By A’ishah Crawford
The events of summer 2020 brought issues of racial equity and social justice to the forefront of national attention. While individuals and groups were already doing their best to promote equity and inclusivity, many people were newly awakened and impassioned about social justice.
Here at CI, statements and promises were made in the wake of summer 2020 by the President’s Advisory Council on Inclusive Excellence. These ideas were centered on how CI would work even harder toward promoting racial and social justice in our community. This is what has happened since.
Those who have been working long and hard toward a vision of equity and inclusivity at CI were joined by a number of passionate individuals over the past year and a half. Together, those involved undertook an extensive analysis of the areas which need work to realize a vision of greater equity and inclusivity on campus. As a result, six distinct areas of improvement were identified. These six areas became six action teams, termed the Inclusive Excellence Action Teams (IEATs). The membership rosters of the six teams can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IPiNYbrEpjqzQptKYm-LoPlZynwz_UgJ/view
According to the Office of the President’s website on IEAP: Advancing Racial & Social Justice, “development of the Inclusive Excellence Action Plan (IEAP) Framework in January 2021 sought to bring focus of this plethora of racial- and social-justice oriented intentions, recommendations, and commitments into focus.”
A key element of this new perspective centers around equity, which encompasses a recognition that while we come from many different backgrounds, we all deserve the same opportunities. This element of celebrating diversity is foundational to the IEAP at all levels, including in the membership of the teams.
Each IEAT includes faculty, staff and student members who abide by sets of norms to ensure that everyone’s voices are heard. The teams were given objectives over which they met regularly throughout the past year. Each team’s goal was to form proposals about what could be done to address their specific areas of focus.
When asked what we can expect from the IEAP moving forward, Dr. Kaia Tollefson, the Interim Chief of Staff, explained, “in terms of what qualitative and quantitative changes we would expect to see over time, some things more quickly than others, I would look to the titles of these teams” to indicate what the areas of focus will be.
In order, the six IEATs are: IEAT 1-Professional & Leadership Development, IEAT 2-Diverse Workforce, IEAT 3-Community & Philanthropic Support, IEAT 4-Campus Culture, IEAT 5-Data-Based Decision Making and IEAT 6-Student Access & Success.
The goal of the Inclusive Excellence Action Plan is to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in relation to these six areas which were identified as needing improvement.
In December, the six IEATs presented a total of 41 proposals for Strategic Initiative funding to the President’s Advisory Council on Inclusive Excellence (PACIE). After review by PACIE, the proposals were narrowed down and given to the President’s Cabinet before a smaller number of proposals were presented to the Strategic Resource Planning Committee (SRPC) for review. The estimated total funds which would be needed to undertake all of the initiatives were set at $1 million, though the SRPC has delegated only $650,000 of one-time funding for the initiatives so far.
In February, President Richard Yao will be presented with the budget allocations recommended by the SRPC for the IEAP proposals. The funding allocations will then be announced by the Office of the President in late February. Additionally, other sources of funding will be sought for some of the initiatives.
From that point, students should expect to see gradual changes on campus toward promoting diversity, equity and inclusivity for all students, staff, faculty and community members.
While the IEAP is becoming clearer, students are encouraged to get engaged and involved with efforts toward diversity and inclusion on campus.
If you would like to get involved with efforts related to the IEAP, there will be more opportunities to do so in the foreseeable future. To follow the progression of the IEAP, please visit: https://www.csuci.edu/president/arsj/ieap/.
Once the funding allocations are announced in February, the trajectory for the IEAP initiatives at CI will be clearer. While issues of racial equity and social justice may not be easy to address, our campus community can feel encouraged that CI is working hard toward achieving an environment of inclusive excellence.
This is a developing story. The CI View will continue to provide updates as they become available. To learn more about the IEAP, visit https://www.csuci.edu/president/arsj/ieap/index.htm.
