Equality & Inclusion Committee

Mission

The Committee on Equality and Inclusion is charged with working to fulfill and deepen the University of Oregon’s stated goal of providing a representative, inclusive, empowering and safe campus, recognizing that this is an institutional priority and an integral component of academic success.  In 2016 the university identified the following focus areas:

  1. Improving Campus Climate
  2. Developing a Culturally Responsive Community
  3. Building Critical Mass
  4. Expanding and Filling the Pipeline
  5. Developing and Strengthening Community Linkages
  6. Developing and Reinforcing Diversity Infrastructure

To complement these efforts, while also fulfilling department-specific needs, the Committee will focus on promoting department efforts to:

  1. Create and sustain an inclusive, accessible, equitable, empowering and safe department climate.
  2. Recruit and retain a demographically diverse faculty and graduate/undergraduate student body.
  3. Support research on equality, representation and inclusion as it is broadly conceived.

The committee understands the concept of representation in the broadest terms, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, class, and other categories of social, political or economic exclusion and underrepresentation. Further, equality and inclusion serve as the primary lenses through which the committee will measure the work of the Political Science Department. The committee understands that without a faculty, student body and roster of course offerings and research that represents a diversity of voices we end up reifying structures of exclusion and bias. The committee also understands that representation is not enough. These efforts must be matched with an equal commitment to maintaining an inclusive, respectful and safe campus climate. The committee will work toward these twin goals by promoting department efforts, supporting university initiatives, and encouraging university-wide progress that will celebrate and empower divergent voices, perspectives and experiences–particularly when those voices have the potential to be underrepresented and marginalized on campus and within the community at large.

Membership

The Equality and Inclusion Committee is comprised of three faculty, reflecting where possible different career stages, and one graduate student who serves as an ex officio member.

At the discretion of the committee and in consultation with the department head, the committee chairperson will serve as liaison with inclusion initiatives in other departments or units. They will also be the department representative for CAS Diversity Committee.

Ongoing Primary Responsibilities

  1. Administer an annual department climate survey.
  2. Report annually to the department head on equality/inclusion-related conditions, challenges and successes in the department. This report may include climate survey findings, best practices from other departments/universities, and feedback and/or recommendations on committees reviewed in that year.
  3. Facilitate an annual faculty discussion on the department climate and equity and inclusion initiatives happening within the department and across campus.
  4. At the discretion of the committee and in consultation with the department head, maintain relationships with other department or university diversity committees, or other units as relevant, in order to inform political science faculty and students of campus-wide diversity initiatives.
  5. Coordinate one of our departmental colloquiums each year to feature an academic or professional expert on equity and inclusion issues that may be particularly relevant to our discipline or department. The committee should identify a highly-regarded scholar, administrator, or facilitator to provide a presentation or training to faculty, staff, and graduate students on an important topic related to diversity, equity, and inclusion – especially topics that will better inform our departmental community and strengthen its relations, teaching, graduate student recruitment, faculty hiring, retention, and other aspects of our shared work.
  6. Conduct reviews of other standing committees (Admissions & Awards, Curriculum, Honors & Awards, Peer Teaching Review) at least once every four years. The Equality and Inclusion committee will evaluate the process used by the committee, research best practice, and provide feedback and recommendations to the committee under review, to the department head, or to the department.
  7.  At the discretion of the committee, and in consultation with the department head and the Personnel Committee, apply for external or university level funding to support a GE, potential post-doc and other initiatives (e.g., Initiative for Faculty Diversity) Initiative for Faculty Diversity (IFD))
  8. Call for nominations and select a graduate student to serve each year.
  9. Review webpages for updates to links, contact info, and content. Coordinate updates with the department manager. Pages include Graduate Community and Equity and Inclusion: Graduate Students Funding

Short-term or immediate tasks

We recognize that the committee will need some time to coordinate and institutionalize these ongoing initiatives. We also understand that there are a few discrete tasks that need to be fulfilled. The following is a list of single tasks that should be addressed during the first year of the committee’s tenure.

  1. Consider proposing to the department how to advertise, clarify or improve processes through which graduate students can report concerns about bias or exclusion as consistent with UO policies.
  2. Consider proposing to the department an award for faculty and/or graduate students that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  3. Obtain baseline numbers of the demographic composition of political science majors (available from the university).
  4. Collect information on campus support organizations to have on hand in the department office.
  5. Study and estimate time and effort required to initiate the annual department climate survey and other committee tasks, and work with the department head and Department Manager to determine resource needs to support the committee.

Committee Reports

AY 18-19