Seed Grant Award: A&S IDEAS - Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access Strategies

IDEAS - Developing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access Strategies is a new initiative within Arts and Sciences (A&S) that aims to implement and support the development of diversity strategic plans (i.e., “IDEAS documents”) across all departments in A&S. The initiative, which was held as a pilot that academic year, included up to 6 departments with representation across all academic divisions (Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences). IDEAS were led by the Committee on Equity and Diversity (CED) and the Associate Director for Faculty Diversity and Development and with support from the Executive Vice President for A&S and A&S Divisional Deans. The initiative broadly aims to give departments agency in their strategic planning process while supporting them to learn about racial justice and equity in academia and explore resources and best practices to improve inclusion, diversity, and equity in their departments. Importantly, participating departments were expected to engage in 4 group learning sessions, 2-3 intra departmental discussions, and 1-2 inter-departmental discussions. As a whole, this curriculum educated departments in key issues related to diversity, helped them develop diversity-supporting relationships across A&S, and guide them to use the learned information to determine what strategic actions are most appropriate for their departmental context.    

Spring 2021 Update: 

The initiative was launched in January 2021 as a pilot with participation from the A&S Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Sociology, and Music in the Divisions of Natural Sciences, Social Science and Humanities.               

This project was funded through the Addressing Racism: A Call to Action for Higher Education initiative of the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement.