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2023 DEI 2.0 Plan Report

Emergent Themes

In preparation for the development of its DEI 2.0 plan, the campus conducted a year-long evaluation process to comprehensively assess the impact of DEI 1.0. Central- and unit-level findings served as a foundational framework, fostering meaningful discussions and generating useful ideas during campuswide engagement events that included students, faculty, and staff.

A group of people sitting in a row listening and smiling

This constructive feedback shed light on areas where success could be sustained as well as those where efforts yielded limited results. The process also helped identify initiatives and action items that were effective and warranted further emphasis and investment. At both the central and unit levels, there was a concerted effort to streamline plans, prioritizing quality and impact over an excessive number of action items. By examining the perspectives of various stakeholder groups, clear synergies emerged that were aligned with the DEI 2.0 focus areas.

Themes from Community Input

Undergraduate and graduate students emphasized the need to:

  • Strengthen recruitment, retention and comprehensive support programs to cultivate a diverse student, faculty and staff community.
  • Foster constructive dialogue among students by welcoming diverse backgrounds, perspectives and ideologies.
  • Enhance the accessibility, inclusivity and availability of spaces, facilities and resources.
  • Allocate additional resources to bolster student safety networks, coalitions and support services.
  • Actively promote an inclusive campus and classroom environment that values diversity and equity.
  • Provide robust support for the development of intercultural awareness and effective engagement skills.
  • Address the pressing concerns of affordability for low-income and underrepresented students.
  • Proactively tackle climate issues encompassing microaggressions, discrimination and incivility.
  • Establish clear mechanisms to ensure accountability of administration and faculty in upholding DEI values.

Staff feedback centered on:

  • Addressing equity issues and income disparity by closing the wage gap and expanding support services for staff in lower salary grades.
  • Implementing strategies to reduce bias across the entire recruitment process.
  • Enhancing support systems to retain and advance BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) staff.
  • Establishing inclusive and accessible work environments that cater to diverse needs.
  • Enhancing the organizational climate by making cultural competency training mandatory and integrating cultural competency into job descriptions and performance criteria for all staff, faculty and leaders.
  • Providing comprehensive educational and development training on diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a focus on supervisors and managers.

Faculty feedback centered on the need to:

  • Support faculty in successfully integrating diversity and inclusion principles into their teaching practices.
  • Provide more tools and training to enhance diversity skills and inclusive teaching strategies among faculty in all departments.
  • Focus on women and underrepresented minority faculty, who are more likely to report experiences of bias and exclusion and are also more likely to report not having influence and voice within their departments.
  • Recognize the limited presence of underrepresented groups as a key issue. Engage multiple mechanisms to better understand and address the various issues that have led to an insufficiently diverse faculty.
  • Address the fact that minority faculty, and faculty from other underrepresented groups, are disproportionately called upon to take on roles related to issues of diversity, which are too often undervalued within their units and the academy at large.
  • Provide opportunities for underrepresented minority faculty to serve in more highly regarded academic leadership positions.
  • Recognize, and begin to correct, the fact that the foci and methodologies of DEI scholarship are undervalued and receive less support than other forms of research.