What’s happening out there?

Recorded at the 2023 AACRAO Annual Meeting, Portia, Tashana, and Ingrid asked AACRAO members to take the mic and share what work is being done at their institutions and offices to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. There’s so much good work happening out there! If you’d like to highlight some good work, send us an email at heard@aacrao.org so we can feature it on a future pod. 

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You're listening to her higher education and real diversity, a podcast sponsored by Acro. Hi Acro Community. Welcome to another episode of HD. In this special episode recorded at the Acro annual meeting, we asked attendees to share what work is happening at their institutions or offices to support diversity, equity and inclusion. And we asked a final question with a very special guest about what gives them help. We want to thank everyone who took the time to speak with us and make this episode possible and we hope that you find it as inspiring and energizing as we did. All right, let's get started. I'm Monique Snowden and I am the Senior Vice Chancellor for Strategic Enrollment and student success at the University of Colorado Denver. And can you share a little bit about DE I initiatives at your institution? Yeah. Um First of all, we have a strategic plan that was put in place when our chancellor came in 2020 during the Pande pandemic. And the first uh strategic goal is to be an equity serving institution. And some people have asked us, what does that mean? You know, because we hear about Hispanic serving institution minority serving institution. But what does it mean to be an equity serving institution with no qualifier in front of it? And so that means for us that everything that we do as an institution needs to be viewed from an equity lens, right? That's purchasing, we always talk about admissions students and things like that, but often we don't get down to the workings of an institution and think about how diversity equity and inclusion touches everything should touch everything, right? And how that would make it much easier for those who work in academic and enrollment services to be able to carry um what needs to be done around the goals for diversity equity inclusion. If everyone in the institution are groundskeepers, what we talk about in sem right to our chancellor and everyone in between and below and above that being in our board of Regents and that being in our community partners and collaborators to know that we as an institution value, diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, right? And when we start talking about what it means to feel like you belong, right? It really is a combination of all those things working together. And so I always say that the terms all together means something, but each one of them individually means something distinct and how we enact that in our day to day jobs and as leaders um becomes the difference between we being an institution that just simply says we wanna get um a gold star or we want to be the gold standard for what it means to truly see, hear and experience those constituencies for what they come with different assets and to move away from deficit framings of thinking and enacting of institution, Mike Drop. Thank you so much. I love that. I'm Ramiro Hernandez Junior and I am from the University of Texas at Austin, specifically the Dell Medical School. And can you talk to us about any DE I initiatives happening at your institution or things you'd like to see or even involved with? Of course, as a whole, the University of Texas at Austin has a variety of different associations for both um whether it's uh black individuals, Hispanics or also the LGBT Q Plus Association, uh which are very pronounced and active associations in the institution. And um before UT Austin, I was with the University of Texas at San Antonio. And they were really the ones who gave me that background of understanding that these associations belong in higher education and they really do make an impact. And so when I transitioned over to UT Austin, it was something that I felt I needed to find right away before anything else as a new employer. That's what I wanted to find to ensure that I was entrenched in what matters most, especially in these current times. And as the d medical School, we also have our very own assistant dean for DE I initiatives. And I think that's very imperative, especially for health care because that is one of the main sectors that suffers and that also needs the most advocacy for individuals. That's amazing. Can you talk about some of the things that you-- been involved in or interested in exploring? So-- my hometown is Laredo Texas. It's a predominantly Hispanic city and it's right on the border with Nuevo, Laredo Mexico. And it's where I grew up, I was there until I was 26 years old. And as a member of the LGBT Q community, it, it was very important to start an association that advocated that. So we started what is called the Gateway City Pride. And I was on the founding board of directors for that and it's slowly been taking off, but just always trying to advance any kind of efforts that support that community and also just bringing more light to the, the distinct um like, I guess the distinct issues that we have in our community that, you know, still allow us to be one of a member of the city. But also underscore why it is what we're doing. That's awesome. That's unbelievable. And you're a first time attendee. How's the been-- for you so far?-- Oh,-- my-- goodness. I love it. I love it. I am just immersed with so many different people backgrounds. Texas is great to be in. So t again, is something that is just so has been foundational for my career. This is going into my ninth year in higher education and ARO has been just amazing. That is wonderful. I am so happy to know you and meet you as we follow the podcast and give us suggestions and come back sometime. Thank you. I am Vanessa Jackson. My institution is Campbell Law School in Raleigh, North Carolina.-- And what do you do there?