It is our duty, as an institution of higher learning and faith, to continuously ask ourselves how will we make the world a better place and how will we better the lives of others. To do this, we must listen. We must learn. We must pursue progress. And most of all, we must open our hearts and minds. Merrimack College’s founding values of teaching, learning and serving inform the institution’s unwavering commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. We work on building and nurturing a culturally, racially diverse community, anchored in intersectional justice and respect for all identities and differences.

The O’Brien Center for Career Development is committed to providing programming, services and resources for our students that address diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism. As such, we commit to acknowledging and confronting the ways in which biases surrounding identity and systemic racism impact career decision-making, access to employment and access to advancement in the workplace. We will actively work to educate ourselves and our students to build an antiracist society. Specifically, the O’Brien Center for Career Development will: 

Commitment #1

Create career-related programs and resources to address diversity, equity and inclusion in the career development and exploration journey, the job-seeking process and the workplace to help students of all identities pursue meaningful careers.

Commitment #2

Collaborate with employers and academic partners seeking to address employment inequity.

Commitment #3

Listen, learn and educate our staff about the career development challenges faced by students of underrepresented and marginalized identities.

Next Steps

We look forward to new partnerships, new innovative programs and finding new ways to best meet the career development needs of our students and the hiring needs of our employers. We welcome feedback and accountability from the Merrimack community as we continue working toward a more inclusive and antiracist society.

We understand that our work in diversity, inclusion, equity and antiracism is ongoing. We acknowledge this work is not a goal or final destination, but a continuous learning and unlearning journey. Our ongoing commitment to these principles drives our efforts in the following areas:

    • Employer-Related
      • Identify and elevate the profile of women, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC-owned businesses in New England for students to pursue employment opportunities (ongoing)
      • Connect with diversity recruiters through LinkedIn (ongoing)
      • Provide resources and suggest opportunities for DEI training for employers interested in recruiting Merrimack’s diverse talent (Summer 2021)
      • Examine historical student, employer and alumni attendance data at events to evaluate representation of various identities. Create benchmarks to increase representation for events in the 2021-2022 academic year and beyond. (Summer 2021)  
    • Staff-Related
      • All staff are Safe Zone certified (Fall 2020)
      • Attend externally-hosted DEI trainings (ongoing)
      • Implement monthly internal DEI training and development for OCCD staff (ongoing)
      • Research and education on specific career needs for students of underrepresented and marginalized identities to provide more comprehensive advising support (ongoing) 
      • Identify and join groups and listservs that have a focus on underrepresented and marginalized identities in the workforce (ongoing) 
    • Student-Related
      • Create a robust library of online career exploration and development and financial literacy resources related to a variety of student identities (ongoing)
      • Promote on and off-campus recruitment and career readiness opportunities targets to underrepresented and marginalized student identities (ongoing)
      • Collaborate with the Diversity Affairs Liaison from the SGA Career Affairs Committee to understand and address the DEI-related career development concerns raised by the general student population (ongoing)
      • Examine historical student use (technology resources) and attendance (appointments and events) data to evaluate representation of various identities. Create benchmarks to increase representation in the 2021-2022 academic year and beyond. (Summer 2021)
      • Examine First Destination Outcomes survey data to determine if BIPOC students are obtaining employment of the same caliber of non-minority students (Summer 2021)  
      • Implement the employer anti-racism and gender equality scorecard (Lewis 2020) into our online resources for student use in evaluating potential employers (Summer 2021)
      • Through our Peer Advisor initiative, connect with student identity groups and organizations on campus to learn about their experiences, career development needs and programming ideas (Spring 2021)
    • Technology-Related
      • Partner with Quinncia to implement DEI-specific questions into their mock interviewing tool (ongoing)
      • Embed student demographic data in Handshake accounts for data collection to evaluate of representation of various student identities (ongoing)
    • Campus Partners-Related
        • Collaborate with Office of Multicultural Initiatives to create Diversity Awareness Badge (Fall 2020)
        • Participate in campus-wide Unity in Diversity initiatives and other DEI trainings (ongoing)
        • Staff representation as DEI Ambassadors and on the Merrimack College DEI Advisory Council (ongoing)
        • Develop and deliver events in conjunction with partners across campus, including Athletics, Accessibility Services, Office of Multicultural Initiatives and other faculty partners (ongoing)