91ÊÓƵ

Inclusive Excellence Action Theme 2 (IEAT 2)

Recruit, Hire, and Retain a Diverse Workforce

IEAT 2 is continuously inventorying accomplishments and identifying opportunities to do better toward the goal of achieving racial and social justice across all divisions in recruiting, hiring, and retaining a diverse workforce in our faculty, staff, and administrator ranks. The Inclusive Excellence Action Plan (IEAP) was originally created by a team of staff, faculty, and students from across the University, with IEAT 2 calling for specific and ongoing work toward ensuring that policies and practices in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and evaluating employees are equity-minded, IE-intentional, and consistent with current research on best practices.

Institutionally Funded Initiatives:

DEIA Training for All Newly Hired & Existing Faculty & Staff  (IEAT 2.1)

In-Progress

Responsible divisions: BFA with DAA

    • Primary contact: Bill DeGraffenreid & Angela Portillo
    • Funded: $52,947
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: The results of the two Campus Climate surveys, the IEAP 2 recommendations, as well as long-standing numerous reports from faculty, strongly suggest there is demand for thoughtful university-wide and repeated DEIA efforts on campus that train all faculty, staff, and administrators. The goal of this IEAP Proposal on DEIA Train-the-Trainer is to provide training to as many faculty, staff, and administrators as possible during 2022-2023 academic year. This goal can be achieved by first providing the MBB DEIA Train-the-Trainer workshop and materials to selected T/TT faculty, Staff and Administrators, who then can in turn present some portion or all the content to the remaining faculty, staff, and administrators in their respective units. There will be a synchronous presentation as a kick-off by two MBB Master DEIA Trainers. The MBB Train-the-Trainer workshop provided to FASE resources [129 slides, (complete with facilitator notes), slides with interactive activities (e.g., blind spot, brain game), references, articles (e.g., microaggressions, cultural appropriation), videos (documentaries/resources for explaining exposure), etc.]. These resources will be the foundation for building the DEIA Training.

  • Status Report May 2023 : DEIA Training for All Newly Hired & Existing Faculty & Staff (, 121 KB)

    • 17 91ÊÓƵ administrators participated in two-day Train-the-Trainer workshop in Implicit Bias (December 10 & 11, 2020) called Moving Beyond Bias (MBB), designed specifically for the California State University (CSU) & University of California (UC) systems. MBB key learning outcomes of the trainings are:
      • Raising Awareness: This includes learning about personal biases and understanding how biases may influence behavior and decision making at the University.
      • Application to Organizational-Level Change: Participants will be able to draw a connection between social group biases (positive and negative) and the impact they have on university policies, procedures, and population-specific outcomes.
      • Tools and Strategies for Disrupting Bias: The training will introduce participants to tools and strategies for mitigating harmful bias in their functional area. They will learn how to change or disrupt attitudinal and procedural patterns that perpetuate multiple forms of biases.
      • Practice: Participants will receive ample opportunities to practice the tools and strategies for disrupting multiple forms of biases.
    • 10 Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, participated in a 5-hour MBB workshop (F’19)
    • 10 91ÊÓƵ Students, recommended from DSA, participated in a 5-hour workshop (F’19)

Develop and Implement a Campuswide Policy on Mandatory Equity Advocate Training and Ensure Inclusion of an Equity Advocate on all Search Committees (IEAT 2.2 and 2.3)

In-Progress

Responsible divisions: DAA with BFA

    • Primary contact: Bill DeGraffenreid and Angela Portillo
    • Funded: $31,989
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: Build on the work begun in Academic Affairs that provides Equity Advocate Training for faculty and requires the presence of an Equity Advocate on all search committees, incorporating this approach to incorporating the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access into hiring processes across all divisions.

  • Status Report May 2025 - Faculty Equity Advocate Program AY2024-2025 Final Report (, 141KB)

    Status Report Spring 2024 - Equity Advocate Training / Expansion (, 627KB)

    Status Report Fall 2023 - Develop and Implement a Campuswide Policy on Mandatory Equity Advocate Training and Ensure Inclusion of an Equity Advocate on all Search Committees   ()

    Status Report May 2023 - Equity Advocate Training / Expansion (, 128KB)

    Status Report November 2022 - Mandatory Equity Advocate Training (, 279KB)

    Through the IEAT/IEAP process, we are working to create a culture of DEIA praxis -- that is, the ongoing cycle of reflection and action -- with IEATs serving as the reflection arm and IEAPs serving as the action arm of this work. Toward that end, status reports are submitted by IEAP Initiative Leads and read by members of Inclusive Excellence Action Teams (IEATs) and by the President's Advisory Council on Inclusive Excellence (PACIE) who will support the IEAP Initiative Leads by responding to formative assessment questions posed in their status report. 

