Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 70.12
Liaison Maria Dahmus
Submission Date March 5, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of St. Thomas
PA-5: Diversity and Equity Coordination

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.78 / 2.00 Kha Yang
Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence
Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1 

Does the institution have a diversity and equity committee, office, and/or officer tasked by the administration or governing body to advise on and implement policies, programs, and trainings related to diversity, equity, inclusion and human rights?:
Yes

Does the committee, office and/or officer focus on students, employees, or both?:
Both students and employees

None
A brief description of the diversity and equity committee, office and/or officer, including purview and activities:
The Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, led by a cabinet-level Associate Vice President, develops and articulates the institution’s goals around fostering a diverse and inclusive campus community. The Office works collaboratively with students, faculty, staff and administrators to develop and promote policies and procedures related to the selection, development and retention of a diverse workforce and student body.

Part 2 

Estimated proportion of students that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
All

Estimated proportion of academic staff that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Most

Estimated proportion of non-academic staff that has participated in cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Most

If trainings are made available, provide:

A brief description of the institution’s cultural competence, anti-oppression, anti-racism, and/or social inclusion trainings and activities:
Human Resources offers DEI training through its Leadership Academy. In addition, all faculty and staff were required to complete the online training Diversity.EDU. All new faculty attend a workshop on cultural competence.

The Center for Faculty Development's Inclusive Classroom Institute offers a workshop series and certification. The Center for Faculty Development also offered an additional workshop for all faculty about microaggressions and microinterventions, and addressing aspects of the "hidden curriculum."

New Student Orientation dedicates time and resources into ensuring that our staff is informed and trained on diversity-related issues. As part of their training, all Orientation Leaders hear from the Student Diversity and Inclusion Services (SDIS) Office. We also work closely with our New Student Orientation Program campus partners to ensure messages related to diversity are included in the Orientation programs. The SDIS staff present to new students and parents at every Orientation. In particular, there are specific messages during Orientation related to services and programming offered by SDIS and the Diversity Activities Board, along with the expectations the University of St. Thomas community has for all of its members. SDIS staff also provide training for resident advisors, apartment coordinators, and study abroad program directors.

The Diversity Activities Board (DAB) supports a number of cultural education, engagement, and inclusion programs. Cultural education programs are intended to allow the St. Thomas campus community to acquire knowledge and experiences to fully understand and focus on the history, practices, and infrastructure of various cultures.

Student Diversity and Inclusion Services also offers the iLED (Intercultural Leadership and Educational Development) program for students to build on their cultural competence and intercultural development. SDIS works in committing to developing and sustaining a diverse campus community by providing opportunities to engage across differences and a variety of diverse programs to build a deep intercultural understanding. We hope to prepare students to have skills in creating a better world. Each student will take the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) which is a 50-item questionnaire, available online and in a paper-and-pencil format that can be completed in 15-20 minutes. Once that is done, an initial meeting will be setup with an SDIS IDI Qualified Administrator, who will have analyzed the IDI Data, to discuss goals for intercultural competence and how the intercultural development inventory can help assess current and future orientation of intercultural competence.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s diversity and equity office or trainings is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Inclusive Classroom Institute
https://www.stthomas.edu/fdc/programs/ici/

Student Diversity & Inclusion Services
https://www.stthomas.edu/studentdiversity/

Diversity Activities Board
https://www.stthomas.edu/dab/

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.