The 2023 Oz Equity Challenge, an annual event which allows students to examine bias and diversity, has begun.

This year’s challenge encourages the campus community to read articles and watch videos about topics like cultural humility, social identity and implicit biases before answering questions from the website. This is the second year that the challenge is taking place.

The Triandiflou Institute for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Transformative Practice started the Oz Equity Challenge on Feb. 13, bringing new questions, and social justice habits to students, faculty and staff. It will end on March 3.

This year, they are offering an opportunity for participants to identify themselves when registering to better offer recognition to those who are able to complete the challenges.

Each week of this year’s challenge will consist of four days of topics that are organized into three pillars of content: building a foundation, understanding systems and interrupting injustice. The Triandiflou Institution offers a dialogue at the end of each week to come together to explore some of the ideas and concepts. 

The Oz Equity Challenge was first introduced by SUNY Oswego in February 2022 and ran until March 2022 with the goal of assisting the Oswego community on campus in setting aside time and space to cultivate more effective social justice habits. The Institute’s core mission is to “foster an environment that respects, embraces and promotes cultural humility, civil discourses, and active engagement,” Mary Toale, SUNY Oswego’s officer in charge, said alongside Kendra Cadogan, SUNY Oswego’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, in a 2022 message from the Office of the President. “We hope participants will approach each activity with open minds, a willingness to learn from each daily module, and a desire to experience intellectual and personal growth.” 

The registration period for this year’s challenges closed on Feb. 15. However, the campus community can still participate online through the website, where all the materials are posted at https://ww1.oswego.edu/diversity/oz-equity-challenge. The Oz Equity Challenge dialogue for the week is posted on the SUNY Oswego events calendar website with the next dialogue session scheduled on Feb. 24.

Photo via: ozinstitute on Instagram