Stanford University
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

The President and Provost have declared that increasing the diversity of students, staff, and faculty at Stanford University is of critical importance. A diverse and inclusive community offers different perspectives, experiences and cultures that enrich the educational experience.

Stanford's Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity conducts several holistic assessments of diversity among, as described below.

1) Annual Report of Faculty Demographics
Gender and minority representations of current faculty and in historical trends; faculty hiring, departures, promotions, and leadership positions by gender and race/ethnicity.

2) Climate Surveys
Stanford has been conducting regular assessments of its climate vis-à-vis diversity for many years. The University conducted a campus-wide survey of the student experience, which resulted in many discussions relevant to gender equity, access and LGBTQ student experiences. With respect to faculty, the instrument used for the climate surveys draws from the one developed by the Provost’s Panel on Faculty Equity and Quality of Life for the 2008 Quality of Life of Stanford Faculty, which incorporated common core questions on quality of life issues developed by the American Association of Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE) and retained some questions from an earlier survey in 2003. As a follow up to the 2008 quality of life survey, the Provost’s Panel on Faculty Equity and Quality of Life conducted an interview study with underrepresented minority faculty to specifically address URM faculty’s experience of collegiality, recognition, mentoring and voice in decision-making. Two reports on the findings with accompanying recommendations from the Panel on Faculty Equity were released in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Several departments have conducted climate surveys of their faculty, instructors, students, trainees and staff relevant to diversity, equity and inclusion in order to assess their climates as part of preparing and recruiting new department leadership.

In addition,
a) two schools conducted school-wide climate surveys in 2014-2015 that included faculty, students and staff;
b) two schools conducted a structured assessment of their diversity, equity and inclusion as part of a school-wide strategic planning process; one of the schools also carried out an external review of its diversity and faculty development office.

Student diversity is also evaluated by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Graduate Admissions in relation to student recruitment on an ongoing basis. Finally, Stanford's Diversity and Access office regularly assess staff diversity and supports those involved in the recruiting process by providing information that will assist hiring managers in developing a diverse search plan and providing strategies for building a broadly diverse candidate pool for current openings.

The Vice Provost discusses university-wide and school-specific reports on faculty demographics with each school's leadership on an annual basis. Additional targeted discussions take place with each of the units (departments/schools) following the dissemination of the climate surveys findings. In several cases, decisions about resources have been made to ensure inclusivity of underrepresented minority students and faculty.

The campus-wide climate survey findings were disseminated in both closed and open discussions. Several closed discussions with university leadership took place in 2014-2015. In addition, the University President and Provost wrote a joint letter to the campus-wide community highlighting the findings of the survey and articulating a set of values that reflect Stanford’s commitment to equity, inclusion and respectful environments.

Lastly, part of the Annual Senate Reports on Faculty are published on the Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity website. Highlights of the Senate report on faculty are routinely reported in Stanford News.

The two reports on the Underrepresented Minority faculty interview study were also published on the Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity website. During the release of each of the reports, a townhall meeting was held to engage the campus community in discussing the results.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Office of Graduate Admissions both publish the diversity statistics of Stanford's incoming classes and for Stanford students overall each year in an effort to demonstrate how diversity contributes to Stanford's rich culture. More information can be found online at the links below:

http://admission.stanford.edu/student/diversity/
https://vpge.stanford.edu/diversity-initiatives/overview

Other websites where information on assessing diversity and access is available include:

https://facultydevelopment.stanford.edu/professional-development
https://facultydevelopment.stanford.edu/diversity-inclusion-stanford
http://diversityworks.stanford.edu