About the Department

The primary mission of the Office of Institutional Culture and Belonging is to develop a strong sense of belonging in the students, staff, and faculty that make up the USC Aiken community. In line with the university's core value of collegiality, the Office of Institutional Culture and Belonging fosters institutional equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging by cultivating opportunities to discuss differences, raising awareness, and providing tools to identify and overcome gaps in understanding to ensure inclusive excellence at the university, the larger Aiken community, and the entire state of South Carolina. Our role on campus is to engage and educate students on topics that revolve around diversity, equity, and inclusion. In conjunction with a coalition of faculty and staff members, campus partners, and community leaders, we seek to increase students' involvement in their development and maturation as productive members of society.

The Intersection

The Intersection is a campus space that is facilitated through the Office of Institutional Culture and Belonging within the Division of Student Affairs. In line with best practices in university models, the Intersection serves as a comfortable hang-out spot for undergraduate and graduate students, meeting space, and program venue. Programs within this space will include but aren’t limited to heritage month programming, movie screenings, and culturally specific meals. This specific space, while open to all students, faculty, and staff members, this space is primarily designed to support communities of color, the LGBTQIA+ community, students with (dis)abilities, and other traditionally marginalized communities. The need for this space has been echoed by faculty, staff, and students of various backgrounds. The Intersection’s name takes inspiration from the term Intersectionality. This term was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991) and is used to describe how “race and gender interact” and intersect with other individual characteristics and society. These intersections create “multiple dimensions” of individuals’ experiences. This space may be reserved using 25 Live.  Note:  Programs and meetings in this space must revolve around some topic in diversity, equity, and inclusion in society.