University of Louisville
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The University of Louisville‘s diversity and equity committee is the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equality (CODRE). CODRE serves as the primary policy advisory group on issues of diversity and racial equality for students and employees at the University of Louisville and reports to the President. CODRE stays abreast of relevant issues including, but not limited to: recruitment, retention, and promotion of faculty and professional/ administrative staff from diverse populations; group-based inequalities and inequities; the academic success of a diverse racial and ethnic student body including retention, curriculum, and campus climate concerns; addressing sexist and racist conduct that impedes the educational mission of the university; and strategies and praxis that support “education that is multicultural.”

2022 CODRE COMMITTEE CHAIRS:
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Muriel Harris - Chair muriel.harris@louisville.edu
Connie Martinez - Vice Chair maria.martinez@louisville.edu
Maria Tinnell - Director of Communications maria.tinnell@louisville.edu
COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING
Jim Warner james.warner@louisville.edu
CARDINAL ANTI-RACISM AGENDA
Stella Wang stella.wang@louisville.edu
Fannie Cox fannie.cox@louisville.edu
CONSTITUENCY RELATIONS
Dwayne Compton dwayne.compton@louisville.edu
DIVERSITY PROGRAMMING
J’Lissabeth Faughn jlissabeth.faughn@louisville.edu
Leondra Gully leondra.gully@louisville.edu

See attached for full roster of the CODRE commissioners for 2021-2022.
Information on CODRE can be found at https://louisville.edu/codre.

To further improve diversity and equity coordination across the university, in 2019, UofL also established a Diversity Council which has representatives from CODRE and every university unit (both academic and non-academic units). It is Chaired by Diane Whitlock (Chief of Staff in the Office of Diversity and Equity) and Ryan Simpson (Program Director in the Health Sciences Center's Office of Diversity and Inclusion).

In early 2022, UofL is hiring a new position to lead the coordination of our diversity and equity work, a Vice-President for Diversity and Equity. This new VP will create some new structures. For the past few years, these efforts have been coordinated by the Office of Diversity and Equity, staffed by:
1. V. Faye Jones, MD, PhD, MSPH
Senior Associate Vice President for Diversity and Equity
Associate Vice President for Health Affairs/Diversity Initiatives
Professor of Pediatrics
Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrics - Inclusive Excellence
2. Marian Vasser
Executive Director of Diversity and Equity
Director of Diversity Education & Inclusive Excellence
3. Diane Whitlock
Executive Assistant to the Senior Associate Vice President for Diversity and Equity
Additional information about the Office of Diversity and Equity can be found at https://louisville.edu/diversity.

Health Sciences Center (HSC) Office of Diversity and Inclusion:
The HSC Office of Diversity and Inclusion's goal is to enhance partnership across the schools on the Health Sciences Campus (Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Information Sciences, Dentistry) and to promote an environment of inclusiveness through the understanding and celebration of the many differences in perspectives, thoughts, experiences, belief systems and cultures of students, faculty and staff. It places a major emphasis on increasing the number of students from racial/ethnic groups designated as underrepresented into the health professions system. Emphasis is also given to recruiting, retaining and promoting a diverse workforce. There are ten employees in the office.
Additional information about the office can be found at: https://louisville.edu/hsc/diversity/.

Office of Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence:
Created in July 2016, based on recommendations from the 21st Century Culture of Excellence and the President’s Diversity Steering Committees, the Office for Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence is a functional area designed to support campus and community-wide diversity education and training. This unit serves as a focal point for driving the University of Louisville’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion; which fundamentally advances our mission of achieving preeminence as a premier anti-racist metropolitan research university. Innovation occurs when diversity is reflected in thought, perspective, and experience. To this end, this unit is committed to fostering a community that strives towards inclusion and equity by:
• Consulting individuals, departments/units, university leaders regarding best practices concerning diversity and inclusion
• Providing resources to campus and community constituencies
• Offering leadership and training opportunities to campus and community constituencies
• Conducting workshops and training sessions regarding diversity, inclusion, and equity
More information is available at https://louisville.edu/diversity/diveduc

The Office of Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence has conducted over 1000 trainings around diversity, inclusion and equity since its inception in July 2016. Examples of these trainings include Preventing Implicit Bias; Engaging in Difficult Dialogue in the Classroom; Privilege and Power; Colorism; That’s Not What I Meant – Intent vs Impact; When Silence Isn’t Golden – Interrupting Offensive Language and Behavior. Unconscious Bias Training sessions use trained facilitators to deliver evidence-based findings and teachings to students, faculty, and staff. Participants are given the opportunity to:
• Explore the science and research of unconscious bias
• Identify how bias and the processes of the unconscious mind can impact decisions and results
• Become aware of their background, and its impact on perceptions so they are better able to advocate for inclusion within the organization and apply new strategies for practicing more conscious awareness individually and organizationally.

