Diversity Action Plan Goal 1

Embed, integrate and advance inclusive excellence within all aspects of the College of Science.

How to read what follows

We set out an ambitious agenda for embedding equity, access, and inclusion in all that we do in the College of Science. Recognizing that actions must be prioritized, we indicate those actions that will be taken first with a double asterisk **. We note that we will follow an adaptive implementation strategy in executing this DAP in which our prioritized actions marked by ** may adaptively evolve in an evidence-based approach. In what follows, “unit” refers to a department, center, or research facility in the college. In addition, for these purposes, the dean’s office is also a unit.

Inclusive Excellence is an organization’s capacity to thrive as a function of its ability to value and engage the rich diversity of its community members.

Goal 1, we propose actions to create a multilevel, multiscale, contextual approach to organizational development and change to embed equity, access and inclusion (EAI) in every operational aspect of our college. We consider actions that task all units in the COS to develop capacity for critical dialogue to challenge ideas, attitudes and policies that have not served their students, staff and faculty well, especially those from minoritized communities. Given the charge to improve outcomes for minoritized members of the college using scientific inquiry and evidence-based actions, we propose an ongoing process of data collection that addresses multilevel and contextual aspects of the inclusion of minoritized members, their access to resources and their lived experiences.

Proposed actions:

1.1. Create a College of Science Equity, Access and Inclusion (EAI) Program.** Implementing EAI in the COS will require work at multiple levels. As a first action, the College of Science dean and leadership Team will create the following EAI structure:

Hire a full-time EAI program director** (EAI-PD) to support the coordination and implementation of the actions in support of the five goals of this DAP.
Establish a College of Science EAI Leadership Council** (EAI Council) with a charge to lead, facilitate and monitor the implementation of Embedding Equity, Access and Inclusion in all the units in the COS and report annually on progress to the college leadership. The EAI-PD will be a member of this council.
Create EAI committees in all units** in the College of Science, with representation on the EAI Council, to lead the implementation of the DAP at the unit level.
Create a EAI Council sub-committee on Gender Equity (GEC)** to address issues and improve outcomes for COS members with marginalized genders.
Create a EAI Council sub-committee on Equity Data Collection (EDCC)** to facilitate an ongoing process of data collection at multiple levels to understand inclusion and access, achievement and equity gaps, attrition and other issues faced by minoritized faculty, students and staff, to inform the adaptive implementation of the DAP.

1.2. Develop capacity for critical dialogue and leadership to guide organizational change.** The EAI Council will develop strategies for implementing interventions to bias at multiple levels of organization in the college – individual, relational, organizational, symbolic and systemic – to produce sustainable and effective change. This includes

Partnering with OID and other internal and external partners** to oversee the scheduling of learning opportunities for all members of the College Leadership Team (CLT) and members of the EAI Council, to grow a culture of dialogue to build productive communication and build trust.
As tasked by the council, unit EAI committees will be responsible for scheduling learning opportunities for all members of unit leadership to grow capacity for critical dialogue in their units.

1.3. Conduct a baseline data analysis.** To inform the adaptive implementation of actions in this DAP, the EDCC will conduct a baseline data analysis of college and unit level data using SP4.0 and OID metrics related to minoritized faculty, students and staff in the COS that includes:

Collecting data from the past five academic years** on (1) minoritized student admissions and enrollment, retention, attrition rates and graduation rates and grades in gateway courses; (2) hiring and recruitment, retention and attrition of minoritized tenured and tenure-track faculty, instructional, research and professional faculty and postdoctoral fellows; and (3) other data related to minoritized community members’ success to inform and support the actions in this DAP.
Collecting data on equity and achievement outcome gaps in the teaching, research, service and outreach missions of the college that are disaggregated by race, gender, disability, among other social identities and at the intersection of marginalized identities.

1.4. Track and report progress.** The EAI Council in collaboration with the EDCC, GEC and unit EAI committees will track and report annually on the progress of implementation of actions in this DAP. In collaboration with College of Science Marketing & Communications, this progress will be communicated to the college community as discussed in Goal 5. The EDCC will develop comparisons with other colleges at OSU as well as benchmark data with our peer institutions, by using and building on the data collected by OSU’s ADVANCE program as baseline data for tracking the status of women in science and working with OID and Institutional Research to obtain data for other indicators.