Mission

DEAL was established at Wheaton College in Fall 2018. It is an umbrella entity that strives to create opportunities for innovative diversity work to flourish by fostering and coordinating leadership efforts across campus to ensure that Wheaton consistently provides a diverse, inclusive, equitable, and accessible learning community.

Co-Chairs

The current DEAL co-chairs are Raquel Ramos, Dean of the Marshall Center for Intercultural Learning and Brenda Wyss, Professor of Economics. A third co-chair will be appointed.

New DEAL Co-Chairs are appointed by the President, Provost, and Vice-President of Student Affairs in consultation with the Office for Institutional Equity and Belonging and current DEAL chairs. 

Charge

DEAL is charged by President’s Council with working to ensure that Wheaton is making progress on the campus’ Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan.

Purpose

DEAL has five main purposes as a campus entity that include:

  1. To support the entire campus in having greater ownership and engagement in diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
  2. To provide a committee structure for coordinated and synergistic leadership across campus.
  3. To work collaboratively with top-level administrators to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion campus leaders have adequate resources to do their work effectively.
  4. To engage and educate the campus community about diversity, equity, and inclusion work through initiatives and programming.
  5. To increase communication and institutional responsiveness around persistent diversity, equity and inclusion challenges.

Overview of the DEAL Structure

DEAL has four interwoven components:

DEAL Co-Chairs
  • Provide overall coordination, communication and oversight of DEAL
  • Oversee implementation of the official campus Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan
  • Ensure overall strategic planning and capacity building on campus regarding diversity, equity and inclusion
  • Report to President’s Council with diversity, equity and inclusion progress updates and recommendations
  • Chair one of the three DEAL Committees
DEAL Education & Programming (E&P) Committee
  • Ensures there is a variety of diversity, equity and inclusion campus-wide programming
  •  Organizes Wheaton’s MLK Legacy Arts Showcase
  • Membership is limited to interested students, staff and faculty who have programming responsibilities as part of their campus roles
DEAL Senate Committee
  • Builds diversity, equity and inclusion capacity among faculty, staff, and students and provides members with opportunities for reflection and professional development
  •  Identifies the diversity, equity, and access needs of our community and trouble shoots how to effectively meet those needs with campus resources
  • Membership is open to all students, staff and faculty interested in engaging with campus DEI work
DEAL Strategic Planning and Accountability (SPA) Committee
  •  Reviews institutional data, and makes recommendations around strategic opportunities to advance diversity, equity and inclusion on campus
  • Contemplates potential equity gaps and develops appropriate strategies to address these gaps
  • Membership is limited to appointed senior managers and faculty who represent their division on campus

Contact Information

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].