Create Institutional Leadership for Diversity and Inclusion

Priority

To have staff position(s) in leadership roles designated to lead the college in efforts of this Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan. This includes education in terms of training and programming; recruitment and retention; support for students, staff and faculty; and institutional leadership in these ongoing endeavors.

Goals

Hire someone organizationally placed and tasked with the centralization of diversity management with the expertise, rank, and position analogous to or reporting to a vice president within the college.

Looking at best practices at other institutions, and based on the advice provided by a consultant who visited in the Spring 2017, we notice that a commitment to diversity and inclusion is generally accompanied by a structural/institutional commitment in the form of the creation of staff dedicated and responsible to doing the work.

Recommended Strategies

The effort to improve diversity and inclusion on campus must be sustained and supported by a senior leadership position. The responsibilities of a leadership position such as this will include information collection, consultation, and programming.

  • Help create institutional vision for diversity and the importance of a diverse faculty and staff.
  • Regular standardized data collection efforts, including climate surveys.
  • Oversee coordination with HR and consultation with every office/department engaged in hiring faculty or staff.
  • Create a reporting procedure and a policy for responding to student, staff, and faculty complaints associated with bias incidents, and create an accountability structure for compliance.
  • Build diversity capacity among current employees
    • Training around inclusive pedagogy for faculty
    • Training in bias response and inclusion for faculty and staff
    • Leadership training for department chairs, supervisors
  • The creation of a culture of learning around diversity and inclusion awareness
    • Creating opportunities for socializing and community building in order to build social connections to make faculty and staff feel integrated and supported.
  • This position would absorb the roles of the FAAO and would serve the whole campus community.

 

Progress