Engaging Students, Embracing Community
The Office of Student Connections and Outreach at Marietta College educates and engages the campus community. Our office fosters inclusive excellence within our community by providing initiatives and practices that support and empower all components of the campus community. We offer opportunities for cultural exchange and understanding, providing avenues for the broadening of understanding and communication across diversity.
Student-Centered
Our central purpose is to support and empower historically underserved and underrepresented student populations. We work to provide resources that maximize the probability of success while advocating on behalf of marginalized students to various campus stakeholders, all in the pursuit of additional structures and policies that increase access. Our services are constructed through multiple paths, student support services, student organizations, educational opportunities, and cultural engagement components.
Staff and Faculty Engagement
Our office seeks to promote the standards of inclusive excellence by engaging faculty and staff on best practices and providing avenues of continuous engagement and experiential learning. We seek collaboration opportunities to enhance the overall structure of area practices while also instituting initiatives and programs that illustrate the evolving needs of students, highlighting practices and policies needed to provide equitable support and diversity-based understanding.
Community Investment
In creating a culture of respect and understanding, our office seeks to strengthen collaboration and opportunities of engagement to our larger community. Through the multitude of initiatives and activities to the overall engagement of services, our practices are designed to build a larger coalition of support, advocacy and resource building with the Marietta community. We strive to enhance community partnerships through the access of several initiatives and seek engagement through open invitations from our community organizations in ways to create inclusive environments.
Contact the Office of Student Connections and Outreach
Tony Mayle
Associate Dean of Students
Director of Student Connections and Outreach
740.376.3287
aam006@marietta.edu
Our Resources
Students
Our office sponsors several student organizations designed to support our students. These student organizations provide space and opportunity to develop authentic identities while fostering relationships among peers.
Organizations
- Brother 2 Brother
- Charles Sumner Harrison Organization
- Global Connections
- LGBTQ + Activism
Faculty and Staff
We provide several opportunities for faculty and staff to support and enhance skills, passions and needs. These opportunities allow for larger collaboration and cross-cultural learning and are offered in a variety of modes and delivery options.
Resources
- Ambassadors for Inclusive Excellence
- Bias Response Team
- Multicultural Center
Series
John Lewis Good Trouble
Partnerships
Parkhurst Dining Taste of Diversity
Our Actions
Campus
As we seek to create opportunities for cross cultural collaboration and intercultural understanding, our services include opportunities for all members of our campus to work in collaboration, on initiatives designed to enhance the experiences of all historically underserved students. We believe these initiatives will provide opportunities for campus members to work together, learning from one another in the efforts of creating equity-based resources and support for historically underserved populations.
Resources
- One Marietta
- Training
- Council for Inclusive Excellence
- MLK Day of Service Committee
Community
We offer a variety of opportunities to collaborate and partner with the Marietta community. All efforts are designed to increase capacity, expand understanding, foster communication and build a larger support network for community development. In creating these opportunities, our office will impart additional components of education for the community while expanding our footprint and knowledge of community needs.
Opportunities
- Mentor Family
- MLK Day of Service
- Multicultural Festival
- International Human Rights Day
- Lunar New Year
- Kuwait National Day
- Our John Lewis Good Trouble Series was started in 2021 to honor the late U.S. Representative and Civil Rights Leader. John Lewis was a commence speaker at Marietta College on May 17, 2008 and given an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.. The event is sponsored by an endowment from the Noto Family Fund for Diversity in the Arts
- Our annual Juneteenth community celebration was started in 2021- This event combines the local communities and Marietta College employees and students. The event includes guest speakers, free prizes, and free food that are the color red.
- Our annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. educational celebration was created in 2015 and occurs in January. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a crowd of 3,000 at Ban Johnson Field House on March 2, 1967. His speech, "The Future of Integration," was part of the Thomas Lecture Series, and called on the government to address the issues of poverty and housing. This event offers education and an opportunity for students and employees to learn about diverse cultures and their challenges, as well as an opportunity for service learning.
- Our Chinese Lunar New Year was started in the 1990’s. This event celebrated the Asian cultures with performances and Asian themed foods for students, employees, and community members.
- The Multicultural Fest started in 2016. It includes culturally diverse food prepared and shared by our students, employees, and community members. The event also includes multicultural performances from students and community members. The event is free and open to the public. The food at the festival serve as a storyteller not just of the different cultures they originated from but also of the local Marietta community.
- Our LGBTQ+ student group has been hosting their annual Pride Prom and Gaysgiving for the last 6 years. The event allows our LGBTQ+ students to celebrate their cultures and offer a space for each of them to socialize and bond with each other and their allies.