    • Faculty Affairs, Success and Equity (FASE) developed the Faculty Equity Advocate Program (FEAP) in Fall 2020. During Spring 2021, twenty-seven CI faculty who volunteered to be part of the inaugural FEAP, received 9+ hours of training from the Luna Jiménez Institute for Social Transformation (LJIST) entitled Ending Racism Together (a virtual workshop). Participants of the Ending Racism Together Virtual Workshop:
      • Understood the historical roots, narratives, hurts, and justifications that led to the social construction of “race
      • Dismantled the false belief in racial hierarchy as a catalyst to initiate and sustain a racial healing practice
      • Released despair, helplessness, panic, exhaustion, shame, guilt, and/or numbness as we face the impacts of racism on us, our families, and the world
      • Experienced the power of healing in community using LJIST’s core listening practice
      • Deepened their understanding of LJIST’s core theory of social transformation and its application to ending racism
    • FEAP Equity Advocate Workshops are intended to support participants intended to support participants in going beyond unconscious bias training to build capacity among faculty and staff to actively advocate for racial equity. In other words, to provide tools faculty and staff can use to challenge racial inequity and build equitable processes. Advocacy work can only go as far as the people driving it — the advocates.
    • FASE has provided 1-hour Equity Advocate Workshops (Sp’21 and F’21) to all Equity Advocates (EA) serving on a Discipline Search Committee (DSC). These EAs also attend another 1-hour workshop on Equity-Minded Recruitment Best Practices designed for the DSCs.

Divisionally Funded Initiatives

Develop Campus-Wide Policies that Include Evidence-Based Equity-Minded Hiring Practices (IEAT 2.4)

Not Yet Started

Responsible division: DAA with BFA

    • Primary contact: Bill DeGraffenreid
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: Ensure that existing policies governing hiring practices for faculty, staff, and administrators reference and require evidence-based, equity-minded best practices. If needed, develop new policies to ensure that the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are embedded in all recruitment, hiring, and retention practices at 91ÊÓƵ.
    • TBD

Mission Center Support for Faculty and Staff Development (IEAT 2.5)

In-Progress

Responsible division: DAA

    • Primary contacts: Veronica Guerrero, Kaia Tollefson
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: The Mission Center Support initiative is intended to highlight and honor the values that built our institution within the overarching context of our organizational development and doing so in fresh, innovative, and forward-thinking ways. This involves the development and evolution of our mission pillars and mission-based centers in 2021 and beyond, while concurrently valuing the history of the centers’ work since 2002.

  • Status Report Spring 2024 - Course-Level Development of DEI Learning Activities (, 1.3M)

    Status Report May 2023 - 91ÊÓƵ Mission Center Presidential Funding (, 1,126KB)

    Status Reports November 2022
    A Service-Learning Approach to Teaching Ethnic Studies (, 217KB)
    CME Legacy Mural (, 248KB)
    CIS Report (, 237KB)
    Increasing Student Access to Study Abroad and Faculty Development for Short-term Study Abroad Experiences  (, 282KB)

    Through the IEAT/IEAP process, we are working to create a culture of DEIA praxis -- that is, the ongoing cycle of reflection and action -- with IEATs serving as the reflection arm and IEAPs serving as the action arm of this work. Toward that end, status reports are submitted by IEAP Initiative Leads and read by members of Inclusive Excellence Action Teams (IEATs) and by the President's Advisory Council on Inclusive Excellence (PACIE) who will support the IEAP Initiative Leads by responding to formative assessment questions posed in their status report. 

    • In Summer 2022, President Yao made $100K in one-time funding available to the Mission-Based Centers, inviting proposals from Center Directors for projects designed to increase faculty, staff, and student engagement with our centers and to firmly align this work with our institutional and presidential priorities moving forward. More specifically, this funding was intended to facilitate programming that contributes to improved student success metrics and addresses our most critical needs in relation to our GI2025 efforts (e.g., year 1 to year 2 retention for FTFT; increasing credit completion in the first year; decreasing DFW rates in high enrolled courses; addressing administrative barriers; promoting holistic student development; etc.).

Staff and MPP Hiring Handbook (IEAT 2.6)

Not Yet Started

Responsible division: BFA

    • Primary contact: Angela Portillo
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: Develop a staff and administrator hiring handbook grounded in equity-minded hiring practices, designed to: (1) ensure that the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are embedded in all recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies, (2) promote sustainability as an integral part of University planning and operational activities, and (3) continue to pursue efficiency and assess effectiveness in administrative services and systems.
    • TBD

Faculty Hiring Handbook (IEAT 2.7)

In-Progress

Responsible division: DAA

    • Primary contact: Bill DeGraffenreid
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: Develop a Faculty Hiring Handbook grounded in equity-minded hiring practices, designed to: (1) ensure that the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are embedded in all recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies, (2) ensure the continued expansion of diverse faculty and staff to advance academic excellence and student success, (3) improve graduation rates for students from historically underserved populations, and (4) promote sustainability as an integral part of University planning and operational activities.
    • TBD

DEIA Criteria in Academic Program Mission and Vision (IEAT 2.8)

Not Yet Started

    • Contact: Lina Neto
    • OVERVIEW AND PURPOSE: For our collective DEIA vision to take root, it must be incorporated into the institutional culture and day-to-day procedures at 91ÊÓƵ – especially in the operation of the academic programs that represent the core of our work. While faculty support DEIA work, unless it is integrated into the central documents and practices of the programs, it will not be as effective as it could be. Some of those documents and practices include the mission and vision statements, the policies (e.g., bylaws and RTP documents), and throughout the curricula themselves. Having that attention to DEIA in formal documents is essential to translating general support for DEIA work into concrete progress.
    • TBD
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