Indiana University South Bend
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

The IU Diversity Assessment will serve as a baseline measurement for Indiana University in diversity achievement and progress over the last five years for each campus. The goal of the IU Diversity Assessment is to strengthen our efforts for strategic planning university wide. Reports for each campus evaluate: * All diversity, inclusion, and inclusive excellence efforts and programs * Retention, graduation, and student success initiatives * The organizational capacity, effectiveness, and impact of OVPDEMA An outside consultant, Halualani and Associates, conducted the assessment to ensure an objective and comprehensive evaluation. The assessment took place between December 2015 and January 2017. The assessment included: 1.) a thorough assessment of all diversity, inclusion, and inclusive excellence efforts and programs via diversity mappings across seven campuses; 2.) a thorough assessment of retention-graduation/student success initiatives and efforts via retention-graduation mappings across seven campuses; 3.) a diversity benchmarking through the Atlas database which enables a comparative ranking of Indiana University across comparable peers/universities/systems in terms of specific diversity, inclusion, and inclusive excellence areas; and an evaluation of the organizational capacity, effectiveness, and impact of the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs.

On the IU South Bend campus, there have been 202 diversity efforts over the last five years. 95% of these efforts were centrally focused on addressing diversity, inclusion, equity, and aspects of social justice. Diversity efforts were mostly events 47%, financial aid/scholarships 14%, student organizations 11%, and campus resources 7%. The remaining 20% of diversity efforts are spread out across 12 different themes. More specifically, IU South Bend featured diversity efforts across many different themes (16) with diversity-related events and financial aid/scholarships being the highest in number. All divisions are participating in diversity efforts at IU South Bend, Student Affairs & Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs are responsible for producing 84% of the diversity efforts. Moreover, 98% of these efforts engaged in by these divisions were primarily focused on diversity and inclusion. Approximately 24% (49) of IU South Bend diversity efforts focus specifically on social justice topics and contexts through recurring events and programs on campus. These efforts employ a social justice lens and specifically name and address inequalities and power issues. Given the considerably low overall graduation rate (25.9%) at IU South Bend and the 18.8% graduation rate for African American students, we strongly urge IU South Bend to examine this 3 of 5 pattern and to proffer more specific group-focused efforts in terms of retention and graduation initiatives for diverse student groups. The mapping analysis revealed that a majority (85%, 171) of campus diversity efforts at IU South Bend focus on specific (identity-based, cultural) groups, and these efforts represent a range of diversity efforts for specific groups such as financial aid/scholarships, academic support services, student organizations, and diversity-related events. Other recommendations are to create more targeted interventions towards specific groups (for e.g., retention and graduation initiatives for first-generation students, racially/ethnically different students, and for groups that are historically disadvantaged in higher education). https://diversity.iu.edu/doc/halualani-and-associates/2016/IU%20South%20Bend%20Diversity%20Mapping%20Report%20copy.pdf

The Hallunai Report assessment was completed 2015-2017. Those results were shared across the campuses. https://diversity.iu.edu/about/diversity-assessment.html

Data for this Credit was retrieved from the Department of Institutional Equity, and the Department of Student Affairs.