Stanford University
PA-6: Support for Underrepresented Groups

Stanford’s non-discrimination policy prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Stanford’s non-discrimination policy can be found at the following link: http://exploredegrees.stanford.edu/nonacademicregulations/#text

The response/grievance policies are too detailed and role-specific to describe in the available space. Instead, please visit the websites described and listed below.

For details on the reporting procedure/policy, please visit:
https://diversityandaccess.stanford.edu/reporting-concern

For grievances related to staff, please visit:
https://adminguide.stanford.edu/chapter-2/subchapter-1/policy-2-1-11

For grievances related to students, please visit:
http://exploredegrees.stanford.edu/nonacademicregulations/#text

For grievances related to faculty, please visit:
http://facultyhandbook.stanford.edu/ch8.html#grievance

Students may file concerns and complaints under the university’s Acts of Intolerance Protocol:
https://undergrad.stanford.edu/advising/student-guides/acts-intolerance-protocol

STUDENTS:
Stanford’s Office of Undergraduate Admission uses a multifaceted outreach strategy aimed at encouraging qualified students from low-income backgrounds to apply, which include the following:
1) Early College Outreach: Admissions staff developed a brochure outlining the path to college for middle school students to motivate middle school students to attend college.
2) Counselor Fly-In Program: In 2014, an annual summer program was initiated for secondary school counselors and community-based organization staff to learn about opportunities at Stanford and other highly selective universities and engage in conversations about outreach to qualified students. Stanford seeks out counselors from under-resourced areas across the nation and pays for all travel and program expenses for the participants, currently 25 to 35 per year.
3) Counselor Programs: Admissions staff regularly present and connect with school counselors and leaders who work with low-income youth; most recently at the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Annual Conference and in Rio Grande Valley, TX, and Riverside County, CA.
4) Community-Based Organization (CBO) outreach: Stanford maintains a database of CBOs across the country. Admissions staff send biannual mailings and travel to CBOs to meet with community leaders and students. During their visits, they conduct information sessions and college application and essay writing workshops. CBO examples include the Crimson Summer Academy at Harvard, the Steppingstone Foundation, and Bottom Line.
5) Summer outreach: Admissions staff conduct outreach to students participating in summer enrichment programs. Examples of program visits include:
o Caroline D. Bradley Scholarship Program
o Chicano Latino Youth Leadership Project summer program in Sacramento
o College Horizons at Bowdoin and Stanford
o Illinois Institute of Technology Boeing Scholars and University of Chicago College Scholars
o Jack Kent Cooke Scholars’ Fair
o Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America (LEDA) summer institute at Princeton University
o Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES), Research Science Institute (RSI), Women in Technology (WIT), and Mathematics and Science for Minority Students (MS)2
o National Urban League
o QuestBridge Conferences – Stanford, Yale, Emory
o Sutton Trust
6) Travel Grant Program: Stanford provides travel grants for admitted low-income students to attend Admit Weekend, a three-day program that provides an introduction to academic options, residential life, and campus resources. Admit Weekend also features a panel for first-generation and low-income students with campus partners and the Financial Aid Office.

Stanford also runs a significant number of recruitment programs for graduate students from underrepresented groups, as described below.

1) Summer Research Programs: Hosted by Schools of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Humanities & Sciences, and Medicine (Biosciences) for promising diverse undergraduates from other institutions; students spend 8 to 9 weeks performing research with Stanford faculty and graduate students; and participate in GRE and graduate school preparation courses. Special partnerships include The Leadership Alliance (multiple fields) and City College of New York program in the Humanities.

2) The Leadership Alliance: The Leadership Alliance is a consortium of 36 leading teaching and research colleges, universities, and private industry. The mission of the Leadership Alliance is to develop underrepresented students into outstanding leaders and role models in academia, business and the public sector. Stanford is an institutional member and brings diverse undergraduate students from other institutions to participate in summer research programs through the Leadership Alliance Summer Research – Early Identification Program (SR-EIP).

