Diversity Action Plan

This Diversity Action Plan (PDF) presents 34 recommendations for action on issues of diversity and inclusion at IUP.

In particular, the President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion urges IUP leadership to move quickly on two key recommendations:

• First, to develop a mechanism for reporting and responding to incidents and resolving disputes that arise. The commission views this as the most basic and critical step in addressing the immediate needs of our faculty, staff, and especially our students.

• Second, to provide leadership to the university on matters of diversity and inclusion, we must restructure and centralize existing units and personnel, and add the human and financial resources necessary to create one centralized office.

These two priorities should be swiftly addressed. The other recommendations are of great importance and will be advanced through the leadership that will be established by a new office, with the expectation that the broader IUP community will be fully engaged.

Several themes emerge from the actions recommended in this plan, including the need to:

1. Develop and implement a protocol for early response or intervention in the university community when discriminatory incidents arise.

2. Establish multiple ways to report incidents that test the university community's resolve to enhance diversity and inclusion.

3. Develop and implement clear mechanisms for resolving disputes related to diversity and inclusion issues.

4. Invest additional resources and restructure or centralize existing units to enhance the leadership, visibility, collaboration, efficiency of, and access to diversity and inclusion resources.

5. Demonstrate IUP's commitment to diversity and inclusion by establishing a stronger and better coordinated web presence, by developing statements of commitment, and by crafting an IUP Pledge.

6. Recruit and sustain a diverse faculty, staff, and student body (by providing academic and other support to students, as outlined by the IUP Task Force on Undergraduate Retention/Persistence).

7. Engage members of the IUP community in cross-cultural activities and provide ongoing training that promotes a climate of civility and celebrates IUP's commitment to diversity and inclusion.

8. Restructure functions and traditions that promote diversity and inclusion (for example, by enriching the whole student experience through a more intentional and bolder delivery of the Liberal Studies curriculum).

Please download the Diversity Action Plan for the full recommendations of the commission.

Origins of the Commission: The Campus Climate Study

The President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion was appointed in the fall of 2016 to develop recommendations for action on issues of diversity and inclusion at IUP. The origins of this commission are noteworthy. In 2014, Dr. Driscoll commissioned IUP's Office of Social Equity to conduct a two-phase campus climate study to invite members of the university community to "weigh in on matters of inclusion and equity." The first phase of the study encouraged university constituents to complete an extensive electronic survey. The second phase of the study, led by two faculty members, was comprised of multiple focus groups and individual interviews with members of IUP's community. While the second phase of the campus climate study was underway, in December 2015, President Driscoll cited a growing sense of unease about "how we [i.e., the members of the IUP community] talk about and treat each other" and observed that "we have not risen to our shared values and have fallen short of being an inclusive, welcoming community of people who learn and grow together." President Driscoll expressed this concern about the university climate and exhorted us to transform the university into "the place and the people we know we should be and can be." The campus climate study was completed at the end of summer 2016 and the lessons from the study were widely disseminated across IUP in fall 2016.

The first recommendation of the authors of the campus climate study was to establish a task force to lead the effort to develop a Diversity Action Plan for the university. This recommendation reinforced the president's passion to challenge the university community to improve IUP's climate by reflecting on how to come together as a community, engage in the difficult discussions, and challenge ourselves to grow individually and as a collective.

It is within this context that, in October 2016, he announced the creation of the President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Driscoll charged this commission with:

1. Examining IUP's diversity and inclusion practices and their impact in the university

2. Recommending a vision that demonstrates an institutionalized, sustainable commitment to embodying the principles of diversity and inclusion

3. Recommending action steps to achieve this vision articulated in a Diversity Action Plan

Springing as it did from the results of the campus climate study, the commission was informed by the findings and recommendations of the study.

How the Recommendations Were Developed

IUP has developed, over the past five years, a healthy history of using a collaborative, mutually consultative approach to launching institutional projects. For example, soon after his arrival as President at IUP in July 2012, Dr. Michael Driscoll launched the Vision Project, and exhorted the university community to articulate a vision for IUP. The resulting IUP Vision Statement won the unanimous endorsement of the University Senate and was then approved by the Council of Trustees in November 2013. Following the development and adoption of the Vision Statement, the community was charged with the creation of a new strategic plan, which was also developed in a participatory fashion and was very well received. IUP's recent Middle States Re-Accreditation Self-Study was also conducted in a similarly participatory manner. Because the process was so open and widely participatory, the university community welcomed with pride and self-assurance the Middle States Accreditation Visiting Team during its February 2015 site visit.

It is in the context of this new tradition for initiating projects of high significance across the university community that the President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion adopted a similar method in the development of this Diversity Action Plan. To assure that its work is inclusive and transparent, the commission adopted a structure under which commission members led six subcommittees in the discussion, analysis, and development of recommendations pertaining to specific areas of focus selected by the commission. IUP students, faculty, staff, and administrators were invited to serve on the sub-committees. This invitation was met with an overwhelming response: over 100 volunteers offered to serve. Individuals who could not be assigned to any of the limited 60 sub-committee slots were urged to participate in the work of the commission by providing feedback directly to the commission. The commission and its sub-committees met regularly during the 2017 spring and fall semesters. The commission's immediate goals were:

1. To ignite progress around the issues of diversity and inclusion and to grapple with issues, and then propose and move IUP forward with recommendations in six identified areas

2. To acknowledge the contemporary accomplishments at IUP that advance diversity and inclusion (a list of these areas of progress, informed in part by the Director of Social Equity, LGBTQIA Support, and sister presidential commissions, is provided as an addendum to this document)

As the President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion worked towards achieving these goals, it hosted representatives from IUP's Office of Social Equity, the LGBTQ Commission, the IUP Commission on the Status of Women at IUP, and IUP's Women's and Gender Studies program. Commission and subcommittee members also attended student forums and programs triggered by a racist incident during the fall 2017 semester to hear directly about the needs and concerns of our current students, particularly student members of under-represented populations.

In December 2017, a draft version of this report was published. Between December 2017 and March 2018, the commission invited comments from the IUP community regarding this draft Diversity Action Plan. Each subcommittee reviewed feedback on its recommendations and incorporated that feedback into this document.

The development of these recommendations was undertaken with great care and consideration for the current national climate around issues of diversity and inclusion and for recent incidents at IUP that have challenged our community's desire to foster a nurturing, welcoming environment. In addition, the commission was mindful of the increasingly diverse populations that constitute our student body, now and in the future.

Having completed this Diversity Action Plan, the President's Commission on Diversity and Inclusion will promote and monitor continued progress and cultural change in diversity and inclusion at IUP. This Diversity Action Plan is intended to be fluid and will evolve as new initiatives are identified.