-- So I'm the assistant registrar. Ok. And can you tell me a little bit about DE I initiatives happening at your institution? So initially, you know, as I stated before, um we, I just got there about six months ago, but they have um previously had brought someone in to evaluate our um de I the things that we might be lacking because some of the students as well as faculty, you know, fell outside of the actual community itself. OK. And so in doing so the men come back and had sessions with both the staff, the students and then later on the faculty as well just to get the feedback um and to give us information about what he found out and things that we could implement to change what was going on. I think one of the biggest issues currently that is facing Campbell is their identity crisis. They are a Christian school. However, you know, they are trying to incorporate ways in which they can, you know, include um all people and make people feel welcome. And uh I think overall, there's been a struggle with that because of our Christian identity. There are still some groups who feel they are the minority voice and therefore they are not included in what they might, you know, see overall as a part of the university. Thank you so much for taking time to talk to me. My name is Christy Wold mccormick. I'm the Assistant Vice Provost in University Registrar at the University of Colorado Boulder and I'm the president elect of AC R. Yes, you are. And can you tell me about DE I initiatives happening at your campus or office or community? Yes. Um Well, of course, an institution like our size has a dedicated office with a lot of initiatives and priorities around DE I. So I'll focus a little bit more on our office. And oh, a few years ago, we formed AD E I committee first as part of enrollment management, but then our office is actually no longer in enrollment management. So we have our own office of the Registrar DE I committee and we've been working with a uh consultant in our, we call it Odyssey. It's the office of Diversity Equity and Community Engagement to help us develop a strategic plan around diversity initiatives for our office. And so we just had a meeting a couple of weeks ago, maybe not even. And we've really, and I'm letting this be somewhat organic from my team to help own this. But of course, me there to support and cheer and advocate and, and provide the resources and means and help, help ensure that what they identify as priorities get accomplished. And so some of the things that we are focusing on as AD E I um committee for our office are going to be on our hiring, making sure that we can recruit and hire a more diverse uh workforce in our office so that we can start beginning those steps of even enhancing what we've been trying to do in terms of creating an inclusive environment. But then also really looking at um cultivating more of a community, a community of um inclusiveness and belonging through a variety of means. So those are the two things that we've prioritized. It's a lot of good work, but it's good work. Yeah. Thanks Christy. Thank you, my friend. Can you tell everybody who you are and what you do and where you do it-- first? I love sitting next to you right now.-- I-- was sitting-- next to you too. My name is Becky Marks Keo. I am our senior associate registrar at Michigan State University. My pronouns are she her? And uh one of the major things that we're working on at Michigan State is a new name, gender pronoun policy. Uh The biggest pieces are it expands more options for students for gender uh and pronouns. We don't have a singular ID management system at Michigan State. So a huge work group has been put together to understand where all of these changes need to be made. Hr our uh sis things like that, all of our forms. Uh but the the actually the biggest changes with our name policy, we currently have legal name and preferred name. We will be changing that to legal name and name. So it's going to be a big shift in even customer service when we're talking to students. Uh we will need to have unit policies of when are we going to use legal name and when are we going to use name? I like that. Michigan State is formalizing this through AD E I work group that's who's leading the charge on this and they're centralizing the policy. It's not just in the office of the Registrar, they, it'll be more of a Michigan State policy and we'll have our own unit policies and, and we're using acro data to say, I can't remember the exact numbers, but it's like 60 something percent of institutions responding to a survey in 2020 said that on the transcript, they would only use legal name uh or it was and I might not be right on that data. So look it up uh or that you can use name on diploma. So we're using that data to-- tell us what, what maybe we should be doing what's best-- practice.-- That is awesome, Becky. Thank you for sharing that. Hi.-- My name is Pinia to Janno.-- I am uh the director of the graduate admissions office at the University of-- Idaho. And can you tell me about de I initiatives happening at your institution? Um Well, um I think they're a little more upfront lately. Um Of course, I'm only focusing on the graduate admissions office. Um I know that some application processes um for graduate programs have um a diversity um question or an essay. Uh We do not have that. Um However, what I did to welcome students of all walks of life, I included in the online application when the student creates their application account, like uh in bold letters, um I created a text um can't remember it by heart, but uh just to invite all students to apply and ensure that the application process at least is equitable for everyone. And how is that change working? How is that going? I have to say that I did not necessarily ask for feedback on that. So I don't, I didn't measure that. It was just uh um I um I listened to a webinar on microaggression and I also talked to a student who uh we were having a casual conversation and the student was from India. And um they had been just really racially profiled uh within our community, like school community by another student. And I said, well, that's, that's not, that's wrong. And the student said, oh, I'm used to it. So that broke my heart because they should not have been used to it. So that prompted me to look a little more into it. And I listen to this webinar and they were offering like immediate solutions that could help. But um I think we will need to look at it as a um college and then see how we could portray, portray this, um convey this message um even better.