institutions, politics and academic curriculums.
At a celebration event for the Land Acknowledgement on April 1, 2022, President Ora Hirsch Pescovitz announced that the university had designated an acre of land (found here in OU’s digital maps) specifically for Native American educational, community, and ceremonial use.
By supporting one or more of the funds below, you stand with OU’s mission to create a foundation of collaboration built on the shared aspirations and commitments of a diverse and inclusive student body.
The Center for Multicultural Initiatives Student Retention Fund
The Cody Petzold Rainbow Endowed Scholarship Fund
The First Generation College Student Program Fund
The Gender and Sexuality Center Gift Fund
The Hispanic Heritage Month Fund
The Keeper of the Dream Gift Fund
Native American Advisory Committee Gift Fund
The Veterans Affairs Gift Fund
