Richard Bland College successfully launched the Campus Belonging Campaign in Fall 2025 as a campus-wide initiative aimed at enhancing student, staff, and community belonging. The campaign integrated response efforts to promote campus unity, laid the foundation for belonging training for supervisors and faculty, and utilized a mixed-methods approach to assess and better understand the perceptions of community cohesion across campus. In acknowledging RBC's close-knit and family-like atmosphere, the initiative began by exploring strategies to further cultivate meaningful connections among students, faculty, and staff. The value of these connections has continued to be demonstrated through the emergence of protective factors (e.g., supportive relationships) that enhance students' overall well-being and achievement. To that end, centering belonging as a core institutional value positioned RBC to reaffirm its commitment to fostering an environment in which every member of the community feels seen, valued, connected, and empowered to thrive.

Update: June 2026

The Campus Belonging Campaign at Richard Bland College continues to be effective in increasing the College's awareness of unity within our student body and among employees through the individual and group conversations conducted as part of our campus wide mixed-methods research study, which will continue through the Fall 2026 semester. The Inclusive Excellence Committee honored its commitment to transparency as the Chair and designated committee members provided updates at the Faculty Assembly and Presidential Council meetings. This work has emphasized the importance of valuing our shared experiences and common vision, which undergird all efforts to elevate student voices, uplift their talents, and reinforce a sense of Statesmen pride and belonging across campus. During the 2025-2026 academic year, the Inclusive Excellence Committee deepened its understanding of the benefits of campus connections and the transformative power of bringing the RBC community together. Through this reflection, we recognized that our students flourish most when the entire campus community joins in strengthening key protective factors, particularly supportive relationships, that empower them to thrive. In alignment with the Richard Bland College's mission, our overarching goal became bringing the Bland community together with intention and care and creating an environment in which every student and employee feels connected, uplifted, and equipped to reach their highest levels of wellbeing and achievement.