DEM DEI Focus Group Mid-Year Report

With half of 2021 behind us, the Divisional Service Team and DEI Focus Group wanted to share what we’ve been up to in our monthly meetings. A lot has happened this past year so if you’re not involved with these groups you may be wondering – what in the world are the Divisional Service Team and DEI Focus Groups? The DEI Focus Group was formed this year to align Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with other strategic priorities within DEM. The current DEI Focus Group is a cohort of fifteen individuals with members from all of the offices across the Division that represent the spectra of our diverse workforce. You may recall that we recruited folks to participate in the DEI Focus Group in November and December of last year. We plan to have a different cohort each calendar year and will begin recruiting for 2022 in November. The Divisional Service Team on the other hand is comprised of a member from each department who is tasked with ensuring the projects and priorities requested by the DEM Directors are accomplished and then integrated into each department. This group was selected due to their role in each department. The Divisional Service Team runs each monthly DEI Focus Group meeting and brings a topic or policy/procedure to discuss and the DEI Focus Group shares their perspectives, lived experiences, and ideas related to the topic or policy/procedure. The first two projects that the DEI Focus Group and the Divisional Service Team were asked to address were:

• designing a diversity and social justice curriculum for all DEM team members; and
• creating a recruitment and onboarding process designed to attract, grow, and strengthen the diversity of our team.

In our monthly meetings so far, the DEI Focus Group has assisted in the:

• development of a Logic Model that will be used to create and assess the diversity and social justice curriculum that will be designed for DEM. The Logic Model is a living document that will be adjusted as the curriculum is developed. If you’re interested in learning more about Logic Models, checkout out the Division of Extension’s materials on them here.
• brainstorming of how DEM should respond to media coverage of injustice and violence towards marginalized communities with particular attention to how DEM can:
  • best support one another,
  • acknowledge the events that impact us, and
  • ensure that our actions speak louder than our words.
• compilation of different activities, groups, and trainings offered across campus and in the community that could be utilized or imitated in DEM’s diversity and social justice curriculum.
• initial proposal to the DEM Directors on how DEM can ensure that the time necessary for a diversity and social justice curriculum are embedded into the culture of DEM.

Have thoughts on any of this work that you’d like to share with the Divisional Service Team? Share your thoughts with us via this Qualtrics survey. Also, keep your eyes open for another update from this group in the September DEM Updates Newsletter. If you have any questions about what the DEI Focus Group is working on, feel free to reach out to a member of the Divisional Service Team:

• Nancy Hoffman, Senior Associate Director for Administration & Engagement, Office of Admissions & Recruitment
• Lo Klink, Associate Director for Special Awards & Student Engagement, Office of Student Financial Aid
• Audrey Peek, Assistant Director of SSTAR Lab, Office of Student Financial Aid
• Angie Rieves, Special Projects Manager, Office of the Registrar
• Terry Ruzicka, Deputy Vice Provost and Chief of Staff, Division of Enrollment Management
• Cori Splain, Director for Strategic Initiatives & Engagement, Division of Enrollment Management