Diversity & Equity Statement

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BSC Diversity and Equity Vision Statement

As a 501(c) nonprofit that aims to serve students who would not be able to attain an education without affordable housing, the BSC recognizes that its members are shaped by diverse identities and contexts that are affected by a variety of systems of power. These systems are organized by respectively hierarchized categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, age, ability, sexuality, legal status, nationality, among others. The BSC seeks to challenge and transform these systems by creating affordable, accessible, and anti-oppressive living spaces where underrepresented students can feel safer, grow personally and collectively, and thrive in academic and extracurricular engagements. It is only by establishing a commitment to equity and diversity through anti-oppression practices that the BSC can better recruit and retain members, being led by and for underrepresented students in higher education.


The BSC seeks to honor the diversity of backgrounds and experiences that students from low-income communities bring into the co-ops. This requires fostering spaces where transformational learning and unlearning is encouraged in order to engage in respectful cross-cultural communication and exchange. It is important that all incoming and continuing members as well as staff acknowledge the co-ops as transformative learning spaces where diversity is seen through a critical lens affected by historical and structural power relations.