Developing an inclusive excellence ecosystem
The Office of Inclusive Excellence is continuing its comprehensive listening tour that has included meeting with over 60 internal and external constituents and holding 8 faculty, staff, and student listening sessions on the main and downtown campuses. The office has delivered over 20 presentations to faculty, staff and students including the Deans Council, the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, and the Student Government Association, defining Inclusive Excellence and communicating the elements that make up the Inclusive Excellence Ecosystem.
The office has also collaborated with the Office of the Provost to develop a recruitment program designed to increase the diversity of the faculty.
Carolyn Ellis and Norma Guerra are Co-Charing the Inclusive Excellence Advisory Board with the purpose to address strategic issues of critical importance to develop and maintain an inclusive campus at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). To this end, they have been meeting to discuss and develop board operations and develop a strategy to market and populate the board as well as develop agendas for the initial committee activities. This is a “living” Board with cross campus representation of faculty, staff and students, tasked with identifying challenges, taking appropriate action, and providing recommendations for addressing those challenges to senior leadership.
The board has launched three committees, cultural intelligence, campus climate, and recruitment and retention, designed to advance Inclusive Excellence at UTSA. The Cultural Committee is collaborated with other university areas as well as Everfi to design an on-line professional development initiative on Diversity and Inclusion and Managing Bias. This initiative is designed to serve as a knowledge baseline to increase the cultural intelligence of UTSA. The Targeted implementation date is October 2019.
The Campus Climate Committee is in the preliminary stages of review survey instruments and developing processes to execute a campus climate survey. Targeted survey date is Fall 2019.
The Recruitment and Retention Committee is beginning its work on identify recruitment and retention resources and developing strategies to promote inclusivity in the recruitment and retention of our faculty.
