California State University, Sacramento
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

California State University, Sacramento has a Division of Inclusive Excellence, which was founded in fall 2016 as the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and became a division in May 2019. The division is comprised of four offices: the Office of the Vice President, Office for Cultural Transformation, Office for Disability Justice, and Office for Equal Opportunity. The Office for Equal Opportunity is responsible for compliance with Title IX and anti-discrimination laws and policies.

Inclusive Excellence is defined as the ongoing pursuit to ensure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are integrated into the institutional mission and commitment to academic excellence and student success.

The Division of Inclusive Excellence is responsible for ensuring that Sacramento State’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is both evident throughout the University and communicated to the larger Sacramento community. Inclusive Excellence partners with stakeholders across the campus and in the community to embed an equity-minded and inclusive approach to Sacramento State’s practices and its pursuit of academic excellence and student success. In addition to Inclusive Excellence, there are other entities across campus that work to advance and support Sacramento State’s goals with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Sacramento State has created an Antiracism and Inclusive Campus Plan, as a commitment to being an antiracism and inclusive campus where all students, faculty, and staff, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and other marginalized identities, belong and can engage as their true authentic selves. The plan was created through a structured collective process where individuals from across campus will provide input and advice on various action items to ensure we reach our institutional goals. Two of the subcommittees to this process are focused on antiracism learning and literacy and antiracism curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment, respectively, and will likely help our campus develop a strategic plan for our learning and training opportunities.

In order to implement the recommendations in the plan, Sacramento State is using a five-year implementation framework.

Year 1 (February 2022-January 2023) will be the foundational year of BELIEVING. In this year, the Sacramento State community will lay the structural foundation for prioritizing and implementing recommendations from the AICP.

For years 2-3, the focus will be on BECOMING. During these years, the Sacramento State community will conduct an institutional audit of its policies, practices and procedures through a DEIBJ and Antiracism lens.

For years 4-5, the focus will be on BEING. During these years, Sacramento State will interrogate our systems proactively, standardize opportunities and resources, and track our progress on a consistent and continuous basis.

 Additionally, there are training offerings from Inclusive Excellence including training related to implicit bias and how to prevent it in the faculty hiring process; compliance training related to anti-discrimination laws and Title IX; bringing in outside speakers and training on these topics; among other offerings. In addition, various other programs and departments provide related opportunities, including:

 • Open Safe Zone Program: The PRIDE Center offers a 3-hour training aimed at creating safe spaces/zones on campus for people, organizations, and offices/departments. At the end of each training, individuals get "Safe Zone Stickers" which they can put on office doors/windows, water bottles, binders, laptops, etc., to show that they are safe spaces for LGBTQ students, staff, and faculty.

• The College of Education hosts the Annual Multicultural Education Conference. Over the years this annual event has provided an opportunity for Sacramento State faculty, students, and local educators to join in their ongoing efforts to promote educational excellence, social justice, and equity in the region's K-12 schools. Past conference themes have highlighted issues affecting California’s historically underserved students (low income, English learners, and culturally different populations).

 • Sacramento State hosts an international conference on genocide. This year’s conference will feature special sessions and events on the 30th Commemoration of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. We will also honor the late Dr. Alexander Kimenyi, a Rwandan professor of Ethnic Studies who inaugurated the International Conferences on Genocide at Sacramento State.

 • The Division of Inclusive Excellence presents the Green and Gold Speaker Series. The purpose of the Green and Gold Speaker Series sponsored by Inclusive Excellence is to offer a speaker series as a learning tool that elevates and promotes diverse voices of scholars, thought leaders, community developers, civil and human rights advocates, etc.

The speaker series offers a range of formats from keynote speakers to panels in webinar, in-person, and hybrid modalities. Speakers are selected to address relevant and important topics and provide our campus with opportunities to learn and unlearn as a campus community.