-- Thank you so much-- for sharing. My name is Sam Haley and I'm at Fort Louis College in Durango, Colorado. I work in admissions as a student specialist.-- And-- can you tell me a little bit about de I at your campus or office? We have been working really hard as a group to self educate and also to create a more structurally inclusive community at Fort Louis. How are you doing that? One of the things that we did recently, just the last couple of months, our office undertook a project to enter personal pronouns for every single student on campus. How did you gather it? Um That information was self collected off of applications for admittance. But there was a problem with that information being transmitted over to our uh former system for use by professors and other professionals on campus. And so even if students provided that information to us, we were not effectively making sure that we use that information to be inclusive. And so how did you reconcile that? How did you work through it? We did it by hand, we entered it every single one by hand manually as a team. And it's not that we thought that was the best way to do it or that we were excited about it. We just wanted it done and that seemed like the best way to go forward in the immediate sense. So where is that information showing in your system? It shows on the student's main page when a professor, when a staff member, anyone pulls up their information in the system just below their name are the pronouns.-- Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Sand.-- Thank you. I appreciate your time.-- I'm-- Alex Underwood. I'm the university registrar at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Uh We have about 50,000 students and we're a Hispanic serving institution. And can you tell me what it means to be an H SI, like things people might not understand about that and how it shows up in the work that you do? Sure, it's been really exciting. There is an entire initiative for the university to be an H SI. But beyond that, we're really trying to put the serving um centered into the initiatives that are coming out of the H SI area. Um And so there's different grants or um funding that's been allocated um to the H SI initiatives even beyond what we see from like the federal grants. Um And we've able to use that money to actually um modernize our guest center, access for um parents and families and to also have it be in Spanish. So um people can access their students record if they give them access in a language that is Spanish. And so that has been one neat thing that has come out of um-- being an H SI that we have partnered with the Registrar's office.-- Can you tell me at all, like how you measure the efficacy of what you're doing? Like how well you know what you're doing is serving those students. I think the nice thing is that there is a lot of feedback. Um And so uh the Hispanic serving initiatives office um really has a pulse with the students and so they'll bring things to our attention that we may not be aware of. And then there's also a very active Latinx um faculty and staff suit um association. Um And so that has been good for um those of us who are not Latino or Latina to understand how we can um be of better service, especially being in the borderlands um in Arizona.-- Thank-- you so much Alex for taking the time to talk to me. Yeah, my name is Fem Gelli. I'm the Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment and Dean of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley. Hi, my name is Adam Hiller. I usually he him his pronouns. I am the Strategic initiatives advisor for enrollment management and Office of undergraduate admissions. Can you talk about de I in happening at your institution? And yeah, the big thing that I would talk about um on our campus is we're actively pursuing, becoming an H si a Hispanic serving institution. And we're doing that in the backdrop of prop 209, which is an affirmative action ban in the state of California. Um One of the things that's been really, this has been a new focus for us and I should say that I joined uh Berkeley in 2019. And so we really took a strong diversity audit look at all of our processes, our outreach practices, our messaging our marketing um to really think about the populations that we were trying to engage with. And so some of the things that we did was we created the first Associate Director of Diversity Outreach on um in the entire University of California system, we then um structured that with an entire team focused on different populations, we also changed up our travel territories and we now have regional reps in hot market areas for those populations. Um And while we recognize that we need to go to different places, it also means that we need to show up differently as well. And so a lot of the things that we did there was we made tons of changes to our brochures and to our websites. Um And we also created a Berkeley and Espanol page for parents to be able to get to know first generation Spanish speaking parents to get to know our institution a little bit better, um, in a language that they're comfortable with. Right. And so those are some of the things that we did and it's resulted to some pretty historic increases, um, in diversity. Uh, at our institution, I think when we got there, uh, we were around 15% of our admitted population was Latinx. And since I've been there, we've been at 20% or better. Um, and so it's been, it's been really good and, and um we still have a lot of work to do. Um And I also think that it's important that we don't forget about other um communities or identities while we're actively pursuing the H SI. Um But I know that and Adam knows this as well when we talk about becoming an H SI for us, the most important word in Hispanic serving institution is not Hispanic, it's serving. And so how do we make sure that when we're bringing these students in, it's not fruit that's dying on the vine, right? So, student support, advising scholarship and the rest. Yeah. Yep. And being that we're at the same institution femi covered a lot of ground for us. Uh I do wanna say that when I think about the