Denison University
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

Denison recently launched a new initiative: Denison Forward - OUR COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, EQUITY & ANTIRACISM (IDEA). More about this specific initiative can been read here: https://denison.edu/campus/denison-forward

Denison has the following people and entities that focus on diversity and equity issues on campus:

Associate Provost for Diversity - Reporting to the Provost, the Associate Provost leads efforts to enhance diversity and intercultural education on Denison’s campus and promotes an institutional culture that values and supports diversity and intercultural education.

Center for Cross-Cultural Engagement - Assumes an active role in developing cross-cultural competence in all students at Denison University. It organizes Denison's Cross-Cultural Communities (C3).

Cross-Cultural Communities (C3) is an ensemble of Denison University organizations that identify as multicultural, international or committed to the multicultural community on the Denison campus.
C3 organizes monthly meetings each semester that are open to the entire campus. This provides an opportunity for MCSA, OGS, ISS, student organizations, various departments and offices to meet in a collaborative framework. The purpose of these hour long meetings is to foster community collaborations, educate, provide training and outreach and facilitate information sharing. C3 provides a platform to share community concerns (regarding diversity and inclusion) on campus.

C3 Organizations:

African Students Association

Asian American Association

Asian Culture Club

Black Student Union

Global China Connection

International Student Association

La Fuerza

Middle Eastern Culture Club

Outlook




Diversity Strategy Team - The goal of the Team is to help Denison move from a place that is simply diverse to one that embraces difference, intercultural understanding and inclusion as core values. The team, made up of faculty, staff and students, has been charged with coordinating the production of a report that does three things:

1. Analyzes and articulates the state of diversity, equity and inclusion at Denison University.

2. Lists priorities.

3. Creates an action plan that includes short- and long-term goals.

The initial work of the team will be two-fold: 1) review recently collected student data to assess top priorities and recommend immediate actions and 2) conduct a campus climate study focused on faculty and staff. We want to discern where Denison's efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion stand. We will ask:

• What are we doing well?
• Where are we struggling and need to improve?
• What changes in the external environment create new opportunities?
• What changes in the external environment present challenges?

From this analysis, we will determine what priorities for Denison should be at this moment in our institutional history. We will then activate issue-based teams to address specific topics that we deem of highest priority.

Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC) -Mission Statement of the Diversity Advisory Committee:

Through a primary focus on matters pertaining to faculty diversity, the Diversity Advisory Committee seeks to assist the College in conceptualizing a clear vision for diversity at Denison during each stage of the College’s history and institutionalizing this vision in the structural arrangements, policies, procedures, programs and daily life of the College. It is critically important that faculty play a meaningful role in assisting the College in pursuing its Mission to “educate critical thinkers, discerning moral agents and active citizens of a democratic global society” (Denison Mission Statement). The importance of diversity to this mission is well articulated in Denison’s statement on the educational value of diversity, adopted by the faculty in 2007. It states: “Denison is committed to the idea that our community should include people from a wide range of religious, cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation and socio-economic backgrounds in order to realize the goals of a liberal arts education . . . Diversity in all facets of the university has educational value for all students and benefits all members of the campus community”. (Diversity at Denison: http://www.denison.edu/about/diversity.html. The establishment of the Diversity Advisory Committee links the faculty’s distinct understanding of and contribution to the academic mission of the College with the Provost’s Office to inform, advise, and assist in the formulation and implementation of the College’s commitment to developing and sustaining a community where 1) faculty of all social identities can participate, contribute, and thrive; 2) core values of learning in the liberal arts context are promoted through a diversity of faculty identities, perspectives, pedagogies (See Diversity at Denison: http://www.denison.edu/about/diversity.html); 3) The tensions that arise in any diverse community are met pro-actively and compassionately—informed by the multiple intellectual traditions that constitute the College; and 4) where, we not only address conflicts with insight and courage, but we vigorously affirm and celebrate the many ways we learn from our diversity and that of the society.

Purpose:

To assist the Provost’s Office by working regularly with the Associate Provost, designated to have primary oversight with respect to faculty diversity so that there is a broad spectrum of faculty perspective and insight available to the Provost’s Office for the purpose of formulating, planning, and implementing faculty diversity initiatives at Denison.

This work will include, but is not limited to:

--Making recommendations to the Provost on matters pertaining to faculty diversity.

--Working with the Associate Provost to guide and offer recommendations regarding hiring, recruitment, and retention of faculty as it relates to diversity

--Assisting in the development of programs, policies, procedures and initiatives relating to faculty diversity

--Interfacing and collaborating with other faculty, committees and governance bodies on campus on issues pertaining to faculty diversity.

--Identifying and implementing issues that need attention and working to formulate how such issues can best be addressed.

