Staff Community Affinity Network (SCAN)
As part of RU-N Staff Council’s mission to unify and give a voice to RU-N staff, we believe that offering affinity groups to staff will be beneficial to their individual and collective experiences and will create camaraderie outside of our departments. In 2025, Staff Council received an IDEA Grant to help kickstart this initiative.
An affinity group is a group of people linked by a common interest or a purpose. There are so many great possibilities! We want this project to originate from you, so we are asking you to suggest interests that might make for fruitful topics. Affinity groups at other universities have been formed to cultivate networks of support organized around disability and chronic illness, race/ethnicity, and staff who are also pursuing degrees (additional examples are included below).
Example Affinity Groups
Staff affinity groups have been established at a diverse set of universities:
- Beyond Barriers, a group for those with disabilities (both visible and invisible) and chronic illness, as well as family members (U of Richmond)
- Yale Veterans Network (Yale U)
- Working Parents Affinity Group (Rider U)
- Pitt Queer Professionals (U of Pittsburgh)
- Asian/American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Coalition (Kansas State U)
- Mid-Career Professionals, for staff with seven to 15 years’ experience (Vanderbilt U)
- Creative Writing Affinity Group (U of Michigan)