The College of Communication and Information Sciences is committed to promoting an environment that harbors and promotes diversity and inclusion and is proud to host the annual Discerning Diverse Voices Symposium on Diversity each Spring. Started in 2009 by Dr. Caryl Cooper, this symposium is a forum for the sharing of ideas from researchers, faculty, staff, alumni, and students, as well as diversity thought leaders from around the country.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Melissa Villa-Nicholas, Ph.D. She is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Her work focuses on the Latinx histories and practices of information and technology, immigrant information rights, and critical approaches to information science. Her lecture investigates the emerging state of borderland technology that brings all people into an intimate place of surveillance where date resides and defines inclusion and exclusion to citzenship.