As academic libraries continue to investigate and invest in justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) efforts, there are numerous opportunities to enhance the impact of these efforts through intentional, sustainable collaborations with other administrative units of the institution—particularly student affairs. This chapter will explore the benefits and challenges of collaborating with student affairs departments for academic libraries interested in creating, maintaining, and advancing inclusive and just learning and research communities. Using a case study, the chapter highlights specific collaborative efforts to demonstrate the value of cultivating relationships across campus divisions; additionally, it offers insights into identifying opportunities to share resources and enhance the experiences of the libraries' stakeholders. While framed by the context of the situation, the chapter presents recommendations that may be effectively implemented within academic libraries at many types of institutions.

Mentoring programs are a common and extremely beneficial offering in numerous settings, including academic libraries. Given their almost ubiquitous nature, these programs can occasionally become unintentionally outdated while still being successful at serving their core functions. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Kaleidoscope Program, in which mentoring is a core component, underwent a full review process of all aspects of its program. This chapter presents this review as a case study that demonstrates a series of approaches that resulted in providing revitalization to the program while building on and respecting the program's more than two decades of history and successes. Using mentoring as a lens, the authors outline the broader review process that included numerous administrative updates and changes to the implementation of program components. This context is critical as a key lesson learned focuses on the importance of systemic change.

Assumptions are a natural part of how human brains process information. While they can save time and energy, they can also create division and exclusion. This chapter employs a phenomenological approach to examine the role of socialization on the author's identity development as well as the ways these experiences inform their efforts to advance justice in the field of higher education and beyond. Lessons learned are summarized as the author reframes earlier messages to share three better-not-best practices for readers to consider: racial determination, language, and humility. The chapter concludes with a personal reflection from the author about how the material is relevant to the current state of higher education.