In January 2022, Marian Vasser, M.Ed., Director of UofL's Office of Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence, reported that the number of staff and faculty trainings declined during the COVID 19 pandemic. Although we did see an increase in new departments and offices requesting trainings after the 2020 launch of the Cardinal Anti-Racist Agenda. She estimates employee participation in that last three years as follows:
2021-22 (some)
2020-21 (some)
2019-20 (most)

The Cultural Competency Research Project:
This project is the work of a transdisciplinary team of research faculty assessing content and the operationalization of cultural competency across curriculums. Their research examines the ways in which faculty and administrators serve as role models of cultural competency.
Cultural competency training was implemented on the HSC campus using three different venues: the Cultural Humility Academy, Unconscious Bias Training, and CECS (Culturally Effective Care Symposium). Prior to implementation, dedicated staff are responsible for development of timelines, facilitator guides and curriculum development. The Cultural Humility Academy’s goal is to give participants knowledge and skills to practice cultural humility in their daily professional and personal lives. Participants explore topics centered around 1) Critical Self Reflection and Life-Long Learning, 2) Power Imbalances, and 3) Accountability. Each session uses trained facilitators with a variety of perspectives, identities and expertise. Employee participants are given periodic readings, short video clips, and reflective writing tasks to complete between sessions in preparation for the next session. Journals are provided to each participant, and by the end of the academy each participant has developed an individual and departmental plan to detail how they hope to implement cultural humility into their professions. The Culturally Effective Care Symposium (CECS) is a 1-day symposium centered on diversity, cultural competency, and equity in healthcare for health professional students in the UofL schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Public Health and Information Sciences and Social Work, and Sullivan University College of Pharmacy. Faculty, staff and community members undergo a 2-hour training session to help students:
• Address hierarchical issues in inter-professional groups,
• Explore health disparities, barriers to care, and social determinates of health with students through patient simulation.
• Identify health and health care disparities in diverse populations
• Define social determinants of health
• Recognize strategies for culturally effective care with families in a diverse society
• Provide examples of resources that support culturally effective care
• Distinguish the role and responsibilities of other health professionals in an inter-professional treatment team
• Demonstrate inter-professional shared problem solving in culturally diverse case scenarios

Student Education:
One major and consistent way to provide cultural competency for students is through the curriculum. Since the 1990s, all undergraduate students have been required to take two cultural diversity courses as a part of the general education requirements. In 2014, a task force was appointed to revise the general education requirements. The revisions were approved in January of 2017. General Education is now called the Cardinal Core Program and it requires all students to take two diversity courses as described below:
Courses in U.S. Diversity (D1) will broaden students’ understanding of how the experiences and opportunities of individuals and groups in the United States are shaped by the various historical, cultural and social structures and processes of stratifications. These courses will center on race, socio-economic status and gender, and/or their interactions with other social demographics.
Courses in Global Diversity (D2) will broaden students’ understanding of how the experiences and opportunities of individuals and/or groups in non-U.S. societies are shaped by the various historical, cultural and social structures and of stratification locally or globally.
Students must take one course in U.S. Diversity (D1) and one in Global Diversity (D2). These courses will meet and exceed the components of the definition of cultural competency by providing learning outcomes and assessment of the knowledge students have gained in the courses.
It should be noted that diversity content is infused throughout the curricula in many of the academic units. However, there are two degree-granting units that provide content that enhance students’ understanding of race, culture and gender: Pan African Studies (PAS) and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS).

