Colby College
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

In November 2015, President David Greene created a Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The charge of the Task Force was to: review and assess Colby’s current diversity-related policies, practices, and efforts; seek out and consider best practices at peer institutions; begin to define our aspirational vision for diversity as a core value necessary to achieve excellence; develop and deliver a diversity action plan with recommendations for concrete actions aimed at enhancing and improving current efforts toward meaningful diversity. Through the spring of 2016 the task force met biweekly and subgroups focused on faculty and staff, campus climate and culture, student experience, and curriculum met in the alternating weeks. Two community forums were held in April 2016. Data sources included: 1) Office of Institutional Research (o Data with regard to student demographic information on student applicant pools, admitted classes, admitted athletes; graduation rates by demographic groups; demographic breakdown of majors; financial aid data; data on offcampus study; senior survey results by demographic group. o Comparative data (New England) full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty by demographic group. 2) 2014-15 Department Reports on majors, minors, one-year post-grad outcomes and student engagement. 3) College Diversity Reports (2010-2015) General demographic data for student body, tenured and tenure-track faculty, and staff. 4) Office of the Vice President of Administration: Response to Task Force questions and demographic data on applicant pools and hires for support staff, administrative staff, and senior staff; demographic data on applicant pools for faculty positions (no hiring data). 6) Office of Financial Aid: Data on Distribution of Family Income for class of 2015. Assessment and Vision Report in response to questions sent by Task Force. 7) Office of the Provost: Response to Task Force questions on diversity issues in faculty recruitment and retention.8) Office of Equal Employment Opportunity: Report on diversity issues on staff employment policies and practices, and bias/harassment data. 9) Office of Admissions: Report on diversity issues in student recruitment and admission policies and practices. 10) Campus Climate Stakeholders’ Responses to Task Force Questions: Admissions and Financial Aid, Athletics, Career Services, Center for the Arts and Humanities, COOT, Counseling Services, Faculty Allies, Goldfarb Center, Health Services, Off-Campus Studies Office, Spiritual Life Program, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Programs (Sustained Support Advising, Pugh Center, Gender and Sexual Diversity Programs, Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinator, Bias Incident Prevention and Response Team, First Generation to College Student Program), Dean of Students Office (Advising Dean Program, Learning Difference Program Coordinator, CCOR, International Student Services, Academic Advising Program).

In June 2016, the President's Task Force on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity released their findings in a report, which is publicly available on the website linked below.

One outcome from the Task Force was the creation of a Campus Climate Survey that was administered to all students, staff, and faculty in the spring of 2017. The survey asked questions to assess campus culture and how the College is responding to underrepresented groups. The primary goal of this survey is to determine how Colby can serve its community better by creating a space where each member feels a sense of value and place. In order to accomplish this, Colby has begun to utilize strategies of intentional thoughtfulness on how to address these issues on the broad, cross-campus scale, by using unique strategies tailored to reach out ot all the different groups that exist on campus. The survey will be sent out every three years to assess progress and identify areas for improvement. This past survey had about a 59-60% response rate from the entire campus community. Colby also sends out the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) as an entry and exit survey to all students.

The Task Force report found that there is still much to be done to improve the campus climate and recruit, retain, and support faculty, staff, and students from historically underrepresented groups. In summary, the report recommended:
1. MISSION: Develop a mission statement articulating an ideology of equity literacy and inclusive excellence for all, with the goal of becoming a diverse, inclusive, and equitable institution. Articulate a clear sense of common purpose and mission and explain how everyone contributes to that work.
2. DATA: Improve data collection. In order to measure progress and understand patterns relevant to creating a diverse and inclusive community, develop and maintain a much more extensive and intentionally designed repository of reliable data and analysis.
3. ASSESSMENT: Develop systematic instruments to establish baseline measures of current campus climate and culture and to track progress on various actions recommended in this plan.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY: Establish a structured, adequately-resourced mechanism for carrying out this work and ensuring accountability.
5. RESOURCES: Define and commit adequate resources to achieve these goals to ensure that our resources match our aspirations. Incentivize and support diversity work at all levels of the community. Funding and staffing reflect institutional commitments, priorities and values.
6. ACCESS: Ensure that all Colby facilities and programs are fully and equitably accessible to all.
7. COLLABORATION: Enhance collaboration. Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity work is fundamentally collaborative, and yet Colby has few structures or mechanisms by which to enable the necessary collaborative work.
8. CAMPUS CLIMATE: Revise College policies, procedures, and practices based on unspoken norms, values, assumptions and perspectives.
9. INCLUSIVITY: Analyze both the campus environment and our presentation of Colby to the larger world, to understand the ways we may be expressing implicit assumptions, values and norms without clear intention.
10. DIVERSITY: Recruit, admit, enroll, and retain the most talented and accomplished students from varied backgrounds. Our broad goal is to reach the top third of NESCAC schools in the next 5-10 years with regard to the inclusion of historically underrepresented groups.
11. ACCESS: Ensure that all enrolled students have equitable access to, and the opportunity to participate in, all Colby programs, on and off campus.
12. COMMUNITY: Create a genuinely inclusive and equitable student community, in which every student is enabled to succeed.
13. INTELLECTUAL LIFE: Bridge the divide between students’ academic and cocurricular lives by building community around a vibrant intellectual and ethical culture
14. GENDER: Address the ways that gender shapes the student experience.
15. HEALTH AND WELLNESS: Ensure all students have the support and guidance they need to remain physically and psychologically healthy.
16. CURRICULUM: Ensure that all students have a deep understanding of the value of diversity, equity and inclusion as a core principle of a Colby education and a deep understanding of the value of all areas of study at a liberal arts college.
17. FACULTY DEVELOPMENT: Ensure/require that all faculty are well-prepared to teach and advise a diverse student body in equitable and inclusive ways.
18. STAFF RECRUITMENT: Develop and sustain a diverse staff at Colby, with the broad goal of reaching top third of NESCAC peers with regard to historically under-represented groups in the next 5-10 years.
19. EQUITY: Establish policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that all staff members have equitable access to resources that enable them to succeed and thrive as respected, valued members of our community.
20. FACULTY RECRUITMENT: Develop and sustain a diverse faculty at Colby, with the broad goal of reaching the top third of NESCAC peers with regard to historically underrepresented groups in the next 5-10 years.
21. EQUITY: Establish policies, practices, and procedures to ensure that all faculty have equitable access to resources that enable them to succeed and thrive as respected, valued members of our community.

Specific findings, recommendations, and strategies can be found in the Task Force report linked below. Ultimately, Colby is integrating the results of the Task Force report into every aspect of life at Colby in order to make it an intrinsic part of campus identity. Some specific change that have already been implemented as a result of the work of the Task Force include a restructuring/reorganization of Colby's administration, with the addition of an Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a dedicated Pugh Center Director, an Associate Provost of Faculty, Diversity, and Development, and the creation of Class Deans, who will assist in breaking down barriers within class years by not separating international students from their peers.

The results of the Campus Climate Survey were emailed to the entire campus community by the Dean of the College in November 2017. They are also available online. The report on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion which inspired the survey is available on Colby's website.