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Intro

Since 2015, the OSU Faculty Handbook has indicated that all faculty members are responsible for institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. In December 2018, Digital Measures entry screens were edited so that faculty could document their DEI efforts. Faculty overwhelmingly responded by citing the inclusivity of their work. The purpose of this training document is to provide greater clarity about the kinds of actions and behaviors that can be included when reporting inclusivity.

It’s difficult to list all of the kinds of differences that limit full participation in our work; please consider this a very partial list:

ADA Accessibility refers to the requirements outlined in the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. It covers a broad sweep of impediments to employment including mobility, visual and hearing impairments, and some neurological or psychological impairments.

Other types of DEI inclusivity supported by the institution include modifying program details to include a segment of the population that has been historically marginalized in terms of:

  • Race and ethnicity
  • Language
  • Cultural
  • Gender and sexual orientation

While no effort to improve delivery of DEI supported classes can be considered “bad,” many efforts – or the power of their documentation - can be improved.

Let’s start by considering some examples that do not – on the face of things – represent examples of inclusivity:

EXAMPLE: A meeting, presentation, or other event was open to any community member who wished to attend. The program was inclusive and participants were diverse.

Of itself, this does not represent inclusivity. It could be improved by:

    • Noting additional marketing efforts to draw in historically marginalized populations that would benefit from participation. This is especially valuable when there is a language access component to this effort.
    • Considering the time of day or day of the week on which events are offered or their locations, to ensure broadest availability of all target segments of the community.
    • Consider the dates of holidays outside your tradition; this could increase participation by those with cultural or familial traditions that might otherwise limit participation in a public event.
    • Disclosing such considerations and accommodations in the DEI citation ensure that your DEI citation is administratively useful.

EXAMPLE: This presentation was for an afterschool career and college readiness group led by my colleague. I identified half way through the presentation that most of the students' primary language was Spanish. I was able to respond in English to their questions expressed in Spanish.

The citation would be stronger if the program or promotion of the program was modified to serve a target audience. This example provides an opportunity to consider what there was about the program or its promotion that drew so many Latino youth. Can you delineate why new audiences or historically marginalized participants attended? Doing so might allow you to generate “rules of thumb” that could be applicable to future efforts.

Next, let’s look at some examples that express inclusivity, and could be made even stronger with an edit or two.

EXAMPLE: Student attended partner and coalition meetings and assisted with spring programming. She spearheaded the social marketing bulletin board campaign by helping design and implement healthy messaging boards in local DHS and WIC offices.

Strengthen with more about how the student was informed about what makes a healthy messaging board relevant for the DHS and WIC offices and how this benefitted the audience or purpose for the effort.

 

EXAMPLE: This committee is tasked with developing a Language Access Plan for limited-English participants in all Extension programs.

Strengthen with more about what you or the committee did to meet the goals.

 

EXAMPLE: This sub-committee was created to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion into the Master Gardener program at a national scale. The team compiles resources and tools that we can provide to state and county coordinators.

Strengthen by engaging underserved groups, perhaps in focus groups, to identify current barriers to greater participation.

 

EXAMPLE: A national conference agenda was developed and implemented targeting educators serving an underserved group. With other members of the committee, I developed classes and field tours for these educators to increase their understanding of the histories and cultural traditions of the group.

Strengthen by engaging members of the underserved community to indicate the stories and traditions that should be transmitted through the classes and tours.

Next, examples of strong expressions of faculty commitment to DEI.

EXAMPLE: An online publication or resource that is created to have screen-reader friendly content, such as correct use of heading and paragraph structure and alternative text for photos.

This a strong DEI statement because it accommodates individuals with visual impairment.

EXAMPLE: The content was published in English and Spanish, and translations were done by a professional translations service. Photos were selected for their relevance to both language and cultural groups.

This a strong DEI statement because:

  • A language access strategy was incorporated
  • Language differences were accommodated, and
  • Potential cultural differences were respected in the selection of photos.

EXAMPLE: The curriculum has been adjusted to address the needs of Spanish-speaking participants. Classes are taught in Spanish rather than in English with a translator. Hands-on activities have also been highlighted for audience needs. Marketing has been directed to Spanish speaking audiences and partnerships with local Latino organizations have led to high participation.

This a strong DEI statement because:

  • A specific track was included to provide language access
  • Hands-on activities were included to meet differences in learning styles.
  • Marketing was designed to effectively reach the target audience.

EXAMPLE: I selected sites with paved or hard-packed soil trails to accommodate wheelchair-bound participants, who were given longer-handled nets to more successfully reach plants. Wheelchair bound participants were not able to use the dissecting microscope to key out the bees we collected. By working with partners, they were able to display the specimens on a monitor, see features, and key out specimens. Without the microscope and camera combination, the wheelchair participants would have been unable to participate fully.

This a strong DEI statement because:

  • It was designed to accommodate individuals with a specific mobility limitation;
  • The site and the tools provided enabled all participants to meet the learning objectives of the activity.

EXAMPLE: With the overall health of the Warm Springs reservation listed 35th among all 36 Oregon counties, it is imperative that tribal members become more active in growing their own food. This program will engage the tribal community and partners in taking proactive steps to overcome the “food desert” status of the reservation. Through increased knowledge in gardening techniques, livestock production, and nutrition and food access, the community will address concerns in the areas of positive youth development, agriculture production, healthy eating habits, and small farm development. By developing a youth garden, fruit orchard, and berry farm and teaching classes in food production, youth and adults will adopt self-reliant food production as a healthy lifestyle change.

This a strong DEI statement because it was designed in collaboration with a specific audience to meet their needs, according to their cultural values.

EXAMPLE: Ethnically diverse and traditionally underserved audiences will be disproportionately impacted by seismic events. We designed a curriculum addressing the needs of all Oregonians; it will be delivered in English and Spanish. The text of the voice-overs will be available in print for both language versions. Text is being “scrubbed” of idioms and humor to improve the quality of the translation, remove culture-centric expressions, and make the content more easily translated into additional languages. The Oregon Food Bank submitted a letter of support to the project funder, citing our history of effectively serving low-income audiences. Additional training for Extension volunteers and employees will enable them to provide effective face-to-face training for Oregonians with any learning style, or who lack access to computers. The content is disseminated at no cost through eXtension.org.

This a strong DEI statement because it addresses:

  • Language, cultural, and learning style differences;
  • Pro-actively addresses the needs of traditionally minoritized audiences;
  • Was designed with the audience in mind.
  • Providing content free of charge removes a barrier to access.
Applies To: 
Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, Forestry, Extension and Engagement