Design is not only used to create visual solutions, it could be also a tool to create experiential and social solutions. This is the vision of  the new special assistant for the CAMD Dean’s office for diversity, equality and inclusion, Margarita Barrios Ponce.

With a background in design and plenty of experience designing and creating communities, Barrios Ponce states that her primary interest is to create social solutions, which makes her new position the perfect opportunity to keep addressing the need of fomenting diversity and inclusion within the NU community and do this through design.

“The job right now is to find out what things we have to design for those communications lines could exist,” says Barrios-Ponce,  “the goal is to establish lines of communications that are obvious and where everybody knows who is involved and that there would be representation, not only among the departments, but among the students, including the graduate students who, different from undergraduates that have all the involvement within the college, might have a different situation.”

Within NU there are, of course, cultural, religious and many other affinity groups that the students can approach and where they can have an active participation. More information about these groups can be found at the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion either in person or at https://provost.northeastern.edu/oidi/

But Barrios Ponce explains that there are advisory groups that either are already established, like the ones for undergraduate students, or are being formed at the graduate level, whose mission is to “bring the students together and discuss topics that are affecting them within the university. And generally there is where the topics of diversity that are relevant at the moment are brought up.” 

She adds that “the best way to participate is to go directly to the department and say that you want to participate and you probably will be redirected to the diversity department within the department, or to the advisory board.” 

Everybody is welcome to participate.