The office of the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs began an external diversity assessment for IU-Bloomington and IU-Purdue University Indianapolis on June 1.
The assessment will include IU-East Richmond, IU-Kokomo, IU-Northwest Gary, IU-South Bend, IU-Southeast New Albany and DEMA.
Everyone in the IU community is encouraged to participate in the survey.
The diversity assessment will last for 18 months, according to an IU press release. The diversity assessment survey will involve mapping diversity and inclusion in the past five years on IU campuses as well as retention-graduation efforts.
“The assessment will serve as a baseline measurement for IU in diversity achievement and progress, which will provide information to further our efforts for strategic planning University-wide,” said James Wimbush, vice president for diversity, equity and multicultural ?affairs.
The diversity mapping for IU-Bloomington and IUPUI will be available in November, while mapping on the remaining campuses will be completed in spring 2016. The diversity office and outside consulting firm Halualani & Associates are conducting the initiative. Halualani & Associates has been chosen to conduct the diversity assessment for DEMA to ensure an objective and comprehensive evaluation.
The maps created from data collected from diversity efforts surveys will be available to the IU community in November 2016. Surveys are currently available for IU-Bloomington and IUPUI on the DEMA website. Regional campus links will be available on the website at a later date, according to the release.
“Recognizing that diversity and inclusive excellence efforts and programs are taking place across campus communities in many forms,” Yolanda Treviño, assistant vice president for strategy, planning and assessment, said in an email. ”We are asking students, faculty, staff, and alumni to share these initiatives and experiences for which they have been involved over the last five years with our external research partner, Halualani & Associates to support a thorough and comprehensive ?assessment.”
Updates on the initiative will be periodically posted on the diversity office’s website under the “diversity assessment” tab.
The purpose of the survey is to conduct a four-part assessment to first include a thorough evaluation of all diversity, inclusion and inclusive excellence efforts and programs over the last five years for each campus. The second purpose is a comprehensive assessment of retention-graduation/student success initiatives and efforts across each campus, according to the release.
The third purpose is a current comparative status/performance on inclusive excellence in terms of peers for IU-Bloomington and IUPUI, and fourth, for an evaluation of the organizational capacity, effectiveness and influence of DEMA, according to the release.
Treviño leads the diversity assessment work with a collaborate team of DEMA leadership and each of the Campus Diversity Officers. Each Campus Diversity Officer is in support of their respective campuses as wells as Halualani & Associates.
“Each campus has a Chief Diversity Officer whom is responsible for guiding efforts to conceptualize, define, assess, nurture, and cultivate diversity as an institutionalized and educational resource on each of their perspective campuses,” Trevino wrote.
The Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs will be working with the assessment surveys to guide the department in its next move to further diversity education on campus and how to best fashion the Director of Diversity position that Eric Love once held in 2014. There is no timeline in place to reclassify the position or to hire a new individual for the directorship but “the work must and will go on” Trevino wrote.
The OVPDEMA was established in 1998 to further enhance student success and to create a climate that promotes cultural, ethnic and gender diversity, according to DEMA’s website.
Their goal is to promote an environment where faculty, staff, students and postdoctoral affiliates can do their best work by strategically focusing on three critical areas.
The first critical area is recruitment and retention of faculty and staff and recruitment, retention and timely completion of undergraduate and graduate students. The second critical area is promoting a welcoming and positive campus climate, while the third is to engage in outreach and advocacy locally and nationally, according to the DEMA website.
The DEMA provides a variety of educational and career opportunity services for its students as well.
