Building Community Through Action

With the school year officially underway, many of us are feeling the excitement that comes with reconnection, engagement, and the opportunity to shape our future. Whether you are returning to a familiar role or a new one, and whether you have been feeling anticipation, stress, or joy, this season offers a sense of opportunity.  

The Common Ground Collective (CGC) invites you to engage in that opportunity to help shape the community we are building together. We aspire to a community of care, acceptance, openness, connection, and collaboration and believe that leadership, acceptance, awareness, and support can create an environment of lasting change.  

One way we seek to achieve this change is through publishing our Community Tips. This week's Tips focus on our mission and values, as well as ways you can join in shaping our community and developing meaningful connections.  

Join us in our efforts to build a more connected community!  

What Do We Do?

The Common Ground Collective is a campus-wide program that aims to build acceptance and belonging through raising awareness and fostering a sense of leadership and accountability in faculty, staff, and graduate students.  

Our work centers on creating welcoming spaces that support personal and professional growth while driving change through collective action.  

Core Principles (CALUA) 

  • Community: We facilitate building connections and relationships on campus through events that provide spaces to exchange experiences, ideas, and connect with others. 
  • Acceptance: We seek to encourage and respect diverse perspectives by creating space for sharing feelings, experiences, needs, and values.  
  • Leadership: We empower faculty and staff with tools and confidence to lead as change-makers. 
  • Unlearning: Our team challenges ourselves and others to let go of old ideas and assumptions and to learn new ways of thinking and seeing. 
  • Accountability: We encourage those in positions of privilege and power to be leaders of change through collective efforts.  

Events and Workshops

With our partner programs, we hold a range of events throughout the year. Here are some of the upcoming opportunities to join us. Keep an eye out for more events to come! 

See more upcoming events

Departmental Change Leaders Program (coming Fall 2026) 

Each year, we will recruit a new group of “change leaders” for a program designed to promote mentorship around our core principles. This initiative focuses on a "training the trainers" model, empowering leaders to build acceptance and community within their departments/units. This program will offer interested faculty or staff the opportunity to learn skills and tools that will allow them to empower new leaders in their units. 

To join a cohort of CGC Change Leaders reach out to us at coground@iu.edu. 

Unit-Specific Facilitation 
Do all members of your department feel equally valued? Do all faculty and staff equitably take on service? Does your department address the needs and concerns of all its members, especially those who are from marginalized or underrepresented communities? CGC facilitates constructive conversations around our core principles of community, acceptance, leadership, unlearning, and accountability tailored to address the unique concerns of your department.  

Request a Facilitation for your unit or department by emailing coground@iu.edu.  

 

Community Tips Open Submission: Collective Knowledge Building for a Shared Community

CGC publishes its Community Tips newsletter bi-weekly to promote an inclusive campus climate. To make our Tips and resources responsive to current questions and issues, we invite your ideas and input on topics! Join our collective effort to build a stronger community by sharing your questions and insights.  

Here are some questions to help you formulate your ideas: 

  • What does working toward common ground look like to you as a faculty member, administrator, staff, postdoc, or graduate student? 
  • What kind of collective effort is needed in your field? 
  • What are the challenges of working together, and what support is needed to overcome them? 
  • What are the implicit and explicit behaviors, biases, assumptions, and attitudes that hinder our collective efforts in building a welcoming community? 

Submit your ideas to us here- Community Tips Form - Google Forms 

Action Tips

  • Be a proactive advocate for others: Share growth opportunities and actively support underrepresented colleagues. Use your position to help others succeed! 
  • Listen with empathy and believe others' experiences: Recognize that venting is not a personal attack but a way for people to process frustration. Acknowledge and validate the experiences of others without judgment or defensiveness. 
  • Challenge systemic issues and inappropriate behavior: Recognize your own privilege and acknowledge the impact of systemic inequalities and microaggressions on others. When possible, call out inappropriate behavior when you see it. Naming unwelcoming dynamics is crucial to collectively building a strong community. 
  • Engage in continuous self-reflection and growth: Listen, support others, and then use that understanding to self-reflect and change your own assumptions and behavior. Mindfulness about language use and when intervening can facilitate tangible changes for the common good. 

See our Archived Community Tips

Learn more about Common Ground Collective

Weekly Resources

Get these tips delivered to your mailbox!
We send these tips every Tuesday during the fall & spring semesters to our mailing list. If you are not already on our mailing list you can request to be added by completing the form below.