The University of Denver (DU) Social Justice Cooperative (“SJC” or the “Co-Op”) was founded in 2016 by graduate students and faculty of the DU Counseling Psychology (CP) Department. The SJC, originally named the “Social Justice Committee,” emerged from the program’s Campus Conversations events, a student-led space dedicated to engaging in dialogue of identity, multicultural concerns, and social justice principles. In 2019, during the organization’s structural re-development, the SJC changed its name from the Social Justice Committee to the Social Justice Cooperative to accurately reflect the organization’s unity as a jointly-owned and democratically controlled group within the CP Department.

Notable achievements of the SJC include:

• Annually surveying students enrolled in the program to learn more about the climate of the department, particularly for those with historically marginalized identities, and recommend departmental and curriculum-based training experiences related to social justice multiculturalism through the SJC Climate Survey
• Added questions to M.A./Ph.D. essays and interviews about the candidate’s understanding of social justice as well as power and privilege
• Revamped the Diversity course syllabus in conjuction with faculty to identify ways in which the curriculum could be improved so that all students are better able to benefit from the course
• Advocated for campus security alerts to equitably report racial identity of actions happening on campus
• Hosted a variety of social justice and multiculuralism training and advocacy events