Campus Diversity & Inclusion
Over the summer, the President’s Initiative on Race, Power and Privilege (RPP) was launched. A group of 40 students, faculty, staff, and alumni met weekly. They identified and discussed five key areas:
- support for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) students
- campus safety
- cultural competency
- curriculum
- faculty and staff diversity
Here are some of the initial recommendations that have emerged from the RPP committee:
- General
- Develop a College diversity statement to include in, for example, course syllabi and job postings;
- Form a group to review history and symbols associated with Union; and
- With diversity leadership team, establish a standing committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
- BIPOC Support
- Review of programs at peer schools to identify elements likely to succeed at Union; and
- Provide faculty/staff mentoring for BIPOC students, in addition to what exists for AOP/HEOP, Posse, and the Bridges First-Generation programs.
- Campus Safety
- Enhance formal and informal interactions between Campus Safety officers and students; and
- Update Campus Safety website with photos of officers and information about implicit bias and other training.
- Cultural Competency
- Launch peer facilitator programs and diversity and inclusion workshops to engage as many students, staff and faculty as possible.
- Curriculum
- Develop a General Education course that requires all students to explore issues of race, power and privilege;
- Develop three residential curriculum requirements to ensure that students participate in events around race, power and privilege; and
- Establish annual reporting from departments and programs on addressing issues of race, power and privilege.
- Faculty and Staff Diversity
- Develop faculty and staff mentoring programs, and enhance efforts to understand causes of attrition, both with a focus on those from underrepresented groups.