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IDEABOOKFostering Inclusion & Belonging
CONTENTS03Origin StoryKim Vrudny reects on her own "origin story" to share more about the framework that informs her work in inclusion and belonging1410 IdeasBased on her work as a Dean's Fellow, Dr. Tanya Gladney suggests ten ideas that programs might adopt at the department level07Baseline MetricsCollege demographics, based on survey data from 2022-2023. We are seng targets in each area listed on this page2010 IdeasBased on her acvies as a Dean's Fellow, Dr. Olga Herrera oers ten ideas for improving inclusion for adjunct faculty08Action Steps/Road MapDepartments are invited to form working groups and to arculate a strategic plan for inclusion & belonging by the end of AY242410 IdeasBased on Dr. Mary James' presentaon to our faculty in August, we compiled ten ideas for recruing, hiring, and retaining diverse faculty1010 IdeasBased on Dr. Georey Cohen's research, here are ten ideas to consider adopng to foster a greater sense of belonging28Glossary & ResourcesThe Dean's Oce is creang resources to help Departments and Programs in the College thrive in this taskpage 2 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
Last year, Dr. Yvee Erasmus, who created the course on "Compassionate Communicaon" for the University of St. Thomas, encouraged us to ask "What's wrong?" less oen, replacing it as oen as we could with the queson, "What will help?" I thought of this frequently throughout the academic year, as I was listening to reports about backlash against the so-called "Equity Regime." The reports made me mindful of conversaons from my graduate school days when, in the 1990s, the backlash against social jusce iniaves was bound up in rhetoric about "polical correctness." Occasionally, I was brave enough to ask those who ridiculed the idea of being "polically correct" if it was preferable simply to display one's bigotry openly. I was cancelled, before cancellaon was a thing. And yet, somehow, I recognized—even at the me—that I was playing into the problem. Some with whom I was in conversaon sincerely wanted equal access for all people to the "American dream," though it seemed to me that they were unfamiliar with analyses of how structural injusces led to our current state of aairs, and how systems connue, both back then and sll today, to perpetuate disparies in economic outcomes. They feared the impact of armave acon. The seeds of polarizaon were taking root, and I lacked the skills to bridge the divide. What's Your Origin Story?Dr. Kimberly VrudnyAssociate Dean, College of Arts and SciencesDE&I IDEABOOK | page 3College of Arts and Sciences
Perhaps if, instead of engaging in a discourse of blaming and shaming, I had taken a minute to breathe and to ask myself, "What will help?," I could have navigated the conversaon more producvely. What would have happened if I had shared some stories of my encounters with human beings who pracced religions other than mine, and with folks who had skin tones darker than mine? What might have been preserved in our relaonship if I had tried to draw people into how these encounters challenged me to queson the things I had absorbed in my culture, and to think dierently, understanding how economic systems and social structures coalesced to distribute advantages and disadvantages disproporonately along racial lines (alongside other intersecng idenes)? I wish that I had felt empowered at the me to share something of my own "origin story" as it pertains to the work of inclusion and belonging.For many, these origin stories are entangled with experiencing, from a very young age, discriminaon and oppression on the basis of color or sexual identy or religious worldview. While my gender gives me one axis by which to empathize with how oppression feels, I am a White, cisgendered, heterosexual Chrisan female who, as the daughter of two (former) farmers, was of a lower economic class (though with degrees of privilege as someone with cizenship and whose family had secure and steady income from my dad's job as a tv repairman). My brother and I were among the rst generaon in my family (on both sides) to go to college. My parents believed in the power of higher educaon to ensure economic security, and so it was that I was desned for community college, unl one of my teachers intervened and advised my parents that a small liberal arts college would be a beer t. At Gustavus, two professors took me under their wings. Concerned that my world was too small, my art history professor encouraged me to study abroad. Since I was pursuing a double major in both art history and religion, I decided that I wanted to study in Israel. I enrolled in the internaonal program at Haifa University, in a country where, for the rst me, I lived as a religious and ethnic minority (albeit temporary and escapable). Housed next to Palesnians on the lower levels of an otherwise dominantly Jewish dormitory, I learned that, to some, I was a "goy"—a derogatory word for someone who is not Jewish—when the word was spray painted on a poster adversing an opportunity to visit sites sacred to Chrisans. While in Haifa, I was unsure how to eld quesons like "Why do you wear a symbol of torture around your neck?," "How do you feel about the Crusades and the Holocaust?," and "How do you grapple with the ansemism in the New Testament?" In some ways, I think my enre academic journey has been an aempt to gure out answers to my classmates' important quesons—quesons which I was terribly ill-equipped to answer at the me.More formave than their quesons, however, was the hospitality of a couple who became like parents to me when I was overseas. Ron was a professor from Florida who was on sabbacal in Israel with his wife, Eva, and their two children. We had enrolled in the same secon of a course in Introductory Hebrew. On the rst day of class, he took noce of me. He was concerned to learn that I had been in Israel for 48 hours, and that I had yet to eat anything because banks were closed and I had made the rookie mistake of failing to exchange dollars for shekels. He escorted me to a bank aer class, and then began inving me over to their at for Shabbat dinners. If I had taken in an-Jewish senment and negave stereotypes, as I certainly had, from all the things I had learned over the years about "Sadducees" and "Pharisees" in my readings of the New Testament, and by living in a homogenous Chrisan society, those percepons melted away and were overtaken by appreciaon and, ulmately, aecon around that warm and inving table.page 4 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
