Austin College
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The AC President's Inclusion & Diversity Committee began as a task force, created to ensure that Austin College “continues to nurture, celebrate, and support differences in race, sex, ethnicity, class, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity.” The task force was co-chaired by Dr. Lisa M. Brown and Dr. John Williams and made up of Austin College students, faculty, staff, and community members. Former president Dr. Marjorie Hass charged this group to “identify areas that support an inclusive culture and to make recommendations where these aspects might be meaningfully strengthened.” Over the course of about a year, the Task Force on Inclusion and Diversity met together, formed focus groups, collected data, and compiled research—bringing together a broad variety of stakeholders throughout the process. They provided summaries of key findings and a set of recommendations and shared those with the campus community. The task force was then converted to a standing committee focused on implementing the recommendations of the Inclusion and Diversity Task Force. Some of those include new curricular requirements in Global Diversity and Systems of Power, Privilege, and Inequality as part of the new Compass Curriculum; a new Director of Student Success; and increased Title IX support. The current committee is co-chaired by Dr. Lisa M. Brown and Dr. John Williams and is made up of Austin College students, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees.

Students: New student orientation programming includes resources and support regarding anti-harrassment, anti-discrimination, misconduct and reporting processes. The college's Compass Curriculum also requires that at least one course each in 'Global Diversity' and 'Systems of Power, Privilege and Inequality,' which are met in a variety of courses taught across disciplines.
Staff: All faculty and staff are required to complete mandatory employee training to understand Title IX expectations about anti-discrimination, harrassment, misconduct, reporting processes, and how to receive support. The Johnson Center also sponsors learning communities to cover anti-racist allyship using common reads like "So You Want to Talk About Race," by Ijeoma Oluo.