--Developing, facilitating or engaging in program implementation pertaining to Faculty Diversity

--Developing or linking the institution to appropriate consultants, experts, and consultative processes and tools (e.g. diversity assessment processes, intervention strategies, etc.)

--Developing approaches to acknowledge, affirm, and recognize the work that we do toward building a thriving community that honors diversity.

The Associate Provost for Diversity and Intercultural Education offers trainings by request. Recent trainings include, but are not limited to:

Diversity at Denison - New Faculty Orientation
1) A broad overview of diversity at Denison.
2) Increasing self-awareness around bias, privilege and difference,
3) How to make classrooms inclusive and equitable in order to improve learning outcomes
4) Familiarize faculty with available resources around diversity.

Diversity among faculty - New Chairs Orientation
1) Overview of conducting a search
2) supporting and retaining diverse faculty

Implicit Bias and the Evaluation of Faculty - Workshop on how to avoid common implicit biases in selecting candidates from applicant pool, and the ways in which student evaluations are biased and can impact faculty promotions.

Dialogue on Cultural Appropriation - Sustained Dialogue
Discussion on the ways in which cultural appropriation is harmful to community

In compliance with Denison’s commitment to diversity within the liberal arts education, the Diversity and Inclusion Athletic Advisory Group fosters a diverse community within athletics to educate and be active agents of change on campus.

Mission Statement:

The mission of DIG is to work with Denison’s administration, faculty athletic representatives, and student-athletes, to build a positive athletic environment for all participants. The highest priority will be to establish a climate of mutual respect and support of diversity in all facets where persons of different race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and ethnicity, can maximize their full potential free of prejudice, discrimination, and harassment.

Purpose:

The advisory group will strive to be composed of student-athletes with a variety of diverse backgrounds that include representation within the athletics department in teams represented and year in school. Student-athletes who are action oriented and can strongly represent diversity and inclusion issues to the athletics administration and within their teams will be encouraged to serve.

Goals:

To empower Big Red Student-Athletes to meet the challenges and strengthen their understanding of issues associated with social, cultural, economic, and all forms of diversity.

To provide Denison Student-Athletes opportunities to voice area of concern and be agents of change within their teams, on campus, and a society.

To represent Big Red Student-Athletes and support concerns about diversity while providing feedback and insight into relevant departmental, campus, and community issues.

Diversity at Denison - Fall Student Overnight / Admissions Diversity Luncheon Students engage in discussion of social issues and how perspectives, values and world views vary across social identities. Students explore how differences in perspectives and identities may relate to campus life at Denison.

Communicating with Cultural Competency - Division of Student Development Interactive workshop on understanding positionality and privilege, communicating more effectively with marginalized students.

Other activities:
Mentoring Matters: Intentionally Learning with and from Our African American Male Students. Co-Sponsored by the Office of the Associate Provost for Diversity and Intercultural Education; the Center for Learning and Teaching, the Center for Cross Cultural Engagement, the Office of First Year Programs, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, and Men & Mentoring at Denison.

Purpose: To provide a one-day workshop dedicated to helping faculty and staff
better understand ways to effectively mentor Denison’s African-American male students, giving special attention to issues and questions around teaching, learning, and creative/research collaborations (either in small pods or one-to-one) and the ways these collaborations present distinct opportunities to intellectually (and holistically) support and affirm college-aged African-American men.

Intended Outcomes:
• To invite participants to reflect critically on and initiate the process to re-frame potential assumptions, biases, and/or cultural/social blind-spots that may negatively affect the development of potential mentoring relationships/collaborations with Denison’s black male students;

• To help participants develop familiarity with research-based insights into African American males’ cognitive processes and cultural experiences and the ways these may impact students’ understanding of and engagement with “college”;

• To model for participants ways to connect research-based learning and teaching practices to holistic issues (social, cultural, spiritual) in order to provide a fuller picture of the kinds of motivation that might positively affect black males’ learning in college; and

• To prompt participants to identify and begin to imagine executing initiatives to promote and sustain on-going, genuine intellectual mentoring relationships between faculty/staff and black male students (i.e., Summer Research, Senior Research, Research Pods/Teams, Other Models/Contexts).

The Human Resources Department offers diversity training every three to five years. The trainings are conducted by Career Growth Associates. These trainings are open to all employees of the college. Cultural awareness and respecting a diverse work environment are the foci of these trainings.

The Black Studies Program at Denison offers diversity trainings on a yearly basis for faculty with the main emphasis being on pedagogy, race, and sexual identity.

The Denison University (DU) IRB now requires completion of an additional CITI Program Module on Gender and Sexuality Diversity for those conducting human subjects research (HSR) and who need a new or renewed online training certificate.