Overall Rating Silver - expired
Overall Score 51.71
Liaison Jeffrey Severin
Submission Date July 17, 2015
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.0

University of Kansas
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Kim Criner
Education & Outreach Coordinator
Center for Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have a diversity and equity committee, office, and/or officer tasked by the administration or governing body to advise on and implement policies, programs, and trainings related to diversity and equity on campus?:
Yes

Does the committee, office and/or officer focus on one or both of the following?:
Yes or No
Student diversity and equity Yes
Employee diversity and equity Yes

A brief description of the diversity and equity committee, office and/or officer, including purview and activities:

A formalized Diversity Advisory Council was established in fall 2011. The group, made up of Deans, Associate, or Assistant Deans or their designees, is currently working on a framework for KU that will become part of the institution's planning document. When completed, the goal will be to have each academic unit on campus use that framework to develop their own specific diversity plans.


The full-time equivalent of people employed in the diversity and equity office:
14

The website URL where information about the diversity and equity committee, office and/or officer is available:
Does the institution make cultural competence trainings and activities available to all members of the following groups?:
Yes or No
Students Yes
Staff Yes
Faculty Yes
Administrators Yes

A brief description of the cultural competence trainings and activities:

For Students:
The Student Involvement & Leadership Center provides events, programming and training regarding issues of gender and sexuality: http://silc.ku.edu/sgd.

The Office of Multicultural Affairs offers a three-day diversity retreat, encouraging students to foster respect and understanding at the university, known as Colors of KU: http://oma.ku.edu/colors-ku. OMA also provides academic enrichment opportunities, scholarships and other support for individuals from underrepresented populations making the transition into college: http://oma.ku.edu/academic-enrichment-programs-0

For Employees:
Training offered by the Human Resources and Equal Opportunity Department includes "Diversity In The Workplace", which helps faculty and staff understand the diversity of the world we live and work in and learn how we can recognize and appreciate different ideas, experiences and skills of others to have a positive impact on work place success.

A collaboration between the Office of Diversity and Equity, faculty from the School of Business and the Department of Theatre, and staff from HR/EO Learning & Development resulted in "Difficult Discussions", is a spin-off of a national model (Difficult Dialogues) that addresses the increasing polarization of our society and the need to deal more effectively with breakdowns in civil discourse; specifically in higher education. The overall goal is to create safer places for the free exchange of ideas, and to become more inclusive of voices and ways of knowing that have been absent, unpopular, excluded, or oppressed. Participants learn and practice effective listening and communication strategies and participate in an Interactive Theatre experience.

HR/EO includes aspects of cultural competence training in other offerings, and additional opportunities are available through the Office of Multicultural Affairs.


The website URL where information about the cultural competence trainings is available:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Websites for KU's equity programs are below:
http://oma.ku.edu
https://emilytaylorcenter.ku.edu/

Staff count includes Diversity & Equity, OMA, & Emily Taylor, with identified student workers at .25 FTE, grad students at .5.


Websites for KU's equity programs are below:
http://oma.ku.edu
https://emilytaylorcenter.ku.edu/

Staff count includes Diversity & Equity, OMA, & Emily Taylor, with identified student workers at .25 FTE, grad students at .5.

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