3) City College of New York Partnership: CCNY undergraduates from underrepresented and first-generation college backgrounds are given the opportunity to conduct graduate level humanities research. Undergraduates live in residence at Stanford for eight weeks, are advised by faculty and graduate student mentors, and then present their work at a concluding symposium. The teaching exchange sends up to six Stanford humanities graduate students to teach at the City College of New York in the fall.

4) Stanford Diversity Outreach for Doctoral Education (STANDOUT) Center of Influence Recruitment Retreat: two-day program that brings together program directors, faculty, and administrators who work with diverse undergraduates in preparation for doctoral studies from institutions across the nation; the goal is to better equip them to help their students prepare more competitive graduate school applications.

5) Graduate Recruitment and Diversity Day: Event for diverse admits and top prospects for graduate programs in the Schools of Business, Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Humanities and Sciences, Education, and Engineering. Prospective students have the opportunity to see that Stanford offers a combination of commitment, resources, and community to allow diverse students to thrive.

6) Fee waivers: Stanford offers a myriad institution- and school-based fee waivers to assist students from diverse backgrounds with the expense of applying to graduate school.

7) Recruiting events: Stanford University diversity officers actively attend and engage with national organizations and conferences that support diverse undergraduates interested in pursuing research and graduate study.

8) Prestigious Doctoral Fellowships: many of Stanford’s seven schools have a variety of diversity-focused funding to support graduate education. Recruitment fellowships supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education include the following:
--The Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Doctoral Fellowship Program supports the recruitment and academic success of outstanding doctoral students who have the potential to enhance the diversity of their academic disciplines and fields.
--The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) offers a three-year Graduate Fellowship for outstanding doctoral students newly admitted to a department at Stanford who are interested in the study of the meanings, processes, and consequences of race, ethnicity, and inequality.

9) Support Applicants’ Travel to Stanford: Faculty members and departments may request up to $500 from the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education to defray the cost of bringing prospective graduate students for campus visits. Requests may include students of an ethnicity that is underrepresented in an academic field; women who are underrepresented in a field; or people who would be the first members of their family to attend graduate school.

STAFF:
The university conducts an annual analysis of the workforce and identifies job groups that are under-represented with respect to women and minorities. A plan is then developed to address the under-represented groups, which includes increased recruiting, improve onboarding of new staff, and participation in veteran and disability-related community activities.

FACULTY:
Stanford has two separate initiatives on campus that offer financial and intellectual resources to departments to recruit faculty from underrepresented groups: the Faculty Development Initiative and the Faculty Incentive Fund/Faculty Incentive Fund+.

To contribute to Stanford’s ongoing commitment to promoting the comparative study of race and ethnicity and to promoting faculty diversity, the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), in collaboration with the Provost, launched the Faculty Development Initiative (FDI). Announced by the Provost in spring 2007, the FDI’s primary goal is to facilitate the appointment of at least ten outstanding new faculty across the university that will help expand the research and teaching mission of the CCSRE as it enters its second decade. Over the next five years the CCSRE’s Faculty Development Initiative will create a collaborative environment where schools and departments will participate in a multifaceted recruitment and appointment project to hire junior and senior faculty in subject areas focusing on issues of race and ethnicity.

The Faculty Incentive Fund helps make it possible for departments and schools to make incremental appointments of qualified individuals who would bring diversity to the faculty; this can include minority scholars and (in disciplines in which they are underrepresented) women scholars, as well as others who would bring additional dimensions to the university’s research and teaching programs. In some cases these individuals are not in the precise field in which the department is searching but are in fields that are appropriate for Stanford.

The need for the fund stems from two aspects of Stanford’s faculty appointments situation. First, the rates of faculty growth and turnover are very low; as a result, the university has very few openings, which must by necessity be defined relatively narrowly in order to fulfill the particular academic needs of the departments and schools with these openings. Second, the distribution of minority and women scholars does not map evenly onto the academic disciplines. This means that, particularly with respect to minority scholars, there may be little overlap in any given year between the set of disciplines in which there are hiring opportunities and those in which there are qualified candidates who would increase faculty diversity. The Faculty Incentive Fund resources provided by the Provost, together with support supplied by the school, become a tool that facilitates optimum use of the availabilities of scholars who would bring diversity.