Pan African Studies (PAS) occupies an important place within the larger mission of the university’s quest for advancing knowledge and understand of problems of the 21st century. The goals of the department include the advancement of scholarship, research, and knowledge that contribute to the understanding of social inequality and cultural diversity, particularly as it eschews racial and ethnic bigotry and the intersectionality with other forms of oppression. PAS offers bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees. The rich breadth and depth of the multidisciplinary field of Pan-African Studies are reflected in the curriculum and programs of the department. The PAS core curriculum focuses on Africa and the African Diaspora. In addition, PAS offers field of study and internships experiences, and special courses on research methods, race, gender, diversity and inter-cultural education.

Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies (WGS) promotes the interdisciplinary examination of women and gender across cultures and epochs. WGS addresses significant omissions in traditional scholarship by examining the history, contributions and accomplishments of women by studying the ways gender has structured intellectual and social life. WGS calls attention to how issues of gender intersect with other structures of power such as race, class and sexualities. WGS offers bachelors; dual majors with Law and Social Work (MA and MSW); and MA and graduate certificates.

In addition to the courses within the academic units, the director of the Muhammad Ali Institute (MAI) and the faculty resource group of MAI developed a cultural competency research project to conduct an Integrative/Comprehensive Literature Review of the Definitions of Cultural Competency [CC] and determine to what extent do faculty, student affairs and the university infuse cultural competencies into their teaching, work and operations, respectively.

Intercultural Knowledge and Competence Value Rubric:
The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) Intercultural Competence Rubrics are also used to assess cultural competency at UofL. The VALUE rubrics were developed by teams of faculty experts representing colleges and universities across the United States through a process that examined many existing campus rubrics and related documents for each learning outcome and incorporated additional feedback from faculty. The rubrics articulate fundamental criteria for each learning outcome, with performance descriptors demonstrating progressively more sophisticated levels of attainment. The rubrics are intended for institutional-level use in evaluating and discussing student learning, not for grading. The core expectations articulated in all 15 of the VALUE rubrics can and should be translated into the language of individual campuses, disciplines, and even courses. The utility of the VALUE rubrics is to position learning at all undergraduate levels within a basic framework of expectations such that evidence of learning can by shared nationally through a common dialog and understanding of student success.

Cultural Competency and Anti-Racism training for faculty and staff continues to be provided by the Office of Diversity Education and Inclusive Excellence. However, the long-range plan is to develop online training modules, and, although it will not be mandatory, it is expected that all faculty and staff will participate in the training. More information is available at https://louisville.edu/diversity/diveduc

Sexual Harassment Prevention Training:

The Affirmative Action/Employee Relations Office offers training regarding sexual harassment. The course includes:
• Defining and identifying sexual harassment
• University policy and accompanying laws
• Course of action for victims or accused
• Reporting responsibilities
• Complaint resolution

On-line Training Supplement:
Preventing Sexual Harassment is an interactive web-based training program that provides an innovative way for employees to gain a basic understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment as well as what is and what is not acceptable in today's environment. The program provides a means to evaluate understanding and answers common questions. The program is used as a point of reference and does not replace training provided by the Affirmative Action/Employee Relations Office.

The LGBT Center:
The university’s Safe Zone Project is a workshop designed to give faculty and staff the tools and resources they need to understand LGBT students and create a welcoming, affirming campus environment for all. Participants attending this fun and informative half-day session are not required to be an expert in sexuality or gender identity/expression to attend, but rather someone who is interested in helping all members of the campus community succeed. Workshop participants receive a comprehensive resource manual and a poster or sticker to display somewhere in the office. Displaying a Safe Zone poster or sticker sends the message to others that you are comfortable talking about LGBT issues, and that you are supportive and willing to listen. Safe Zone training overview is here: http://louisville.edu/lgbt/programs-1/safe-zones-project-1
The Center also hosts Trans Inclusion training for departments and organizations that want to learn strategies for welcoming transgender and gender nonconforming students, faculty and staff. With a focus on examining business practice, forms, and procedures, the workshop includes helpful tips for talking with transgender people and using inclusive language.

Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning:
The university’s Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning offers conferences, workshops, symposiums and training through the Faculty Instructional and Development Program. Examples of these programs include:
• Facilitating Difficult Discussions - faculty receive training on strategies to successfully manage difficult topics that can come up in any class.
• Using Newspapers and Online Media to Enhance Student Learning in a Multicultural World – faculty learn how to integrate course content and current events from diverse perspectives to can foster students’ multicultural awareness and understanding.

UofL has consistently received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.