Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategic Plan 2024-2027

STRATEGY 1: Engage with the institutional heritage of Hartwick by formally acknowledging historical oppressions.

• Address gaps in College Archives collection related to the history of marginalized populations on campus.
• Explore and share relevant content found in the library archives and Yager Museum.
• Develop and finalize a land acknowledgment to use across campus events and activities.

STRATEGY 2: Foster a safe and welcoming environment that promotes student and employee diversity appreciation.

• Develop a comprehensive mentorship program that pairs new employees with current employees from different areas.
• Launch affinity group structure to empower interested community members.
• Promote the Heritage Month and Observance Working Group.
• Investigate and develop strategies to address retention gaps for faculty, staff and students related to the campus environment.
• Host conversations and activities that provide spaces to communicate campus physical and psychological safety needs.

STRATEGY 3: Fight against polarization, divisiveness and low morale by centering the human experience of Hartwick students, faculty and staff.

• Develop strategies to engage more community members in DEIB-related programming.
• Bring back old and start new traditions that foster school pride and spirit.
• Explore our capacity to become an anti-racist campus.
• DEIB-specific professional development for the Senior Leadership Team.

STRATEGY 4: Increase accessibility in our built environment and within electronic systems for all campus community members and visitors.

• Acquire closed captioning software for campus-wide use.
• Identify and implement opportunities to create a more physically accessible campus.
• Develop an online campus map that integrates physical accessibility information, breaking down accessibility details by building and by room for popular event spaces.

STRATEGY 5: Investigate barriers to equity, inclusion and accessibility across campus policies and practices.

• Develop auditing tools and implementation plans.
• Equity, inclusion and accessibility audit of campus-level policies and practices.

STRATEGY 1: Identify opportunities to improve equity and inclusion.

• Increase equity and inclusion of curriculum, policies and procedures of academic departments.
• Improve equitable and inclusive practices in classrooms.

STRATEGY 2: Improve equity and inclusion in specific places.

• Increase digital equity and technological proficiency.
• Facilitate conversations when students feel uncomfortable in a classroom setting.
• Provide and support regular professional development on equitable and inclusive practices.
• Grow collaboration for major course pathways and schedules to lower barriers for students.
• Expand College-supported programming and/or curriculum for multilingual learners.
• Increase the number of instructors who are multilingual and/or focus on multilingual justice to better support programming and curriculum for multilingual learners.

STRATEGY 3: Increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented faculty.

• Review and revise guidelines for annual and biannual faculty reflections, requiring commentary on how DEIB impacts pedagogy, research and/or service.
• Continue to grow the Teaching and Learning initiative.
• Hire and retain faculty from underrepresented communities/identities.
• Maintain relevant and regular DEIB professional development opportunities for all employees.
• Ensure adequate funding and compensation for employees who contribute to DEIB as it relates to teaching and learning.
• Pursue grant funding to support and grow DEIB efforts and investigate avenues for launching programs like the Higher Education Opportunity Program, TRIO, etc.

STRATEGY 4: Ensure procedures around faculty promotion are transparent, equitable and consistent with DEIB best practices.

• Provide professional development for members of the Committee on Appointments, Tenure and Promotion (ATP) to differentiate actions and practices that are equitable and inclusive from ones that are deficit-minded.
• Review and revise processes for academic tenure and promotion through a DEIB lens.

STRATEGY 1: Promote and incentivize volunteer opportunities for employees and students.

• Meet with Staff Council and Civic Engagement to review and update the Community Service and Volunteerism Marketing (Civic Engagement) form and volunteer paid-time-off policy (HR).
• Determine and implement effective means of engaging Hartwick community members in volunteer opportunities.
• Support faculty in embedding volunteer opportunities into course offerings.

STRATEGY 2: Establish and sustain relationships with regional Indigenous communities that result in the identification of reparative actions (aligned with land acknowledgment action items described in the Campus Environment document).

• Hold conversations with regional Indigenous communities to create opportunities for listening and learning.

STRATEGY 3: Expand participation rates of regional minoritized business owners for industry day and networking events.

• Identify and contact regional minoritized business owners.
• Create a designated event to showcase minoritized business owners for a networking event.

STRATEGY 4: Secure financial support for community-based and institutional DEIB initiatives.

• Identify, screen and solicit funding via donations, grants, sponsorships, etc.
• Develop the case for support specific to community-focused DEIB initiatives.

STRATEGY 5: Increase our engagement with non-traditional student populations.

• Develop and expand programs that increase access for non-traditional student populations.