Strategic Initiatives

Initiative One: Establish Inclusive Hiring Processes

Goal

Create and improve the hiring process of faculty and staff by establishing inclusive process and training.

Objectives

• Partner with Academic Affairs (VCAA) and Human Resources (AVC) to establish intentional inclusive hiring processes.
• Collaborate with Cabinet to establish senior leadership/administrative inclusive hiring process.
• Create a learning plan that advances the university-wide knowledge of inclusive hiring. (in-person and online)
• Implement long-term dashboard to track inclusive and diversity hiring and training.

Initiative Two: To Create/Design a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Online Dashboard

Goal

To provide transparency, accountability, and progress to plan on diversity, equity, and inclusion via an online platform.

Objectives

• Design a DEI dashboard of university staff and student demographics. Report on trends and analyze metrics of progress to plan.
• Partner with Institutional Research to intentionally gather and present important DEI data about students, faculty, and staff.
• Partner with Marketing and Communication to creatively design a webpage that is interactive and customer friendly—easy to understand and interpret. This will be apart of the ODEI webpage.

Initiative Three: Increase Diversity Recruitment (Faculty, Staff, and Students)

Goal

Increase the recruitment of diverse faculty, staff, and students.

Objectives

• Assess the current demographics (by race/ethnicity) of faculty, staff, and students.
• Partner with HR and Faculty Affairs to increase the awareness and knowledge of recruiting diverse faculty and staff (see inclusive hiring).
• Partner with Admissions (Director of Recruitment) to strategize recruiting diverse students.
• Create/develop pipeline programs, specific to increasing the diverse recruitment.

Initiative Four: Increase Diversity Retention (Faculty, Staff, and Students) and Graduation (Students)

Goal

Create support mechanisms, programs, and procedures/policies to increase the retention of diverse faculty, staff, and students. Focus on increasing the four and six year graduation rate of diverse students.

Objectives

• Implement long-term dashboard to track inclusive and diverse hiring and training participation.
• Engaging with diverse students regularly, to assess their PFW experience.
• Limit the number of “holds” diverse students have due to academic, financial, department etc. by assisting students prior to end of semester.
• Directly engage with diverse students for tutoring, mentoring, and one-to-one advising (academic/personal).
• Increase the number of financial literacy workshops offered to students.
• Intentional outreach to all underrepresented students.

Initiative Five: Create Diversity Unit Plans

Goal

Create/establish a diversity plan for each unit on campus.  

Objectives

• Partner with all campus unit leaders (i.e. chairs, deans, directors etc.) to discuss DEI strategies.
• Administer a Campus Climate Survey (University-Wide, and unit specific).
• Assess plans as needed.
• Collaborate with DEI partners to design standardized elements of a university diversity plan.

Other DEI Initiatives:

• Develop external relationships with the community to enhance diversity on and off campus.
• Inclusive Excellence in the classroom. (i.e. diversify curriculum, faculty grants etc.)
• International recruitment.
• The economic impact of graduating underrepresented students to regional employment.