Center for Student Engagement Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan
The Center for Student Engagement works collaboratively with the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN) and the Office of the Associate Vice President for Student Life Services under the Division of Student Services to engage, educate and empower undergraduate students to take action in the best interest of the student body and the University community.
Goal area 1: Identify and eliminate barriers
Measures:
- We will bring back the $40 grocery fund request program for students not living in the Reno/Sparks area so they can gain access to funds to address food insecurity. Currently students who can drive to campus or live within 3 miles can access Pack Provisions.
- Students who request grocery funds will be added to a WebCampus course where they will be sent information on resources such as local food pantries, SNAP and other support on and off campus.
- At the end of the semester each student who requests funds will be asked to fill out a survey to provide us information on how having access to those impacted them.
- Request grants and continue to launch donation campaigns to get access to funds to meet this objective.
Measures:
- At the end of each semester the Associate Directors will review the demographics of all student employees from the profile made by the Office of Student Persistence Research. If we identity gaps, we will make a plan to close the gap the following semester.
- Ensure that application materials are inclusive, including position descriptions and lexicon used by developing standard protocols and templates.
- Target recruitment by sending or posting jobs in media and spaces that attract historically underrepresented groups (e.g. LGBTQIA+ orgs, religious spaces, etc.).
- Market University Career resources to historically underrepresented groups so that they are also better prepared to apply for positions.
- Include optional demographic questions on applications to better collect demographic information.
Measures:
- Develop and maintain a document with goals set for each program that include dates and plans for changes.
- Collect demographic data for students participating in CSE programs and then conduct outreach to understand why or why not they participated.
- Create a standard/template survey to send out to participants through engage for ASUN events.
- Create an awareness campaign to attract more diverse students to ASUN and CSE events, programs, and services.
- Provide a financial breakdown and analysis of resources used to ensure equity and inclusion.
- Review DEI strategic plan every third operations meeting.
Measures:
- Collaborate with the Disabilities Resource Center to better understand our students’ needs regarding accessibility.
- Develop a pre-event accessibility evaluation process to be utilized for each program and event to meet a certain set of criteria developed in collaborations with DRC; and incorporate this into the SEAB review process.
- Actively advertise in all media of our ability to provide accommodations.
- Provide a list of ways in which we are able to accommodate daily and which ways we need more notice.
Goal area 2: Build and maintain relationships
Measures:
- Collaborate with student service departments on intentional programming focused on CLDE.
- Work with academic affairs through the Office of Service Learning & Civic Engagement on programs that focus on social justice.
- Develop a tracking system to better track our partnerships with different departments and organizations.
- Develop an intern program in collaboration with various academic departments focused on diversity, equity and inclusion within the various areas of the Center for Student Engagement.
Measures:
- Create signature service events with partners from and that serve underrepresented communities and increase the number of their events on GivePulse.
- Build and maintain a database of local, state, and federal of former students and alumni to provide support for our CLDE programs and help students build their networks.
- Host more dialogues about issues that affect students and the communities they come from.
- Facilitate dialogues that explore the student and family view of the “leadership” experience of historically underrepresented communities to expand the ideas of what leadership means and what it looks like.
- Lead conversations in diversity equity and inclusion in our community and making these topics accessible on education and marketing.
Goal area 3: Data assessment
Measures:
- Create pre and post surveys for events to assist in gathering data.
- Gather student attendance, demographics and cost per student on campus in order to help determine whether events and programs serve and appeal to the needs of diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Gather information on whether accommodations were provided and/or needed for programs and events to determine if accessibility was used and/or needs were appropriately met.
- Find a pre and post assessment measuring diversity, equity and inclusion and administer it to staff annually in order to measure development.
- Exit interviews, either in person or digital, for student and professional staff be conducted by a non-supervisor staff member.
- Work with DRC and HR to develop and administer a candidate assessment.
Measures:
- Use existing data to reflect and analyze ways we are recruiting and sourcing (e.g. advertising, word of mouth, etc.) candidates as well as the demographics of candidates to ensure we are recruiting and sourcing candidates strategically by using different job posting platforms.
- Request demographic reports for all positions including student positions.
Measures:
- Work with the Office of Student Persistence Research to gather student graduation and professional staff retention in school.
- Collect, track and report on student staff, administrative faculty and classified staff retention within their current position as well as their next position in order to determine changes needed in terms of access, work culture and professional development.
Goal area 4: Honest and consistent communication
Measures:
- CSE will release a monthly newsletter to be sent out to ASUN, CSE, Colleagues and Community partners that will contain status updates for each goal area.
- Send out a monthly text message to all students linking the webpage that contains a history and timeline of our progress.
- Create a campaign on the iLead social media account that provides updates twice a month or as needed.
Measures:
- Establish a webpage on our website that provides all of the information regarding our goal areas, our timeline and our progress.
- Conduct a quarterly review of our website, social media and other modes of communication to ensure that messages, website and information meet ADA accessibility.
- Update the website on a bi-weekly basis to ensure accuracy of information.
- Share stories of our struggles and failures as professional staff in our external and internal reports.
- Highlight stories and feedback (both the good and bad) from students in all of our various modes of communication (e.g. social media, newsletter, blogs, YouTube, etc.).
- Intentionally outreach and personally invite students and colleagues from historically underrepresented groups and invite them to share their stories and feedback in the modes and spaces that we have or create.
Measures:
- Once a month during departmental staff meetings, each professional and student staff member must report on the progress of measures related to their work.
- Use departmental meetings and meetings with upper administrators (e.g. Directors meeting) to identify ways to improve or grow our measures.
- Establish an annual town hall meeting with students, colleagues and community partners that provides a report on our progress and also provides a space to ask questions about our work.