The New Life and Legacy of CAED’s DEI Club

by Brianna Grossman

Kiaya Batkin (right) and CAED DEI members at the CAED DEI booth

If Morgan Miller was nervous about taking on the responsibility of CAED Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Club president, he never showed it. At the time, he was a third-year architecture major, having joined the club after it lost significant members due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When I became president, you know, we were still kind of working with those numbers. There was a lot of figuring things out,” he said.

Before the pandemic, the club had high participation and a solid community. However, the lack of physical presence on campus during the 2020 and 2021 school years slowed the club’s momentum.

Now, as a graduating senior, Miller is ready to pass the baton to second-year city and regional planning major Kiaya Batkin.

Batkin, who joined the club as a second year after hearing about it from a friend, was previously working on DEI within CRP. When she got involved with the college-wide DEI club, she quickly became interested in helping co-lead events and applying for the board.

“She has that energy and that drive and that determination,” Miller said about Batkin. “I'm incredibly proud of her for taking on such a big task.”

This past school year, the DEI club has been busy hosting several CAED activities, nearly 10 events a quarter.

A frequent favorite is the T(ruth) and Hot Tea, where anyone can join the club for tea and discussion on a wide range of topics.

“Sometimes it's major specific, sometimes it's not,” Batkin said. “Sometimes we'll talk about the protests happening on Dexter Lawn and or the accessibility on campus.”

Whatever the topic is, Batkin says this event allows the club to get to know others in the CAED community and gauge perspectives on other possible DEI events. The event also provides a crucial resource for students: food. Economic insecurity is a major issue that Miller says the club strives to address.

“It's a hard thing to talk about, but it's one that needs to be talked about,” Miller said. The high cost of education, including material costs within the CAED creates substantial educational barriers for many students. For Miller, providing food at club events is a way to help students who may be struggling with economic injustice.

The club works further to connect students with scholarships and to make financial resources more readily available; the overall goal is transparency.

“One of the reasons why DEI exists is to connect students to those resources and to help create a community of knowledge that knows about these kinds of things,” Miller said.

1) CAED students, staff and faculty come together in the KTGY courtyard for a college-wide barbecue
2) The winning chalk art from the Under One Courtyard chalk art contest

This spring, CAED Interim Dean Kevin Dong spearheaded “Under One Courtyard,” a college-wide community event which included culturally diverse foods, chalk art contest, student project gallery, music and plenty of opportunities for interdisciplinary interaction. Miller praised the event, saying these types of college events help open the communication channels across the board.

“In addition to talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, we're just talking to each other, you know?” Miller said.

Open communication is a key element for Batkin’s goals next year, which is to strengthen the connection between the club and the five CAED departments.

“It's really easy to get this kind of life stuck in like the same group of people after a while. And it's always refreshing to talk to someone else who doesn't know what your course load is like or what experiences you have,” Batkin said.

This initiative is already in the works, as the club has recently elected a representative for each CAED department who will work as a club-department liaison. Batkin said she also hopes to forge a stronger relationship with the faculty DEI group.

1) Students gather in KTGY gallery for Unlearning Series: Women in the Workplace
2) Students and faculty join the CAED DEI resume workshop

Another aspect of the club is hosting different large-scale workshops. The resume workshop, which welcomed an estimated 160 people, connected students with faculty who looked over resumes and provided students with professional help.

“We have students who say, ‘I've never shown someone a resume’,” Miller said. This event is one of the many ways the club is leveling the playing field for students who come from backgrounds where these career resources are not readily available to them.

On the academic side, Miller and Batkin have been discussing the possibility of expanding the Unlearning Lecture Series, which, upon expansion, would invite guest lecturers to campus to speak on DEI related topics within the different CAED fields. To do so, the club has been looking into getting the series certified as an Instructional Resource Aid, which would require funding from the school.

Funding has been an essential part of the club’s success this year. With a newly expanded budget, the club has the resources to maintain its momentum and host frequent events. “It's really helpful to not have that financial strain on a club, especially one as far reaching as ours,” Batkin said.

She noted that this year’s efforts have given new life to the club. “There’s been a revitalization,” Batkin said. “People are getting more involved; they're asking about it and they're hearing about these events.”

Morgan Miller (left) at the CAED DEI booth during the annual Spring Fest.

Batkin is eager to fill Miller’s shoes, as she hopes to continue the friendly and welcoming aura he brought to every meeting.

As his time with the club and at Cal Poly ends, Miller reflected on his goal to reestablish a strong community committed to DEI.

“We can't build a house — a good house — without a good foundation,” he said.

He sought to not only revive the club, but to establish a strong club structure that would achieve tangible results. “It's one thing to say people are welcome, it's another thing to prove that,” he said.

It is also important to Miller for the club to have established a physical office, or rather what he calls the DEI headquarters, to create a sense of permanence. Although small, it serves as proof of the club’s presence on campus. For Miller, the legacy is not only the culture he has helped foster, but also the home for the CAED community to be themselves.

“We're not just a group of students who meet every week,” he said, “we're an institution.”