Diversity Retreat

Short-term actions taken by Faculty Affairs

• In consultation with faculty, staff and administrators the Student Success statement is being amended to make clearer to applicants what is being requested and to assist search committees with how to evaluate it.
• In the process for allocating  tenure-track position for searches to be undertaken in 2019-2020, increased attention is being given to the contributions the position will make to diversity initiatives.
• The timeline for tenure-track searches has been changed so that the search process can be initiated in late spring (or early fall).
• Initial discussions are underway about how the position description and the process of the reviewing the position description should be changed to attract more diverse pools of applicants.
• The faculty search workshops to be offered in fall 2019 will focus on how to hire and diverse faculty (and a faculty who understand diversity) with a much greater emphasis on how to address implicit bias in the search process.
• A reading group was launched for spring 2019 in which the books being read are: Diversity’s Promise for Higher Education: Making it Work, by Daryl G. Smith, and How People Learn II, a publication of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. This second version includes content addressing the role of culture in teaching and learning.
• External funding is being sought to increase our efforts to provide professional learning opportunities that focus on inclusive pedagogy and on leadership development in the area of hiring and retaining a more diverse faculty.

In future messages please look for additional initiatives that are taking place in the colleges!