The Strategic Plan For Diversity At The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln 2006-2011
unl.edu/
Authors:
lcrump1@unl.edu
bcurrin1@unl.edu
ejacobson1@unl.edu
gmatkin1@unl.edu
mschnepf1@unl.edu
abanks1@unl.edu
A Comprehensive Diversity Plan for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was drafted in 1999 outlining the principles and goals for our campus and demonstrating our commitment to diversity and academic excellence through initiatives, recommendations and action plans. This plan was designed to create a campus definition for diversity and to catalogue campus diversity initiatives and make recommendations for programs to enhance diversity efforts on campus. The plan called for periodic reviews and updates. Many of the recommendations were realized even though accountability and responsibility for the initiatives was not clearly defined in the plan. The evolution of diversity plans on college campuses has led to a system of a few campus wide strategic goals and objectives and an assessment of how these goals and objectives are being met at the unit level. In the 2006-11 Strategic Plan for Diversity on our campus we have reaffirmed the principles and goals of the 1999 Comprehensive Diversity Plan with minor revisions to incorporate the campus core values and the campus wide strategic planning process.
Principles
“Diversity is the multiplicity of people, cultures and ideas that contribute to the richness and variety of life. Diversity broadly encompasses the mixture of similarities and differences along several dimensions: race, national origin, ability, religion, sexual orientation, age and gender. It includes values, cultures, concepts, learning styles and perceptions that individuals possess. By its very nature, diversity fosters inclusiveness, encourages the exchange of new ideas, improves decision-making, and broadens the scope of problem solving.
Diversity in all its dimensions must be valued. Where there is diversity, there is evidence of openness, emergence of inclusiveness, and a respect and appreciation for differences. Where diversity exists, there is indeed an enriched environment.
Diversity is about creating an equitable, hospitable, appreciative, safe and inclusive campus environment — one that embraces the full spectrum of all community members’ contributions. We must respond with effort and vigor to issues of diversity. We commit ourselves to enhancing the quality of experience for all members of the University community by enhancing our diversity.” Goals and Objectives
GOAL 1. Create a campus climate where respect and inclusiveness are modeled and expected, so everyone enjoys equitable opportunities for professional and personal fulfillment.
Objective 1.1
Annual evaluation of all faculty, staff and administrators will include an assessment of the individual’s contribution in creating a climate where respect and inclusiveness are modeled and expected as a part of the regular evaluation process.
Objective 1.2
All supervisors will be held responsible for engaging the members of their neighborhood in developing plans to improve both engagement and climate; and will be held responsible for actively implementing climate plans to achieve improvement; and will be evaluated annually on outcomes, i.e. the Gallup scores will be one important measure of accountability.
Objective 1.3
Those in formal leadership positions will:
__Create a plan for sharing relevant information at all levels in their Department/Unit/”Neighborhood.” This plan will be assessed as a part of the leader’s annual evaluation.
__Hiring Officials will proactively address the issue of campus climate with all candidates in the interview process and include their ability to contribute positively to this climate in the selection process.
__Be aware of, disseminate and review policies and procedures that impact campus climate.
__Encourage their employees to participate in campus programs and activities on climate and leadership (the Gallup Climate Survey).
__Engage members of their neighborhood to develop and implement plans to improve the climate.
__Be evaluated on the implementation of climate improvement plans.
__Elevate issues beyond neighborhood control to the appropriate level for action. Objective 1.4 All University employees will:
__Actively participate in campus programs to improve climate and leadership
__Treat colleagues, stakeholders, campus visitors and the public with a standard of behavior that demonstrates respect, civility and inclusiveness
__Annual evaluations will include an assessment of these expectations
GOAL 2. Support programs and curriculum that explore the experiences, perspectives and contributions of various cultures, groups and individuals.
__The University General Education program will include curriculum to ensure that students graduate with intercultural/international/multicultural competencies: colleges will periodically report the impact of their programs in this area upon student learning and outcomes.
__The Chancellor and Vice Chancellors will provide administrative and staff workshops for all campus administrators, supervisors and employees to educate them in intercultural/international/multicultural competencies and these workshops will be assessed on a periodic basis to determine their impact with the assistance of Equity, Access and Diversity Programs.
__All units will assess their diversity curricula and extracurricular initiatives for the impact on student learning and outcomes; this curricula and programming will be periodically reported up to the deans and directors of each unit.
__The diversity template of the strategic planning tools will be revised to reflect unit efforts and outcomes of diversity programming.
__All units will be invited to report their best practices in this area to Equity, Access and Diversity Programs for posting to the entire campus.
GOAL 3. Create a truly diverse community of faculty, students, administrators and staff that reflects both our multi-cultural society and individual differences and achieve among faculty, students, administrators and staff representative numbers of groups historically denied access because of race or gender.
The broad definition of diversity in the principles section of this document is essential to the overall goals of inclusiveness, however, without diminishing the importance of this broad meaning this diversity plan will focus on achieving a holistic integration into our campus for females and underrepresented African American, American Hispanic, Native American and Asian American students, faculty and staff.
__Institutional Research and Planning and Equity, Access and Diversity Programs will provide data to deans and directors regarding the demographic profile of their faculty and staff on an annual basis.
__Institutional Research and Planning and Equity, Access and Diversity Planning will provide demographic data based upon relevant recruitment pools and peer data to deans and directors to assist in the development of recruitment targets for faculty and staff from underrepresented groups; this report will be included in the strategic hiring plan for faculty.
__Deans will work with the Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Organizational Development to develop faculty recruitment plans for underrepresented groups.
__A parallel position will be developed for staff and the Vice Chancellors will work with that person to develop staff recruitment plans for underrepresented groups.
__Institutional Research and Planning and Admissions will provide data to deans regarding the demographic profile of undergraduate and graduate students by program area.
