Bates College
PA-7: Support for Underrepresented Groups
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
3.00 / 3.00 |
Tom
Twist Sustainability Manager Facilities |
Does the institution have a publicly posted non-discrimination statement? :
The non-discrimination statement, including the website URL where the policy is publicly accessible:
Bates College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity and providing an educational and work environment free from discrimination. The college prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff. Bates College adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations.
All Bates College faculty, staff, students, contractors, consultants, and volunteers are responsible for understanding and complying with the Non-Discrimination Policy.
The college is dedicated to ensuring access, fairness and equity for all persons in its educational programs, related activities and employment, including those groups who have faced historical barriers to full and fair integration and participation. Bates College maintains a continuing commitment to identify and eliminate discriminatory practices in every phase of college operations.
The Director of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance, Gwen Lexow, coordinates the college’s efforts to comply with any and all federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of one or more of the protected characteristics listed above. This includes coordinating its efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as amended (“Title IX”). Title IX prohibits discrimination in educational programs on the basis of sex. Prohibited sex discrimination includes sexual harassment and sexual misconduct (including sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking) as defined by the college’s policies.
Inquiries concerning the college’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations (such as Title VII, Title IX, ADA/Section 504, and Maine Human Rights Act), and complaints may be directed to Gwen Lexow, Director of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance, Lane Hall 202A.
Non-Retaliation
Retaliation against an individual who has raised claims of illegal discrimination or has cooperated with an investigation of such claims is prohibited. An individual who retaliates against someone who has reported a claim of illegal discrimination in good faith is subject to discipline up to and including termination of employment and/or dismissal from the college.
Everyone is different; at Bates, we embrace and learn from that difference.
At Bates, we acknowledge and celebrate the plurality of identities, social positions, cultural perspectives and individual abilities that contribute to human difference. We believe in the emancipating potential of education to help all members of our community promote, respect and embrace diversity – broadly defined – and to preserve and advocate for human dignity. As we avow in the Bates mission statement, “With ardor and devotion — Amore ac Studio — we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action” to prepare leaders who are “sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world.”
https://www.bates.edu/here-to-help/policies/non-discrimination-policy-statement/
Does the institution have a discrimination response protocol or committee (sometimes called a bias response team)?:
A brief description of the institution’s discrimination response protocol or team:
As the Director of Title IX and Civil Rights Compliance, Gwen Lexow will work with individuals to investigate and resolve any incidents of bias, discrimination, or harassment. The college encourages individuals to report all incidents of bias and takes all reports seriously. Reporting can assist the college in assessing patterns and addressing behaviors that are antithetical to our community values. Reports may be resolved through informal and formal means, depending on the nature of the incident and considering the needs and desires of the reporting party. Individuals who report incidents will not be compelled to participate in any formal action. Individual privacy and agency are important aspects of our resolution process.
The college follows procedures that are consistent with state and federal law. These procedures include the preparation of annual disclosure of crime statistics in The Bates Annual Security Report. In addition, all incidents that may be considered hate crimes must be forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office.
Does the institution have programs specifically designed to recruit students from underrepresented groups?:
Does the institution have programs specifically designed to recruit academic staff from underrepresented groups?:
Does the institution have programs designed specifically to recruit non-academic staff from underrepresented groups?:
A brief description of the institution’s programs to recruit students, academic staff, and/or non-academic staff from underrepresented groups:
The emerging scholars program is a collaboration between the Dean of Faculty’s office, the Office of Equity and Inclusion along with funds from the Mellon Foundation. The program provides financial support to departments and programs to bring historically underrepresented and marginalized scholars to Bates College to participate in a variety of academic and student development activities. The emerging scholars program is a collaboration between the offices of the Dean of Faculty and the Vice President of Equity and Inclusion.
The chief goals of the program are: to introduce Bates faculty and undergraduate students to historically underrepresented and marginalized scholars and the fields and areas of study those scholars occupy, to broaden our institutional networks, to catalyze and normalize the inclusion of scholars from historically underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds in the intellectual life of departments and programs, and to help students from historically underrepresented and marginalized backgrounds imagine Bates College and Higher Education as a place they can persist and thrive.
https://www.bates.edu/equity-inclusion/emerging-scholars-program/
We also have a Bobcat First program, where first generation students are recruited to attend our school.
The Bobcat First! Program seeks to foster a greater sense of well-being, belonging, and self-empowerment among first generation to college students. Through a pre-orientation program, workshops, co-curricular activities, and alumni events, first-year students will build strong connections with one another, faculty, and staff. For parents, programs are offered to build a community of support.
