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Nancy Richardson Design Center

Nancy Richardson Design Center Community “A diverse mix of voices leads to better discussions, decisions, and outcomes for everyone.”

— Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion A learning community created for everyone.

As part of a land-grant university, we prioritize ensuring our programs uphold the values of inclusivity and intentionality, and foster a safe and welcoming space for learners of diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, and identities. We firmly believe that our potential as a learning community is only enhanced by involvement from professors, instructors, staff, students, and community partners with diverse life experiences, and we aim to create a safe space where people are able to learn and collaborate as their truest selves.

Key values of Design Thinking include empathy and collaboration, and we utilize these values as a means of welcoming diversity and enhancing equity, inclusion, and justice for our learners and partners. We collaborate as a diverse community in order to address important societal problems facing our world today, through the lens of Design Thinking.

Faculty and Staff: Submit a DEIJ Activity
Fabrication lab users hold a large printed sign together in front of the large-format vinyl printer and cutter, the sign reads `RDC` with a galactic image in the font.

Inclusive Courses

  • Students apply design-thinking prototype solutions to socially important problems.
  • Project-based courses allow students to choose the focus of their projects, catering to varied interests and social problems.
  • A well-established Lifelong Learner program provides empowering adult learning opportunities.
  • We offer dual enrollment courses for high school students, particularly those from low income and rural areas.
  • We encourage faculty, staff, and students to share and use their chosen pronouns.
Professor chatting with student who is holding a garment sitting at a sewing machine.

Accessible Labs

  • We have accessible spaces for creators, students, and community members.
  • We helped create the stencils for the RamWalk mural, designed by CSU student Jocelyn Lapham, highlighting the value of community.
  • Students in AM475 utilized our labs to design and create prototype garments that are inclusive of traditionally marginalized consumer groups.
  • The RDC Fabrication Lab spaces were utilized to create braille signs to be used across campus.
  • Our lab staff proudly consists of a gender-diverse group of students and professionals.
A lab technician assists students with 3D printing in the Prototype Lab.

Supportive Community

  • Diverse faculty and staff come from a wide array of professional and personal backgrounds.
  • The RDC spaces are used for events including Fashion FUNdamentals, Global Business Academy, and CSU Bridge Scholars.
  • The RDC Lab Volunteer Program invites inclusive engagement beyond current students, employees, and affiliates.
  • We hosted a “Women in STEM” VR demo to foster increased connection-building for female-identifying persons in STEM in our spaces.
Students search fabric swatches in the Design Library at the Nancy Richardson Design Center
  • 24.7% first-generation students
  • nontraditional students (23+) 15.5%
  • 38.8% racially minoritized students

Applications for social change Designing for Justice

We bring together artists, humanitarians, scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, design thinkers, and creatives from every discipline to tackle important, authentic problems and devise innovative solutions for socially and ecologically sustainable impacts and creative solution proposals to improve human experiences. Application of human centered design and design thinking processes, with a focus on social change and civic engagement, provide solutions to real-world problems facing some of society’s most vulnerable populations. Design justice emphasizes that the greatest impacts are made when design is led by those with marginalized identities.

IDEA210: Students prototyped acrylic nails that can be used by non-binary and male identifying users and those with prosthetic hands.

IDEA450: Students design and build an ADA accessible tiny home.

IDEA310F: Students interview someone with a medical or developmental need and create an adaptive piece for them. For example, pockets for people’s walkers, tailoring to make clothing more accessible, and clothing that isn’t available to buy off the rack.

Design thinking students carry a large piece of drywall into the 2023 CSU Tiny House.

Diversity and Inclusion CSU Campus Resources

Office of Inclusive Excellence
Assistive Technology Resource Center
Accessibility by Design
First-Generation Students
Pride Resource Center
Student Disability Center
CSU Land Acknowledgment