Goal 4: Support & engage all faculty and staff in antiracism work

 

Goal 4 Current Commitments:

 

Our faculty and staff of color have for decades advised, worked on committees, responded to incidents, supported students and one another, taken proactive measures, and stayed committed – while experiencing blatant hurt and racism.

They have consistently done the heavy lifting, making CC a stronger community. That work must be honored and recognized. We will increase our support for faculty and staff of color here today, acknowledging the profound impact they have at CC already, and developing their leadership so they can have even greater effect.

Each division and department will engage in diversity, inclusion, and equity work. As part of their requirement for service at Colorado College, faculty and staff members will dedicate efforts toward community building, campus antiracism work, and mentorship of students.

For the work of antiracism to be successful, all faculty and staff must see it as part of their responsibilities to the college, and as something for which everyone must be held accountable. The Faculty Executive Committee, in collaboration with the provost and the dean of the faculty, will develop faculty evaluation criteria and reward systems to ensure that antiracism work (including publicly-engaged scholarship) is considered in annual reviews, promotion and tenure, awarding of professorships, and post-tenure reviews. Similarly, Human Resources, in collaboration with Staff Council, will develop evaluation criteria and reward systems that become part of annual performance reviews for staff.

The Crown Faculty Center’s work and leadership will be expanded and resourced to reflect the centrality of this work. The new dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion will oversee the Crown Faculty Center and help the center work toward creating a shared foundational understanding of race, racism, and racialization, fostering a shared language, increasing ease of institution-wide communication on what is meant by antiracism, and enhancing opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaborations. This will include course content selection, pedagogy/teaching a diverse student body, student demographics/classroom climate (especially considerations for minoritized students), and instructor self-awareness relating to identity, social location, values, and assumptions.

The new dean also will work with faculty to develop a college-wide framework for antiracist course offerings that is broad enough to allow departments to tailor it to specific disciplinary needs, yet also specific enough to address essential elements of a holistic approach to an inclusive curriculum. Faculty will learn to effectively design syllabi that reflect the values of antiracism and inclusive education.

The college will continue to award faculty grants to develop new courses or redesign existing courses to diversify the curriculum, with a specific focus on including and addressing issues of equity, power, inequality, and diverse experiences.

The new diversity and inclusion leader in Human Resources will work with Staff Council and all staff to manage antiracism efforts as they relate to staff. Existing educational offerings for faculty and staff such as Good to Great and Toward a Daily Antiracist Agenda will be assessed, modified, led, and managed by this team member. This work will be incorporated into search processes, recruiting, hiring, retention, and in response to bias incidents in the workplace.

Parties accountable: Board of Trustees, president, provost, dean of the faculty, Faculty Executive Committee, human resources, and Staff Council will oversee this work in their respective areas in 2019-20; the new dean for diversity and inclusion and the new human resources diversity and inclusion leader will join the team in 2020-21.


Updates, August 2021:

  • In June 2020, the college hired new leaders for senior associate dean for equity, inclusion, and faculty development and senior associate dean of students for equity and inclusion/director of the Butler Center, and named an interim director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for staff 
  • This work of supporting and engaging all staff and faculty will continue beyond 2020 as part of the college’s ongoing commitment to antiracism. 
  • The new staff diversity and inclusion leader is now part of finance and administration.
Report an issue - Last updated: 01/17/2023

In Progress

  • 2012 to 2020, staff of color increased from 20.1% to 23.7%
  • 2012 to 2020, faculty of color increased from 18.3% to 28.8%
  • Mentoring Alliance Program for early career faculty 
  • DEI leadership positions - created and recruited 

Ongoing

  • Member of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance
  • Annual antiracism work progress reports for institutional divisions, units, departments and programs
  • Individualized faculty development support
  • DEI development program for faculty searches
  • Equity & Power course development program; General Education program
  • Riley Scholars-In-Residence Program
  • Antiracist Pedagogies and the General Education Program Workshop
  • DEI leadership team meetings with departments, committees, and employee/student groups
  • Senior faculty hiring initiative to increase diversity, diversify the curriculum
  • Equity audit of the staff handbook and staff policies
  • The Faculty Development Series on Antiracism
  • The Fierce Conversations Program for Faculty

Completed

  • Established “CC Conversations”
  • Equity Audit: review of the non-personnel, college-wide policies
  • Antiracism, Informal Leadership, and Shared Governance Workshop for FEC
  • Academic Chairs and Directors Development Program
  • Elections 2020 in classrooms and panel discussion
  • Antiracism in Field Study Workshop Series
  • Writing Instruction Workshop
  • Equity audit of the faculty handbook 
  • Antiracism Evaluation Tool covering personnel, policies, practices, assessment
  • Equity audit of staff recruitment procedures and processes
  • Antiracism Plan Oversight Committee
  • External review of racism at CC; and established Antiracism Implementation Plan
  • Approximately $7 million spent on ADA improvements
  • Naming of key spaces - Tava Quad, Collins House, Salazar House, etc.
  • Gender-neutral bathrooms
  • Expanded Outdoor Education to include more inclusive programs
  • Added Living Learning Communities on Indigenous Peoples and LGBTQ+
  • Adopted a smudging policy
  • Increased the diversity of counselors in the Counseling Center
  • Adopted a pronoun and preferred name practice
  • Established the Wellness Resource Center
  • Added financial aid for blocks abroad
  • Made Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies a major
  • Made Indigenous Studies a minor
  • Added an elder-in-residence and diversity and inclusion specialist
  • Established the Africana Intellectual Project
  • Increased resources and tenure-track faculty in Southwest Studies, Feminist and Gender
  • Added transgender benefits to health insurance
  • Started Excel@CC, and added diversity and inclusion training for staff and faculty
  • Added the Presidential Leadership Awards program, including one for diversity and inclusion
  • Held first-ever diversity-related virtual-reality experience for faculty and staff 
  • Hired a curator of the Southwest Art Collection for the Fine Arts Center
  • Received $1.2 million grant to bring visiting Indigenous artists to campus
  • Launched Untold Stories of students, alumni, and employees from marginalized social groups
  • Added acknowledgement of the original inhabitants of the land upon which CC sits 
  • Established Antiracism Book Club
  • Established “Dismantling Hate: An Education Series Toward Understanding & Action”
  • The Fierce Conversations Program for Staff

NOTE: some of these progress points may apply to multiple goals.