More information on both of these programs is available here: https://facultydevelopment.stanford.edu/recruitment/recruitment-programs

STUDENTS
The Diversity and First-Gen Office (DGEN) at Stanford is the hub of support for first-generation and low-income students and the nucleus for inclusion and diversity programs. The office is playing a key role in Stanford's yearlong OpenXChange initiative. The DGEN office runs the Opportunity Fund, which is designed to financially assist undergraduate students who are experiencing a temporary financial challenge from a hardship or who are seeking funds for an opportunity related to their academic, professional, and/or social development. Requests for financial assistance are considered on the basis of what is recognized as a hardship or an opportunity that may not be funded through other means. For instance, a Stanford News article earlier this year featured the inspiring use of the Opportunity Fund by Stanford student Alejandro Ruizesparza to purchase a suit for an interview to become a Marshall Scholar. Ruizesparza won the scholarship and will begin a sociology master’s program in Fall 2016 at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. The article can be found here: https://news.stanford.edu/2016/04/12/stanford-inclusion-lifelong-learning-process/.

The DGEN office also operates the First-Gen Community Mentor Program, with a focus on connecting first-generation undergraduate students with graduate student mentors to build a sense of community and develop opportunities for first-generation and low-income students by creating connections across campus. The program has formal and informal events to elevate campus-wide conversations about class and privilege. https://diversityandfirstgen.stanford.edu/resources

Finally, the DGEN office has designed a series of trainings and workshops with the purpose of supporting underrepresented groups on campus. For instance, through a collaboration with Stanford Queer and/or Trans students of color, DGEN designed a 90 minute workshop session to engage participants with topics impacting transgender students on campus today. The workshop addresses: pronouns, gender identity, sex assigned at birth, gender expression and best practices to further support transgender students on campus.

Another support mechanism for underrepresented students are student affinity groups and community centers. The community centers available to students include:
Asian American Activities Center
https://a3c.stanford.edu/
Bechtel International Center
https://bechtel.stanford.edu/
Black Community Services Center
https://bcsc.stanford.edu/
Office of Accessible Education
https://oae.stanford.edu/
El Centro Chicano
http://elcentro.stanford.edu/
Native American (American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Program) Cultural Center
https://nacc.stanford.edu/
Women’s Center
https://wcc.stanford.edu/
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered (LGBT) Community Resource Center
https://lgbt.stanford.edu/

In addition to these community centers, a list of the hundreds of student-organized affinity groups and clubs can be found online.
http://admission.stanford.edu/student/organizations/

STAFF
Stanford also has staff affinity groups that act as a resource for underrepresented employees. The eight staff affinity groups on campus are overseen by the Diversity and Access Office and include the Asian Staff Forum, Black Staff Alliance, Filipino American Community at Stanford, Disability Staff Forum, La Raza Staff Association, Stanford Staffers, Queer University Employees at Stanford and American Indian Staff Forum. These groups help employees meet new people and provide opportunities for professional, social and personal support. For a complete listing of staff affinity groups, please visit:
https://diversityandaccess.stanford.edu/diversity/staff-groups

FACULTY
The Provost’s Panel on Faculty Equity and Quality of Life developed the 2008 Quality of Life of Stanford Faculty survey, 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, and actions are underway based on those results to expand the resources and support systems available to underrepresented faculty.

STANFORD DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI SCHOLARS PROGRAM (DAS)
The Distinguished Alumni Scholars Day was established in 2006 as an institutional response to the scarce presence of diverse racial/ethnic group members within the faculty ranks of our nation’s colleges and universities, and within the Ph.D. programs that produce these faculty. The purpose of this now biennial program is to bring Stanford students from cultural groups underrepresented in academia into contact and discussion with distinguished alumni scholars from a broad range of backgrounds, disciplines, and institutional types to inspire new generations of students to consider academia as a career.

For more information, please visit:
https://facultydevelopment.stanford.edu/main/distinguished-alumni-scholars-day

Gender neutral bathroom locations:
http://www.stanford.edu/group/lgbtcrc/gn-restrooms-map.png