institution, we are um also talking about belonging and justice. So um when we talk about DE I is actually D Eib J and we've had a lot of conversations within student affairs, which is the division we currently belong to and uh Student Affairs has been working on enhancing D EIB J and having a lot of staff sessions with a lot of learning and engagement and practice. And so we've talked about um how to address microaggressions, how to be open to receiving and providing feedback in healthy ways. Um What does it mean to develop a belonging community for staff, students and faculty? And so those kind of engagements that we do, I would say once a month is something that's been very impactful for the uh for the environment, the community that we're working in. This is so, thank you so much and-- of-- course, thank you. Thank you. Hey, how is it going? It's going fantastic now that you're here. Oh, thank you. Can you introduce yourself to everyone and say what you do and where you do it? Yeah. Uh Hello everyone. My name is Rock Ha. I am the V president for En Man at Arcadia University in the Greater Philadelphia area. So-- that's-- where I am and you have been on the show. So repeat guest. But can you talk about what DE I initiatives are happening at your institution? Yeah. You know, our president, Dr J na, he really supports um very fully uh combating anti-black racism. And so I think in complement to that our de I initiatives really stand on those pillars. And so within the spaces of engagement, we redesign certain aspects of our curriculum to really highlight uh the work towards combating anti-black racism. We really do support uh the structure of critical race theory and explain the nuance of history uh within society. I think within the Student Affairs space, we've been uh very intentional about listening. You know, we're a small community but we're a very inclusive community. Uh Philadelphia, I believe is the sixth largest city within the United States and one of the most diverse cities within the nation. And so we have the unique ability I think to build relationships with current populations. But as migratory shifts happen, we have the opportunity to introduce new cultures, ideas and identities into it. And so within our student affairs space, we've been very intentional within the LGBT Q I space, uh creating spaces for them to engage within um you know, supporting anti combating anti-black, combating anti Semitic um work. And so I think it's um a campus wide effort, you know, even within our charters, when we have programs on campus, uh we have to be intentional about looking for mom and pop businesses owned by people of color and within our area, it's a beautiful hue of all shades and so on any given day, the cuisine is rich at Arcadia. You should pay us a visit. And so, um I think our approach to de I is really trying to create what we call an ecosystem of care, you know, within our approach to academics, what we do infusing within our curriculum C RT and combating anti-black anti Semitic statements. I think within student affairs and socializing, um a lot of the work that we do is very important. And then again, I think from a business standpoint, uh the president, the campus, we've been very intentional about diversifying our student population, uh from the gals and the guys who cook up all the good food to us, old guys and gals at the top who uh sweat over budgets and uh deposit numbers. So I think if you can walk the walk, it's really easy to kind of embrace the idea of de I, I've always said that D ID E, I like many things. It's an idea that you have to bring to life through action. And I think as small and as mighty as we are,-- we are for the most part getting it right-- top to bottom and all the way across.-- That's-- the hope, you know, and if I miss a step, let me know, it's not intentional. I always say blame my head and not my heart. You know, I care more than I think. So,-- chances are I could have missed-- something. Thank you so much. Thank you. I am Doctor Wendolyn Davis. I'm the director of the Undergraduate Missions Transfer Center at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.-- And-- we have been having conversations with people all day and you're the last person we're talking to and I wanna ask you what gives you hope and fills your cup when you think about the state of higher education. So what gives me hope right now is looking at the opportunities that our students in Tennessee are being offered, especially through the Tennessee promise that's giving free education up to five semesters of free education at the community college, allowing our students to earn an associate's degree. And for me working in the transfer world that is giving a a lot of students opportunity to find their way and their pathway to a four year degree. And that gives me a lot of hope for education. Can you talk about how you are making students aware? Um Like what are those interactions like? Yes. Uh because we work in the transfer world, we can have really frank conversations about students who need direction and a pathway to get to the university. So it's having those direct conversations that say you have the benefit of the Tennessee, promise you can go to the community college for this period of time and you can earn an associate's degree. What works in favor for students who come to UT Knoxville after that is especially if they earn at least a 3.25 GPA transferable GPA, they automatically qualify for merit based scholarships. So that associate's degree, at least a 3.25 GPA, those are scholarship dollars that are also awarded to those students. So it's a pathway, it is a pathway. So it's continuously having those conversations. So my recruitment team is going to the community colleges, we're taking calls, we're meeting with students virtually. So we can emphasize whatever kind of pathway will work for that student and they're coming to your institution potentially with less debt, no debt. That's amazing. I love it. That gives me hope too. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Herd, a podcast sponsored by Acro. We'd love to hear from you. Share your episode ideas or feedback for us at HD at acro.org episodes are produced by May Oa Inna. Thanks May OA We'll see you next time.