Campus-Wide Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives '20-'21
Procedural and Structural
- The Office for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Education (ODIEE) was created within the Division for Community and Belonging.
- The ATLAS Center and Diversity Resource Room were established for LGBTQ+ students in Shults 118.
- The Diversity Scorecard on the Community and Belonging Resources webpage features the College's diversity statistics, national survey results, and 2019 campus climate survey data.
- The college's inaugural Bias Response and Education Team (NBRET) was established, to begin Spring 2021.
- Senior leadership completed a six-part professional development series on diversity and equity in the workplace.
- The Diversity in the Curriculum Task Force Report was disseminated; implementation of recommendations in process.
- Athletics appointed the first Nazareth College diversity and inclusion officer for NCAA initiatives.
- Student Experience is revising the Student Code of Conduct for the spring semester.
- The SEC has charged a working group comprised of faculty to conduct a preliminary review of the faculty manual language with a specific focus on equity-based and inclusive language. This group is working in collaboration with Community and Belonging and will make recommendations to the SEC by late spring for their consideration.
- The Center for Life's Work (CFLW) developed a Call to Action that includes 5 specific commitments to DEI initiatives for the next year.
- The ACS 101 curriculum was updated for Fall 2020 with an increased focus on DEI.
- The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences has convened a faculty working group that is exploring potential modules/certificates in CAS connected to D&I areas. The group, led by Dr. Yamuna Sangarasivam, is tasked to explore possibilities for small interdisciplinary clusters of courses that we might call modules to serve as something standalone, or as an IS cluster, and/or to create certificates, that specifically engage D&I outcomes, topics, and issues.
- The Registrar's Office, in collaboration with ITS and C&B, is launching the Pronoun Project in November '20. The project seeks to use existing technology to have faculty and staff submit pronouns through NazNet Self-Service.
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The Administrative Council was charged with completing the CUPA - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Maturity Index as a preliminary measure of Nazareth's progress towards creating an equitable campus community.
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The Academic Policies and Procedures Committee and Graduate Advisory Council will be reviewing all undergraduate and graduate academic policies and procedures with a lens of equity and inclusion and making adjustments as needed to be included in the 2021-2022 catalogs and beyond.
- Academic Advisement and the Registrar's Office collaborated on a project that would create equitable access to priority registration for all incoming first-year students beginning spring 2021 for fall 2021 registration. Students will be randomly placed in an initial class band based on Nazareth credits earned and then assigned registration priorities based upon their class band.
Community Engagement
- The Hickey Center is sponsoring a Listening, Learning, and Healing series of dialogues centered on topics of racism and social justice.
- The Center for Civic Engagement's annual Social Innovation Hack-A-Thon teaches participants how to be inclusive changemakers and social innovators.
Faculty/Staff Events and Opportunities
- The college held its 4th annual diversity summer book read for faculty and staff and extended it to alumni and students.
- DEI initiatives are being created within each of the academic units (CAS, HHS, SBL, and SOE).
- Faculty and staff group initiatives were formed to address DEI-specific priorities (e.g. Association of Faculty and Staff of Color, Emergent Strategists-Changemakers Group).
- The Diversity & Inclusion Fellowship (DIF) was created by the Teaching Integration and Innovation Lab. It is intended for a faculty member who will work collaboratively with colleagues in Community and Belonging to identify faculty needs and faculty development projects in this area.
- The Undergraduate Association conducted a BIPOC faculty and staff interview series.
- Community and Belonging held an anti-racism-themed college-wide Assembly Day in fall 2020 including a 5 Day mini equity challenge.
- The Center for Spirituality received the 2020 Racial Equity & Interfaith Cooperation Award from Interfaith Youth Core.
- The Center for Service Learning is hosting an antiracism themed event titled: Critical Service-Learning Using an Anti-racist Framework.
- All ACS instructors have been encouraged to participate in the Cornell EdX course "Teaching and Learning in the Diverse Classroom" and to participate in weekly discussion sessions throughout the course.
Student Events and Opportunities
- The College's 4th annual diversity summer book read for faculty and staff was extended to alumni and students.
- ODIEE Heritage Month Programming includes Latinx, Black, APIMEDA, Women's, LGBTQ+, & Native American.
- CFS and ODIEE provide weekly professional development and programming opportunities.
- CFLW and Alumni Relations are establishing strategies to engage diverse alumni and current students in establishing personal and professional connections through FlyerConnect.
- Health and Counseling is hosting a six-week DEI program titled, Unmasking Whiteness: Moving from Actor to Ally.
- CCE is offering co-curricular programming with specific DEI related student learning outcomes.
- The Academic and College Success (ACS) curriculum was expanded to include targeted DEI student learning outcomes (SLOs).
- There is an increased focus and call for DEI-related clubs (new additions: El Barrio and Naz Drag Aura).
- The Center for International Education (CIE) is working to integrate international students into the campus community and highlight the rich diversity and distinct contributions that international students bring to Nazareth. CIE is also applying for a US Department of State IDEAS grant to increase and diversify our students who participate in study abroad programming. IDEAS is designed to increase and diversify American student mobility in support of U.S. foreign policy goals.
- An interdivisional committee is planning the 2021 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration.
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Equitable Spaces courses are
one-credit offerings that speak to a range of contemporary issues of diversity, equity, and/or systemic racism that are defining the public discourse. Four faculty and staff generated proposals were accepted and will be delivered in spring 2021.
What else?
Please share DEI initiatives with Community and Belonging so we can keep this page updated. Submit here.