The programming that the Office of Community Affairs offers isn’t solely for children and K–12 students; it also aims to engage the community on issues that are important to it.
Through speaker series, book clubs, and lectures, the office seeks to provide an opportunity for community members to engage with the Illinois Tech community and one another, like through our recent Tech and Social Justice speaker series.
A four-part series looking at technology and social justice, the Tech and Social Justice speaker series examined social justice issues through the lens of technology. The conversations, which were moderated by an Illinois Tech philosophy professor and included expert guest speakers from around the country, tackled topics such as racial profiling through facial recognition software, biased algorithms and the negative outcomes they have on people of color, and racial bias of hiring algorithms.
Programming Opportunities for the Community
The Office of Community Affairs regularly hosts speaker series that highlight issues affecting our community.
Each month the Office of Community Affairs hosts a virtual book club for community members, those both near and far. Members get together for an hour and a half once a month to discuss their chosen book over Zoom.
The Office of Community Affairs hosts lectures with guest speakers that cover topics of importance to the community. In recent months, Community Affairs has hosted lectures with a prominent civil rights attorney, an Illinois Tech architecture professor, and multiple authors.