The Bobcat First! Program is based on an opt-in cohort model, where students develop community through social and educational experiences.
https://www.bates.edu/oie/bobcat-first/
The five-year, $1 million Mellon Diversity and Faculty Renewal grant will support a four-part strategy to put more promising candidates from underrepresented groups on the tenure track at Bates during the next five years, as well as to build the college’s long-term capacity for recruiting superior faculty from all walks of life.
From our HR team -
As a side note, under Maine law, we are not allowed to preferentially hire staff and faculty of underrepresented groups, but we do make sure our recruitment of candidates from underrepresented groups is robust.
Recruiting and Retaining Talented Faculty
Our Ongoing Work:
Continued Commitment to Recruiting Talented Faculty: Tenure Track Faculty Hiring.
Because of an emphasis on creating inclusive search processes that result in diverse applicant pools, the demographics of our tenure track faculty, those faculty who are appointed to long term positions at Bates, have changed since the fall of 2012 with the percentage of faculty of color rising from less than 20% to more than 26% in that time. The bulk of this change happened with those faculty arriving at Bates beginning in the fall of 2015. Over the previous three falls (2012, 2013, and 2014), 1 of the 15 new arrivals was BIPOC. Beginning with that 2015 fall, of the 44 faculty hired 21 have been BIPOC, including 6 of 9 faculty hired for the fall of 2020.
With continued improvement in the processes themselves as well as their execution, we anticipate that the above trend will continue and hope to have 30% BIPOC faculty by 2025 (a net addition of 7 BIPOC faculty after the fall of 2020) and 35% (a net addition of another 7 faculty) by 2030. Changing the demographics of our faculty will improve our alignment with our stated values, position our faculty to better reflect the demography of our student body as it changes in the coming years, and keep our curricula relevant in terms of bringing us the cutting edge of scholarship in the academy.
Growing Efforts to Support our Faculty: Faculty Mentoring:
In the summer of 2018, Bates purchased an institutional membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). The center provides third party mentoring services designed to help faculty succeed in the academy. Faculty gain access to these materials through online resources and there is potential for them to attend in-person workshops as well.
In the past three years, Bates has begun to change how its provides mentoring to its faculty. Until now the dominant model has been an apprenticeship model with very little structure or support from the institution. This approach leaves those faculty unable to find compatible mentors without advocates and guidance as they construct their career at Bates. In the 2020-21 academic year, Associate Dean of the Faculty Krista Aronson has brought support, intention, and structure to the program, and the lessons learned from these initial changes will inform further development in the coming years.
At the same time, the Faculty Personnel Committee is developing a “Guide to Good Practice” to act as a guide to mentors and candidates alike for faculty reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes. Aimed at both mentors and mentees, this guide will have the goal of explaining the steps of these important processes in a faculty career. It will be available in the fall of 2023.
Beginning in the fall of 2021, the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the Faculty Personnel Committee will begin work with academic units to create career profiles for candidates in each academic unit. Career profiles provide necessary discipline-specific guidance to faculty candidates. Through their creation, departments and programs can provide specific recommendations to candidates about the types of work and activities needed to thrive in the Bates community and for success in reappointment, tenure and promotion at Bates. Due to the varied nature of faculty work and different conventions in various disciplines, these profiles will be different for each unit.
All of these items are components of a robust mentoring program designed to illuminate and remove traditional barriers to success for BIPOC faculty in the academy. With continued attention and progress, the program will improve Bates support and development of its faculty.
New Tenure and Promotion Criteria.
The Tenure and Promotion Review Committee (TPRC) worked through the 2019-20 academic year to clarify Bates’ reappointment, tenure and promotion criteria and practices. In the winter of 2021, the Bates faculty approved the TPRC’s proposed, substantive changes to Bates’ criteria for reappointment, tenure, and promotion that bring them in line with the current practices. The changes clarify the expectations around governance and engagement work from faculty, clarify the types of evidence that will be considered for teaching, and rephrase the criteria for professional achievement. Emphasizing the holistic nature of faculty work, the new criteria acknowledge the arc of faculty careers while also containing professional development requirements and the expectation that faculty use of inclusive teaching practices.
These new criteria pair with a reorganization of the section of the faculty handbook describing the reappointment, tenure, and promotion processes that will bring clarity for candidates and their mentors. Taken together these changes will represent the removal of a major barrier for faculty in lectureships and tenure track lines. The faculty handbook can be viewed from the page governance page on the DOF website.
Does the institution have mentoring, counseling, peer support, academic support, or other programs designed specifically to support students from underrepresented groups on campus?:
Does the institution have mentoring, counseling, peer support or other programs designed specifically to support academic staff from underrepresented groups on campus?:
Does the institution have mentoring, counseling, peer support or other programs to support non-academic staff from underrepresented groups on campus?:
A brief description of the institution’s programs designed specifically to support students, academic staff, and/or non-academic staff from underrepresented groups:
The Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI) is an institutional partner in the advancement of the college’s commitment to inclusive excellence and educational justice. Through close collaboration with the campus community, the OEI works to create a welcoming, inclusive, physically safe, and appreciative educational experience for all constituents.
