Expand and Restructure Roles of College and Unit DEI Officers

Lead

Tara Tuttle (Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, Lewis Honors College)

Purpose

This project will make recommendations to the DEI Leadership Team related to expanding and restructuring the Diversity and Inclusion Officer positions within colleges and units.

Progress

Project 5 team members were established in Fall 2020 and contribute a broad range of roles, responsibilities, insights and backgrounds to the group as Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Officers. This group endeavors to deliberately step back and re-examine how, from the perspective of current D&I Officers, DEI can best be embedded across colleges. This allows the group to push back on the pattern in higher education of concentrating DEI on one person or unit. Instead, the goal is to turn to those currently tasked with diversity and equity roles to examine how we can best embed DEI practices in colleges and continue to support those involved with DEI work so they can be successful.

Committee Members

Mia Farrell (College of Agriculture, Food and Environment)
Vanessa Jackson (College of Agriculture, Food and Environment)
Janice Kuperstein (College of Health Sciences)
Jen Martin (UK Libraries)
Clem Stambaugh (College of Dentistry)
Tara Tuttle (Lewis Honors College)

Update - September 21, 2021

This committee's spring 2021 DEI report included eight recommendations that will be reviewed by leadership.

Update - May 1, 2022

On April 22, 2022, every college and unit DEI Officer gathered for the first time to discuss their role, responsibilities, structure and opportunities for growth. The day-long "Advance" was initiated by the Office for Institutional diversity and facilitated by Dr. Kevin McDonald, University of Virginia's Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. President Eli Capilouto gave welcoming remarks, and Provost Bob DiPaola gave the closing remarks.

Advance sessions included: Going Together, Stronger Together; Best-In-Class Standardization; Effectively Build, Engage, Organize, and Transform; Co-Creating a Shared Toolkit, Roadmap, Blueprint.

The Advance was inspired by recommendations from the Project 5 committee. All officers reviewed the recommendations from the committee, and had engaging and fruitful conversations regarding this group's next steps.

Update – September 1, 2022

The project 5 leads and supporting committee members met with the Provost's council to discuss the eight recommendations. The Provost's council will continue to review and meet regarding the suggestions.

Update – November 22, 2022

A renewed focus on DEI officers in colleges and units: Every college on campus has a DEI officer to advance conversations, outcomes-based strategies and discipline-focused initiatives about diversity, equity and inclusion. We convene these officers regularly and have been moving to create consistent job descriptions and responsibilities so that these offices have greater clout and focus in carrying out their important duties. We also need to work to make those offices and people easier to find. The plan is to have these uniform DEI officer experiences completed by February 2023.