Our collective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement

 

Here is an update from Lisa Durant-Jones, Vice President for Community and Belonging, and me on the spring 2022 initiatives and goals of our collective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.  The following is a list of initiatives for which leadership will be accountable; at the end of the semester, we will report on our progress. As our DEI movement includes our entire community, there are many more initiatives happening in areas across the campus (additional information can be found below and on the Community and Belonging website). We are grateful for the activism of our students and the many other individuals and groups who are advancing our DEI movement. Spring 2022 initiatives and goals:  New leadership for the Nazareth Bias Response and Education Team (NBRET) has been appointed, and NBRET will work with the student governance structure to inform a process for student participation. Faculty and academic leadership will continue the work to increasingly incorporate DEI in the curricula and in teaching practices. The Shared Equity Leadership Team will work with faculty, staff, and student leaders to develop guidelines for campus policy review that uses an equity lens. Guidelines for the use of inclusive search processes for full-time/part-time faculty and staff will be revised in partnership with Human Resources, Community and Belonging, and academic leadership. The priority goal is increasing BIPOC part- and full-time faculty and staff. In partnership with administrative and governance structures, the Association of Faculty and Staff of Color will work to increase opportunities for mentoring and supporting BIPOC students, staff, and faculty. The Office for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Education (ODIEE) and Human Resources will invite students to provide input on the required DEI training curricula for faculty and staff. By the end of spring 2022, a specific affinity space for students of color will be identified and opened for fall 2022. By its nature, the work of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is continuous and requires a persistent re-evaluation of systems and structures that must be questioned and disrupted if we are to be a truly equitable and socially just campus. Here at Nazareth, even through the challenges we face with the pandemic and systemic racism, we affirm our commitment to our mission and values through action. This work will be continuous and we will always be striving.  Our mission requires us to acknowledge, reflect, learn, and then act to create change. We acknowledge that we have much work to do in order to create systemic change and dismantle those structures that perpetuate the systems that marginalize and divide us. And we will continue to report to the community as a way to keep us accountable to our words. Because without the actions and accountability, the words are mere performance. Since fall 2020, Community and Belonging has posted many of the DEI initiatives in an effort to keep our campus informed. We will continue this practice and ask that you share with us any actions that you would like reflected in this cumulative reporting. We work to find innovative and transparent ways to effectively communicate this work and also establish mechanisms for open dialogue and critique. Please look for quarterly newsletters from Community and Belonging as well as additional periodic updates.  Below you will find more information on key actions underway, categorized under two major themes:  Enhancing DEI accountability, effectiveness, and collaboration Promoting and supporting inclusive teaching, DEI professional development, and co-curricular activities with an equity lens To our campus community, thank you for your ongoing partnership in developing an equity-minded campus.

Enhancing DEI accountability, effectiveness, and collaboration The Shared Equity Leadership Team was assembled in fall 2021 by the vice president for Community and Belonging with a charge to develop the Nazareth College Next-Generation DEI Action Plan, and develop a systematic process for policy and procedural review. The current team is composed of faculty and staff leaders from multiple departments. The action planning process will engage the entire campus community. While individual departments and committees have begun the work to revise policies through an equity and anti-racist lens, clearly-defined guidelines for a process will be developed. This spring, a process to involve students in policy review will be implemented. A team of 10 faculty and staff began participating in the Urban League’s Interrupt Racism Change Team Program in fall 2021. The goal of this 12-month commitment is to assist organizations in intentionally developing strategies to interrupt and dismantle systemic racism within their structures. The Equity-Mindset Working Group was tasked by the Strategic Planning Steering Committee to examine existing and innovative methods to improve how DEI data is collected and utilized. Updates to the Diversity Scorecard will continue to be made on an annual cycle by Institutional Research. The Nazareth Bias Response and Education Team (NBRET) posted its fall 2021 summary that details its activity and the types of incidents reported. Two new co-chairs have been appointed to lead the team beginning spring 2022. In addition, two at-large positions were appointed from the Association of Faculty and Staff of Color. Goals for the spring 2022 semester have been identified and include guidelines for student engagement and participation within the NBRET structure. The faculty senate continues its commitment to diversity this spring and will include the following actions. Faculty committees will be charged to examine their work and where appropriate invite BIPOC student representatives. A task force will be formed to add DEI progress to end-of-year faculty self-evaluations. The senate will invite students to a meeting in March to hear directly from senators about their department's discipline-specific DEI programs. In spring 2022, Community and Belonging, HR, and academic leadership will be advancing guidelines for inclusive search processes for full-time and part-time faculty and staff. These guidelines will incorporate best practices in recruitment in order to develop a more diverse workforce. Community and Belonging will identify the vendor for the next-generation campus climate survey for the 2022-2023 academic year. Promoting and supporting inclusive teaching, DEI professional development, and co-curricular activities with an equity lens Dr. Wayne Hilson, Associate Vice President, and Jazzmyn Ivory-Robinson, Assistant Director, Advocacy and Social Justice Education, have joined the Office for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Education (ODIEE) in Community and Belonging. A major focus this semester will be to develop and expand the educational and professional development initiatives to support the needs of our traditionally underserved and underrepresented students. Community and Belonging will continue to collaborate with the faculty senate and other campus stakeholders to ensure there are comprehensive resources available to the campus to help create a working environment that is inclusive and equitable for all. ODIEE will develop a series of professional development opportunities for faculty and staff that focus on reframing current educational and competency-building approaches to support inclusive, culturally responsive, equity-informed teaching practices. The School of Health and Human Services (HHS) Diversity Committee will continue to develop strategies and initiatives to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion for HHS students, staff, and faculty. This work includes specific strategies to enhance DEI topics within discipline-specific curricula; professional development expectations for faculty and staff; creating agreed-upon principles for recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and staff; and expanding an affinity group for underrepresented students. In fall 2021, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) DEI Curriculum Interdisciplinary Task Force completed a DEI audit and content analysis in order to identify courses that explicitly contain DEI content, involve inclusive pedagogies, and/or include equity-informed pedagogies and paradigms (e.g. anti-racism, feminism). This semester, the task force will provide specific recommendations to create DEI modules or a minor with a detailed proposal for a foundational DEI course and syllabus. The School of Business and Leadership (SBL) will host its inaugural SBL Diversity Group initiative this February. The goal of the SBL-DG is to offer students from various identities opportunities for mentorship, networking, and collaborative study groups. Community Engagement (in the Center for Life’s Work) and an undergraduate student leader developed an Indigenous Inclusion Project — an interdivisional collaboration between faculty, staff, students, and community members. As part of professional development for experiential learning, students participating in Partners for Learning, Partners for Serving, Life Prep, and the staff of those programs attended a series of workshops conducted by 540 W. Main on topics related to decolonization, race and color-blind racism, implicit bias, and intersectional feminism. Athletics completed its DEI awareness initiative called NazUnited4Change. This anti-racism initiative included input from student-athletes, athletic student diversity ambassadors, and athletic staff in collaboration with ODIEE staff and will be officially launched this spring.