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.

Read more about "Programs and Initiatives"

Community Resources

Information on resources for the community

Read more about "Community Resources"

About the DEC

The Diversity and Equity Center's vision, mission, and values

Read more about "About the DEC"

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.

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