About a decade later, my world was turned on its end again when I had an opportunity to travel to the southern p of Africa in response to the HIV&AIDS pandemic. Through a college connecon, I was only one degree removed from the circle of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and, by 2009-2010, when we stayed in South Africa on sabbacal, we came into his orbit directly by aending his church, sharing food at his table, and learning at his feet. Refusing to dehumanize White people in the way that White people had so brutally dehumanized those with Black skin, he demonstrated how to "love thy enemy," even in the face of monstrosity and inhumanity. Something within me shied by aending a variety of dominantly Black churches that year. Even though I had studied liberaon theology, I started hearing the Gospel dierently in the companionship and under the tutelage of Black pastors. And even though I was spiritually wrecked, the beauty of what I was learning had such an aracve force that, upon seeing it, there was no turning back. Both of these perspecve-altering experiences, rst around the Shabbat table in Israel and then around the Eucharisc table(s) in South Africa, illustrate the power of true relaonships in personal and cultural transformaon. While I could have picked up skills in diversity, equity, and inclusion by aending trainings and seminars about inclusive teaching, I fear that there would have been a superciality to it without the deeper reckoning that I was going through, due to the privilege of experiencing "dierence" directly, by crossing borders and by forming relaonships with people whose frames of thought proved to be more capacious and more appealing than the narrower frames of reference that were more familiar to me. Relaonships—chance acquaintances that turned into meaningful friendships—were at the center of both of these experiences. For me, these friendships made it impossible to accept stereotypical depicons that I was otherwise absorbing in my dominantly homogenous White and Chrisan community—and it made it easier for me to detect the monstrosity at work that made people believe and say things that I could now recognize as deeply awed—things that also shaped the social structures that were built in ways that privileged some over the rest. The power of connecons across boundaries and borders cannot be easily replicated in DEI training sessions. While such sessions are vital and necessary in transforming campus culture, they are insucient, alone, in advancing what they aspire to create: vibrant educaonal communies where a wide array of people, of richly diverse backgrounds and idenes, are able to interact producvely, even joyfully, because infrastructures and interpersonal networks of mutual trust are rmly established. Can you imagine living and working in a culture where people are allowed to make mistakes and even genuinely disagree with one another without fearing "cancellaon" or humiliaon, precisely because a culture has been established to support and champion one another, providing space to allow each one of us to grow into our (shared) humanity, where people refuse to reject one another because we recognize that our own well-being is bound up in each other's? Wouldn't you love to work at a place where people have learned how to support one another in all of their complexity and imperfecon, because there is collecve agreement that no one can be reduced to a single characterisc that can be despised or "cancelled", and where there is wholesale recognion DE&I IDEABOOK | page 5College of Arts and Sciences
that becoming an-racist (and an-sexist, and an-heterosexist, and so on), and dismantling systems of oppression, while urgent, cannot happen overnight—and that personal commitment to that transformaon occurs in stages that can be supported along the way, each one authenc and important in its own right? Wouldn't it be wonderful to co-create a community where personal transformaon is celebrated, even while acknowledging we all have "growing edges"? Could we be part of creang that kind of community at St. Thomas, where we trust that there is a genuine and common commitment to the creaon of what Marn Luther King, Jr., referred to as "the Beloved Community," and what Jesus referred to as the "Kingdom of God"?To be sure, as someone who has an ocial role in fostering belonging at St. Thomas, I have goals, objecves, targets, measurables, and aspiraons in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Ideas for academic units to consider adopng are assembled in this book in the hope that units will wish to opt into more intenonal eorts to make their departments more diverse and more inclusive—including for members of the adjunct faculty. The ideas in this booklet are not comprehensive by any means, but we hope they will give departments some ferle soil for conversaons to unfold in the coming year. The ideas pertaining to department-level DEI work were inspired by a report submied to our Oce by Dr. Tanya Gladney. The ideas related to fostering greater inclusion for adjunct faculty trace to a report wrien by