The OEI is engaged in the work of cultivating a culture of equity, inclusion, access and freedom from domestic violence and sexual assault as excellence through our work with Title IX, Accessible Education, Human Resources, Admissions, Advancement, Alumni Engagement, Student Affairs, Campus Activities, The Office of Intercultural Education, Athletics, Academic Affairs, Curricular Design, Human Resources, New Employee Recruitment/Hiring/Retention, Security, Facilities, Campus Events and Dining, Lewiston Police Department, Purposeful Work, International Programs and more…
The OEI is committed to training and development of all campus community members. As a thought leader in our racial and equity work, the OEI is supporting faculty and staff as they move through the first stages of racial equity training, members from the office helped lead the first year Centering Racial Equity workshop for the class of 2023 and will be developing a strategic plan for training and workforce development moving forward.
Mission Statement of Bates College
Since 1855, Bates College has been dedicated to the emancipating potential of the liberal arts. Bates educates the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. With ardor and devotion — Amore ac Studio — we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action. Preparing leaders sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world, Bates is a college for coming times.
Living the Legacy of Inclusive Excellence
Since its founding in 1855 by Maine free will baptists who were involved in the abolitionist movement, Bates has welcomed students from diverse racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds. Bates was, and is, committed to the principles of social justice, equity, and freedom.
Great efforts are ongoing in designing and perpetuating the institution to ensure that no qualified student will be turned away because they could not afford the cost of a Bates education. From the beginning, Bates welcomed young people from Maine farms and factory towns, former slaves, and immigrants. The leadership at Bates College is committed to living up to the aspirations of our founding. This is work is never done and takes a fully engaged and willing community.
Along with racial equity training for faculty, staff, students and senior administrators, the college has hired their first Vice President of Equity and Inclusion to help frame the next iteration of this work as a senior administrator. The VPEI will build on the good work of colleagues, previous and current, in meeting the every changing and growing diversity of needs in the campus community.
Bates College continues to assure that all organizations on campus are open to everyone along with the continual review and adjustment of academic, social, student, staff and communal programming and educational spaces.
Bates is a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute consortium, which seeks inclusive education of underrepresented groups:
Inclusive Excellence
The goal of our program is for any student at Bates who is interested in STEM to be provided with an inclusive curriculum, support structures, and dedicated faculty and staff mentors to ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive. We are especially committed to working for an equitable and inclusive learning environment for STEM interested students from historically marginalized or minoritized backgrounds that will promote their success in STEM.
https://www.bates.edu/dof/hhmi-inclusive-excellence/
https://www.bates.edu/dof/equity-and-inclusion-work/
Bates has an Employees of Color working group that offers support and community for our staff and faculty of color.
Does the institution have training and development programs, teaching fellowships and/or other programs that specifically aim to support and prepare students from underrepresented groups for careers as faculty members?:
A brief description of the institution’s programs to support and prepare students from underrepresented groups for careers as faculty members:
Bates is a member of the Creating Connections Consortium—C3—which brings together liberal arts colleges with diversity officers (LADO colleges) with leading research universities to help develop the next generation of professors and scholars. The C3 Undergraduate Fellowships program provides graduate-level research experience as well as mentoring toward applying to and succeeding in graduate school.
Faculty and staff are committed to the success of students interested in STEM. We are working to develop internal expertise, through workshops, learning groups, communities of practice, and attendance at external conferences in inclusive pedagogical practices and in an understanding of critical race theory and anti-racist approaches.
Examples of Activities:
Social Justice and Racial Equity Workshop (3 days) led by Heather Hackman of Hackman Consulting (Fall 2018)
Context Diversity Workshop led by Roberto Ibarra and Gary Weissmann (Friday, September 13th, from 4 to 6pm, in Carnegie 339)
Structure Matters-21 Teaching Strategies to Promote Student Engagement and Cultivate Classroom Equity Workshop led by Kimberly Tanner (Fall 2019)
Inclusive Pedagogy Workshop led by Bryan Dewsbury (planned Winter 2020)
STEM Scholars Cohort/Mentoring Learning Community led by John Smedley and April Hill (Winter 2019)
Supporting Faculty development through supporting attendance at External Workshops and Institutes
Course Based Research Experience workshops for faculty (Five workshops led by April Hill and Bev Johnson, from February through July, 2019).
Does the institution produce a publicly accessible inventory of gender-neutral bathrooms on campus?:
Does the institution offer housing options to accommodate the special needs of transgender and transitioning students?:
Website URL where information about the institution’s support for underrepresented groups is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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