Virginia Tech
IN-27: Innovation D

InclusiveVT is the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim (that I may serve) in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence. The program is administered by the Office for Inclusion and Diversity, and an expectation that each organizational unit will fully take responsibility for these issues. InclusiveVT has four major goals: Institutionalizing structures to promote sustainable transformation; Increasing faculty, staff, and student diversity; Ensuring a welcoming, affirming, safe, and accessible campus climate; and Advancing the academic mission through inclusion and diversity. InclusiveVT has established a leadership structure among the senior management areas of the university. The President’s InclusiveVT Executive Council guides the development of InclusiveVT and ensures that responsibility for inclusion and diversity is infused throughout Virginia Tech. Each college and senior management area has designated individuals who serve as InclusiveVT representatives who are liaisons between colleges / senior management areas, and the Office for Inclusion and Diversity and are catalysts for advancing inclusion and diversity. This year, the network has expanded to include representatives from each academic department, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, for a total of 123 representatives. Most colleges and senior management areas have diversity committees that support progress on inclusion and diversity issues, sponsor programming, and recognize significant contributions in their area. Faculty diversity is also a priority for InclusiveVT. Each college has appointed an Advancing InclusiveVT representative. This team comprises senior faculty who advise their colleges and departments on issues related to faculty recruitment, hiring, and retention. Additional training has been instituted to add a diversity advocate for each search committee and to ensure committees are aware of unconscious bias. These efforts were instrumental to achieving an increase to 13 underrepresented faculty hires during 2016-17, up from 5 the previous year. Club 2022 is a collaboration with Enrollment Management, Alumni Relations, College Access Collaborative, Advancement, Black Faculty and Staff Caucus, and the Office for Inclusion and Diversity. The project’s objectives are to increase underrepresented student diversity. A Student Academic Success workgroup has convened to create a system to identify students who may need additional support with Admissions and Academic Support; determine support structures; and expand and Resource Best Practices. The InclusiveVT representatives are charged with building a safe, welcoming, affirming, and accessible climate within their colleges, departments, and units. These representatives have been trained to facilitate dialogues in their areas, and receive ongoing information about inclusion and diversity efforts on campus. A Gender Equity workgroup builds on focus groups engaging 300+ women in dialogues of challenges they face at the university, and potential solutions. The workgroup will advise the President and the President’s InclusiveVT Executive Council on gender related topics on campus objectively for all employment classifications. In addition, this group will study, formulate,and recommend policies and procedures as they relate to the university’s responsibilities regarding equal opportunity and advancement for all genders. In 2017, a new area was added to the Virginia Tech Pathways core curriculum. This area, Critical Analysis of Equity and Identity in the United States, explores the ways social identities related to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, class, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, veteran status, economic status, age, and other socially salient categories and statuses, influence the human condition and experience. As part of the university’s emphasis on developing cross disciplinary programs, Strategic Growth Areas (SGAs) have been identified as critical areas for future growth and development. One area, Equity and Social Disparity in the Human Condition, focused on the equitable distribution and availability of physical safety and well-being, psychological well-being, and access to crucial material, social, and moral resources. InclusiveVT’s initiatives under each goal area are focused on instituting sustainable transformation across the university, so that each college, department, and unit is responsible for supporting and expanding inclusion and diversity at Virginia Tech.