University of Minnesota, Duluth
IN-39: Sustainability Office Diversity Program

In the position description for all hiring in the Office of Sustainability, there is a section dedicated to diversity which states “The University recognizes and values the importance of diversity and inclusion in enriching the employment experience of its employees and in supporting the academic mission. The University is committed to attracting and retaining employees with varying identities and backgrounds.
The University of Minnesota provides equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.”

In the position description for the Coordinator in the Office of Sustainability, there is also a section that states that 10% of all the work they do must be specifically about incorporating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion into programming, outreach, and operations.

Both of these are meant to assist in recruiting individuals from underrepresented groups by clearly and openly displaying the importance DEI has in the work the Office of Sustainability does.

The Office of Sustainability (along with any other department at UMD) is also able to post positions on external job boards and recruiting sites that target a more varied population in the hopes of increasing diversity of candidates in the pool.

The Office of Sustainability encourages all employees to engage in DEI work through participation in groups and being a part of committees. The Director of the Office is a part of the Commission on Equity, Race, & Ethnicity (CERE) at UMD and assists in developing and hosting CERE’s annual summit. All Employees of the Office of Sustainability are offered paid time to attend this summit and others. The Office of Sustainability also partnered with the Institute on the Environment to host the “Our Climate Futures: Equity at the Center” conference where participants were able to attend discussions and workshops on effective community engagement strategies and increase confidence to establish and maintain inclusivity and justice in their work around climate justice and sustainable development. These options are the most accessible to student employees as they take place during the day on the UMD campus.

This paid time to attend summits, seminars, and trainings around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice extends beyond offerings on the UMD campus as the Coordinator for the Office was able to attend the annual Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBGLTACC) in Lexington, Kentucky in November of 2023.

The GreenCorps Service Member serving with the Office of Sustainability during the 23-24 year also attended the “Dream Big: The Future of Place Based Learning” retreat at Osprey Wilds in Sandstone, Minnesota which focused on equity and accessibility in higher education.

The Office of Sustainability's Free Store and Moveout Donation Program works collaboratively with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to have international students be the first group to come through the cleaned and organized donations from the previous year to provide first choice access to free household items (kitchenware, clothing, furniture, appliances, etc.). As part of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Change Team, the Coordinator for the Office assisted in organizing food and winter clothing drives with the donations going to Champ’s Cupboard and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion respectively.

The Director for the Office of Sustainability is also a member of the Commission on Equity, Race, & Ethnicity (CERE) which works to create an equitable campus community for people of all racial, ethnic, and intersecting identities through education and institutional change. As part of CERE, they assist in the development and hosting of the annual CERE Summit. The most recent summit on March 20, 2024, was titled “Learning From Our Past: Minnesota Not so Nice”.

The Office of Sustainability also coordinated with the Bulldog Resource Center, an office on campus that specializes in connecting students with the resources they need to be successful, by providing apples picked at the UMD heritage orchard, which is overseen by the Office of Sustainability, to be provided to students facing hunger on campus.

During the Sustainability Fair on November 15, 2023, the Office of Sustainability partnered with the Queer and Allied Student Union to host a clothing swap for students to take donations gathered by both groups. Students who attended were able to look through and freely take as much or as little as they’d like.

The Office of Sustainability has also financially supported UMD’s American Indian Learning Resource Center’s annual Ojibwe Winter Games for three years and the Indigenous Student Organization’s annual Spring Powwow for two. These are developing relationships and we hope that by building trust and support through events that these groups offer to the campus community that someday we'll move into a more collaborative space.

See position description: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-X3p4xZmtuhAhAy9yFw5FkKz-9z5_vza/view?usp=sharing