I’m writing with a few announcements and updates about events and more. Please see below for these announcements.
DEI Survey:I am pleased to report that we had a very nice response to the survey that will inform the DEI strategic plan. The survey was sent out to 1641 CAS faculty and staff in early December. By December 20th, 733 people completed jt, which is a 45% response rate —a very respectable rate for surveys especially during the exam and holiday period! Sixty-four percent of respondents were faculty and 35% were staff, which is fairly proportionate to staff and faculty representation in College. Those of us on the Strategic Plan Committee are impressed with –and really grateful for– this turnout. We are now in the thick of analyzing the survey data and going through the written comments/open-ended responses, of which there are ample. There will be updates about the strategic plan and feedback about the survey results later this semester and into the summer as we continuously move forward in our work.
CUEs postponed: Our January Conversations to Uphold Equity series (CUEs) event, which was going to look at the motivations for and merits of scholarship and teaching on race and racism, has been postponed. The event was scheduled for January 26th but, given the challenges of our return to campus in the midst of a distracting and distressing COVID surge, we decided to hold the event later when things “settle down.” I’ll update you about the new date once we pin that down.
Website: Our events page on the website is now live. It contains information about College events as well as events elsewhere on campus that relate to DEI. Be sure to check it out to find out what is happening in the community and please share with your networks. You can also feel free to email Lachonya Thompson or me about any events you know of that you think we should include on the page.
Karla Slocum