Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 52.75
Liaison Jennifer Daniels
Submission Date May 28, 2020

STARS v2.2

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

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.33 / 2.00 Wendy Olmstead
Sustainability Coordinator
Capital Planning & Facilities Management
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a diversity and equity committee, office, and/or officer tasked by the administration or governing body to advise on and implement policies, programs, and trainings related to diversity, equity, inclusion and human rights?:
Yes

Does the committee, office and/or officer focus on students, employees, or both?:
Both students and employees

A brief description of the diversity and equity committee, office and/or officer, including purview and activities:

The President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion (PCDI) was established to develop a comprehensive three-to five-year Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan with a specified timeline for milestone achievement of measurable outcomes and visible results. The process for development of the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan includes the following elements: 1. Affirm the University’s Diversity Statement, and align the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan with the University Strategic Plan. 2. Develop a campus-wide implementation plan that includes activities, education, communication, feedback, and ongoing involvement including: creating and fostering a diverse and inclusive campus climate supportive of students, faculty, staff and administrators; assessing and ensuring that the campus’ curriculum and programs acknowledge and support diversity and inclusion; assessing, recruiting and retaining a diverse population of students, faculty, staff and administrators; and assessing and supporting diverse external and community advisory boards and other partnerships. 4. Secure campus-wide affirmation for the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, monitor its implementation, and begin progress reporting.

The Director of the Center for Diversity and Inclusion oversees the Diversity Center, which aims to provide a sense of belonging for members of our campus community and advocate for an inclusive and respectful space for students from all backgrounds. This includes but is not limited to; race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, creed, religion, age, social class, socioeconomic status, physical and cognitive differences, political views, immigration status and veteran status. Through a wide range of programs, the Diversity Center collaborates with different campus partners to provide welcoming spaces, affirmation and validation for individuals and student groups. Services include: Ally Trainings, Afternoon "Equi-Tea" Time, Complimentary Coffee & Tea, Conference Room Space, a Mindfulness Corner, Intimate Study Space, Inclusive Resources, a Reading Nook, Social Justice Coffee Hour, Social Justice Library, Undocumented Student Services, and Workshops.


Estimated proportion of students that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Some

Estimated proportion of academic staff that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Some

Estimated proportion of non-academic staff that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Some

A brief description of the institution’s cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:

Faculty, staff, and students have participated in Moving Beyond Bias training in Oakland, California. Moving Beyond Bias is a two year pilot program provided via a collaboration between the CSU and UC to provide anti-bias training for administrators, student leaders, faculty and staff. The training includes raising awareness related to personal biases and understanding how biases may influence behavior and decision making at the university. The training also introduced participants to tools and strategies for mitigating harmful bias in their functional spaces. More information is available at: https://movingbeyondbias.org/

Certificate in Inclusive Teaching: The goal of this certificate is to encourage faculty to examine their beliefs about diversity, gain knowledge/understanding about how diversity and identity influence higher education, and to work towards developing humility and sensitivity to create inclusive classrooms and workplaces. This certificate focuses on helping faculty integrate pedagogical principles aligned with inclusive excellence into the learning environment, course design and assignments to increase awareness of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the classroom, and contribute to student success. Participants walk away with concrete skills/techniques that they can use in their interaction with students and in their classrooms.

Inclusive Syllabus Workshop: This workshop provides Inclusive pedagogical practices in syllabus language and construction; methods for attending to student needs and identities in inclusive ways; collaborative creation of guidelines for course discussion to support active student participation in inclusive and engaging course discussions; recognition of the importance of honoring preferred names/pronouns; how to ensure that transgender, gender diverse, and students in general will know that their identities will be respected in the classroom; and how to make the syllabi visually appealing to engage students, but also check to ensure that any images or graphics that are used are accessible to all students.

Faculty Book Discussion: Bandwidth Recovery-Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism, and Social Marginalization. From the publisher: "Verschelden uses “bandwidth” as a metaphor for cognitive and emotional resources—she analyzes how non-majority students’ cognitive loads can be impacted by experiences of economic insecurity, discrimination, and hostility based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and other aspects of difference. The chronic stress of systematic oppression can result in decreased physical and mental health and social and economic opportunity. People who are operating with depleted mental bandwidth are less able to succeed in school, are much less likely to make it to college, and, if they do, are less likely to persist to graduation."

Working With First Generation College Students (FGCS) (4 Part Faculty Workshop): Part 1--How do we think about FGCS? What does it mean to be a first-generation student? We need to recognize some of our students’ current life situations/barriers that they face and that first-generation students are also a diverse group in itself; the role of faculty interaction in helping first-generation college students succeed. Part 2--Implement pedagogical strategies that will ultimately benefit all types of students; clarify and model expectations; make assignments and exams more transparent and culturally inclusive; scaffold learning experiences; apply principles of effective adult learning to teaching. Part 3--Encourage students to set goals; incorporate student reflection, self-assessment, and peer-review activities; help students relate course objectives to their lives; make feedback an important part of class; point students to other resources on campus. Part 4--Design your class to fit a diverse range of student needs; implement active and collaborative activities; encourage students to work with a variety of their peers in class; encourage networking and professional development; help students build networks of support.

Faculty Book Discussion: Teaching to Transgress-Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks. From the book: “This pedagogical strategy is rooted in the assumption that we all bring to the classroom experiential knowledge, that this knowledge can indeed enhance our learning experience. If experience is already invoked in the classroom as a way of knowing that coexists in a non-hierarchical way with other ways of knowing, then it lessens the possibility that it can be used to silence” (p. 84).

Faculty Workshop: The Unwritten Rules of College-Creating Transparent Assignments That Increase Underserved College Students' Success. Underserved students are the new incoming majority student population in US higher education. Transparent teaching/learning practices make learning processes explicit while offering opportunities to foster students' metacognition, confidence, and their sense of belonging. A 2016 AACU publication identifies transparent assignment design as a teaching intervention that significantly enhances students' learning and persistence, with greater gains for historically underserved students (Winkelmes et al, Peer Review, Spring 2016).

Interrupting Racism Workshops for Faculty and Staff: Participants learn to interrupt racism by analyzing workplace scenarios and using a racial equity lens, practice how to challenge them. The goal is to strengthen our understanding of how racial narratives and white supremacy culturally impact students as they negotiate the university and to facilitate understanding of why it is important to challenge racial narratives and build a racially equitable university.

Unconscious Bias Workshops include Faculty, Staff, Administrators, and Students. In the safety of the workshop environment, participants are encouraged to engage in open and respectful dialogue, identify their unconscious biases, and challenge those biases. Finally, with a new awareness, workshop participants talk about how we can transform the systems we work in by changing individual behavior so that these unconscious biases, preferences, and micro-aggressions no longer perpetuate a system where discrimination and inequities occur. The idea is to foster a CSU environment wherein we can recruit and retain a more diverse workforce and decrease workplace toxicity.


Website URL where information about the institution’s diversity and equity office or trainings is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.