- Our annual Exploring Black Slavery: 1619 through Today trip was started in 2022. The trip includes travel to Montgomery and Selma, Alabama. The trip includes 35 students and 4 chaperones/leaders. Students visit the Legacy Museum, The National Museum for Peace and Justice, Voting Rights Museum, etc. All expenses are paid for possible from donations from an anonymous alumnae and her spouse.
- 1830s-1850s: Choctaw students enrolled at Marietta Academy, the preparatory department of Marietta College.
- 1830s-1850s: Marietta College students were active in the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad.
- 1873-74: Kantaro Arima, a Japanese student from Kagoshima, was MC’s first international student.
- 1876: Charles Sumner Harrison became Marietta College’s first Black graduate. Harrison went on to become a physician in Washington, D.C. and worked for the Medical Department of the U.S. Pension Bureau. Two of his brothers, John Langston Harrison (1887) and Walter Clifton Harrison (1891) also graduated from Marietta College. Their father was an active UGRR conductor and abolitionist in the local community. Harrison Hall was named in honor of these brothers in August 2012.
- 1893: Marietta College operated the Marietta College for Women.
- 1895: Edward Marsden graduated from Marietta. Marsden was a member of the Tsimshian nation who became the first Alaska Native to be ordained in the ministry.
- 1897: Women were first admitted to Marietta College in equal standing with men.
- 1897: Elizabeth A. Anderson, instructor of rhetoric and English literature, became Marietta College’s first female faculty member.
- 1920s: Dorothy Webster Hall was donated to Marietta College in the late 1920s in honor of Dorothy Webster Mills. After undergoing extensive renovations to transition it from a single-family mansion to a full-fledged residence hall, the building welcomed its first group of women residents in 1930. It was the first residence hall on campus to house women, though today it accommodates both male and female students.
- 1944-45: Marietta College offered a class entitled, “Race Problems,” described as “a study of the facts and theories of race prejudice and race relations.”
- 1940s (WWII-era): Japanese-American students from internment camps attended Marietta College.
- 1951: Barbara Diggs Lyles became the first Black woman graduate of Marietta College. Dr. Lyles went on to teach at Howard University, where she was twice named Professor of the Year in Howard’s School of Education and was the university’s first Distinguished Scholar Teacher. ). Dr. Lyles was recognized in October 2001 with Marietta College’s Distinguished Alumna Award for her contributions to the field of education. She is being honored in the fall of 2023 with a student resident hall named after her.
- 1957: Elsie Newton Hall was the first residence hall built exclusively to house women students. It is named after Elsie Eaton Newton, the College’s first Dean of Women in 1923. This residence hall was built in 1957 to house 54 students.
- 1959: Mary Beach Hall was named in memory of Mary Dawes Beach, one of the first two women graduates of the College, was built in 1959 to originally house female students, though today accommodates both male and female students.
- 1969: Black Student Union formed at Marietta College.
- 1970: Marietta College held its first annual Black Studies Week, during which African American history and culture were highlighted with speakers and performers for campus and community.
- 1972: Amanda Newhouse Carnie graduated with the Class of 1972. Carnie was elected Marietta College's first African American Homecoming Queen in 1969. She went on to a very successful career as an opera soprano.
- 1997: Maya Angelou, poet, author, and civil rights leader, spoke in MC’s Ban Johnson Field House on January 30, 1997.
- 2019: The Charles Sumner Harrison Scholarship, which provides full tuition, was established in 2019. The award is named after Charles Sumner Harrison (Class of 1876), who is the first African-American graduate of the College. He is the first of three brothers from Harmar (west side of Marietta) who completed higher education at Marietta College.
- 2022: An UGRR and abolitionist marker stands on campus, and was dedicated in 2022, to honor the accomplishments and bravery of students and community members that stood for social justice locally and nationally.
Vision
For Marietta College to increase the number of underrepresented students attending, matriculating, and graduating. The Office of Student Connections and Outreach envisions a college that supports all perspectives, cultures, and differences.
Mission
The mission of the Office of Student Connections and Outreach is to support Marietta College’s mission and core values through services, programs, and initiatives that ensure the creation and maintenance of a diverse and inclusive community that affirms diverse perspectives, attitudes, beliefs, and experiences, while providing specific support for US students from traditionally underrepresented populations, especially first-generation, low-income, and/or racial/ethnic minority students.
Core Values
Culture
Innovation
Empowerment
Collaboration
Social Justice
Inspiration
The purpose of the Giving Tree is to allow donors to support the Multicultural Center as a Brave Space for our students. Funds will be used to support student programming, and professional and personal development and other needs of the center. Donations will foster a sense of inclusion, equity, and belonging for our students and allow for continuous community building, engagement, and learning opportunities.