Division News & Statements
Message from Vice President Bernal: Follow-up to Employees of Color Forums
June 28, 2018
Dear Colleagues,
In March, lunch forums were co-hosted by the Black Faculty and Staff Association and the Latino/a Faculty and Staff Association, in collaboration with the Division of Inclusion and Equity. The forums, attended by members of President’s Cabinet and Inclusion and Equity staff, provided an important opportunity to share and listen to the experiences of employees of color in order to strengthen our efforts and move forward with recommendations and actions.
Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and share your insights. We recognize that the timing and format of the sessions did not meet everyone’s needs – resulting in some folks not being able to attend, some being hesitant to share, others choosing not to participate at all. As always, we continue to seek ongoing, productive and restorative ways to gather folks together and we welcome your feedback as to how best to do this in the future.
THEMES
As a result of the lunch forums, the Division of Inclusion and Equity identified four major themes:
- communication related to actions or progress made following campus discussions or implementation of plans;
- creating even more inclusive hiring, promotion, and advancement opportunities and reviewing policies and practices for opportunities to enhance equity;
- increasing inclusion and equity training for faculty, staff and students in order to transform culture; and,
- continuing to address overall climate for underrepresented and marginalized employees.
The overall feedback shared at the sessions and major themes have been discussed by President’s Cabinet on several occasions since March. We have taken and will continue to take all the input of our valuable employees and community members very seriously. In response, the actions for each theme are listed below. The intent is for these to be a part of continued conversations with senior leadership as well as the campus community. In fact, we know that some of these concerns extend to other underrepresented community members and are committed to continually addressing our campus climate for all.
ACTIONS
Some of the actions are new, some are already in progress, and other have been proudly accomplished but will continue to be reviewed and reassessed. To help with communication, we will incorporate these actions into the Inclusion and Equity section of GVPlan (www.gvsu.edu/spaa) and www.gvsu.edu/mygvsu/actions website, making status updates available on an annual basis. You may check out the summary of all the recommendations and their status at the myGVSU website now.
These actions require that we partner with campus departments and committees to continue to create a work environment where each and every member of the community is welcomed, supported, and provided opportunities to thrive. Starting in 2018-2019, updates will also be provided at an annual Inclusion and Equity forum. In addition, we will soon be able to make additional adjustments using climate feedback through new employee and student focus groups, which will begin to take place more formally between campus climate surveys.
OUR COMMITMENT & YOUR FEEDBACK
The climate for all our employees is important and we are committed to addressing any unhealthy environmental concerns or identified disparities. Thank you, again, to everyone who shared, in person or online, about your experiences as faculty and staff of color at Grand Valley. Our Faculty and Staff Affinity Groups are also gearing up for another great year. As the Division continues to support our colleagues through these groups, I would appreciate your feedback by completing this new annual questionnaire to support affinity group leadership identify enhancements based on the current needs of the communities that they support.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Very sincerely,
Jesse M. Bernal, Ph.D.
Vice President for Inclusion and Equity
Grand Valley State University