Office of the Associate Dean for Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
In working towards equity and inclusion, we recognize that
- Institutional policies and practices reinforce differential outcomes for historically underrepresented faculty, staff, students, and communities. We are working intentionally to critically evaluate our policies and practices to identify and eliminate these disparities.
- As a cadre of social workers and a public institution, we are working intentionally towards increasing diversity, in all its forms, in our faculty, staff, and students as we continue to serve diverse communities.
- We intentionally and steadfastly commit to anti-racism and anti-oppression in our practice, scholarship, teaching, and service.
We have launched several strategic initiatives to promote recruitment, retention, learning and engagement, including faculty and staff trainings on institutional racism; enhancement of our curriculum with more in-depth theoretical exploration; more comprehensive mentorship for junior scholars, including postdoctoral fellows and assistant professors; and more comprehensive support for students to boost recruitment and retention in our undergraduate and graduate programs.
- Recruitment of faculty, staff and students from historically excluded populations will create a vibrant school community.
- Retention of faculty, staff and students will eliminate barriers to belonging and success that have impacted historically excluded populations.
- Engagement for faculty, staff and students will build a cohesive school community that is inclusive and equitable for all.
- Learning for faculty, staff and students will be informed by anti-racism efforts in education and promote social justice and action.
Initiatives
Our Pledge
We stand for social justice for individuals and communities facing oppression on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, class, religion, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and/or disability. We reject all forms of hate, marginalization, discrimination, and violence.
Meet the Team
Committee for Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (CEIA)
The CEIA is a group of faculty, staff and students that helps to direct the efforts of the OADEIA and implements its initiatives.
Student representatives: Cameron Bates, Qusay Hussein.
Staff representatives: Carol Lewis, Andrea Montgomery, Dante Vargas.
Faculty representatives: Yessenia Castro, Namkee Choi, Catherine Cubbin, Rene Gaitan, Cossy Hough, Tammy Linseisen, Sarah Sloan, Sarah Swords, Thea Posel, Tanya Voss.
Land Acknowledgement
We remember the generosity of the Wampanoag (Wamp-uh-nog) tribe to the helpless settlers.
We acknowledge that we are meeting on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what now is called North America.
We remember the hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who lost their lives at the hands of colonialists and the genocide of whole tribes.
We remember the vibrant and powerful Native descendants, families, and communities that persist to this day throughout the culture and the country.
We remember the stolen sisters that have been taken from their families and communities at alarming rates.
We remember the activists fighting for Native rights.
We are grateful to the voices of our indigenous colleagues for helping us, as a school, to remember and honor their communities.