
Diversity and Equity Center
Diversity and Equity Center
The Diversity and Equity Center (DEC) centers the needs of students with marginalized identities.
Check out the DEC
We provide holistic student support, identity-based & cultural programs, and social justice workshops to cultivate a sense of belonging and community at Central Washington University (CWU) and beyond.
Programs and Initiatives
DEC Programs include THRIVE, Q*Fam, Culture Corner, Affinity Groups, and so much more.
Community Resources
Information on resources for the community
About the DEC
The Diversity and Equity Center's vision, mission, and values
DEC Core Values:
- Building just relationships
- Loving accountability
- Speaking trust to power
- Reckon with power structures
- Reimagine and rebuild
- Cultivate justice as a practice
- Sustain with joy.
Stay in the Know!
Fill out a Contact Form to be “in the know” about upcoming DEC events and programs!
Land acknowledgement
A land acknowledgement is a formal statement that recognizes and pays respect to the Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories and ancestral homelands we occupy and whose resources we use.
Central Washington University acknowledges the people who have been on this land since time immemorial. The Ellensburg campus is on lands ceded by the Pshwanapum and other bands and tribes of the Yakama Nation in the Treaty of 1855. The Yakama people remain committed stewards of this land, cherishing it and protecting it, as instructed by elders through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands, and give thanks to the legacy of the original people, their lives, and their descendants.
We also recognize the histories of land theft, violence, erasure and oppression of Indigenous communities. It is not enough to only make an acknowledgement. We have a responsibility as occupants of these lands to hear the call to action made by Indigenous peoples, and to support their ongoing fight for sovereignty, equity, justice, healing, and the protection of land resources.
CWU News

CWU Fine Arts alumna featured at Yakima gallery
November 22, 2023
by Rune Torgersen

CWU students travel to Ireland to teach inner-city girls physical literacy
November 20, 2023
by David Leder

One student’s journey from a refugee camp to the CWU College of Business
November 15, 2023
by Rune Torgersen