Dr. Olga Herrera. Drs. Gladney and Herrera served as Dean's Fellows last year—an opportunity that was created under the visionary leadership of Dean Tolman. The ideas pertaining to belonging are from Dr. Georey Cohen's studies (Standford University) on creang greater connecon. And, nally, Dr. Mary James (Reed College) was with us in August, and the ideas on recruing, hiring, and retaining a diverse faculty come from her. This booklet is intended to spark ideas about the kinds of things departments can be doing in the realm of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We invite departments to arculate their plans by May 2024, and to report back in the Academic Unit Report each subsequent year on progress that has been made on the unique goals each department has set for itself.I believe that the sorts of things these scholars suggest can make our workplaces more comfortable for the full variety of people who make up St. Thomas. At the same me, I recognize that deeper cultural transformaon of the kind that I am imagining requires a similarly great commitment. It requires bonds that are formed through real relaonships across a variety of axes of dierence. It requires that people step outside of their comfort zones and interact meaningfully with people whose lifestyles and thought paerns and ways of being are genuinely dierent than those with which they are more familiar. It requires an openess to the possibility that one sll has much to learn (as we all do), and that somemes quiet listening and an open heart are what is most needed. We are working, in the Dean's Oce, to create opportunies, too, of this kind. In the coming year, the members of our University community will be invited to parcipate in a series of conversaons with Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Naon, and to visit sites sacred to the Dakota peoples of Mni Sota Makoce. My hope is that, through parcipaon in opportunies of this kind, our imaginaons are broadened about what and how we are teaching and producing scholarship, how we are interacng with one another to build an inclusive culture—indeed, how we are going about being human. What could be more important in our current environment than building communies of this kind?—sharing, as we do, for such a precious and short me, the fragile planet we all call home. g page 6 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. ThomasSetting a BaselineMETRICS
CAS FT (Tenured, Tenure-Track, Clinical)238CAS FT - BIPOC15.1% (36/238)CAS FT - FEMALE/NON-B45.4% (108/238)CAS ADJUNCT FACULTY: (FORTHCOMING)CAS FACULTY CERTIFIED IN INCLUSIVE CLASSROOM INSTITUTE18%Setting a BaselineMETRICSHere are some metrics for the University and College, based on available HR faculty/sta data from 2022-2023 and ocial 2022 IDAR data on undergraduate enrollment.UNDERGRADUATE | FIRST GEN & PELL25% of our incoming class (FTFY) in AY23 are rst generaon. 32% of the incoming class are eligible for Pell grants.DE&I IDEABOOK | page 7College of Arts and Sciences0102030405UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTSOur undergraduate student body numbered 5,778 students in Fall 2022. (Total enrollment including grad: 9,061)UNDERGRADUATE | BIPOC27% of the incoming class for AY23 idenfy as BIPOC. 24% of our undergraduates, overall, idenfy as BIPOC.UNDERGRADUATE | FEMALE50% of our undergraduate students (and FTFY AY23) idenfy as female.UNDERGRADUATE | INTERNATIONAL4% of our undergraduates are internaonal students.
Here is a road map toward an ulmate objecve of presenng the Dean's Oce with a DEI strategic plan by October 2024.Begin with a kick-o meeng with the DeanSTEP ONEDEADLINE30 September 2023DEADLINE31 December 2023DEADLINE01 February 2024DEADLINE31 May 2024DEADLINE10 October (each year)Departmental conversaons unfold; working groups are assembledSTEP TWOWorking groups are developing a strategy and draing a plan for departmental approvalSTEP THREEA strategy is draed, ready for submission with AUR 2024STEP FOURPlans are implemented during AY25, and progress is reported each year in the AURSTEP FIVEDE&I IDEABOOK | page 8College of Arts and SciencesStrategic PlanningROAD MAPACTION STEPS
ROAD MAPChairs are encouraged to open conversaons in their units, to begin to think about what is possible at the department/program level, with the goal of solicing the greatest degree of buy-in to the process.Chairs are encouraged to organize commiees and/or working groups, or to designate DEI ambassadors, to develop a plan ulmately for departmental approval.By the end of AY24, several objecves might be arculated in the Academic Unit Reports. Be sure the targets are measurable. 0102030405Each subsequent year, Chairs can report on progress in the Academic Unit Report. Provide a few sentences to update the Dean's Oce on progress toward each objecve.In the fall of 2023, all Department Chairs are invited to have a conversaon with Dean Tolman, Associate Dean Kim Vrudny, and Clinical Faculty Hugh Smeltekop to discuss this ideabook, with the goal of opening the imaginaon to what is possible at the department level.page 9 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. ThomasStrategic PlanningACTION STEPS
Tips for Chairs/Directors:reading IDEA reports, and try not to perpetuate Belongingpage 10 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
.by ensuring diverse representaon in course materials, promong open discussions, and acknowledging the unique perspecves of each student.to help new students, sta, and faculty of diverse backgrounds integrate into your department. These networks can provide guidance, emoonal support, and a sense of belonging as students navigate their college experience and as faculty and sta acclimate to St. Thomas.by raising ps and ideas about how to foster belonging at each department meeng to raise awareness about the importance of belonging and the potenal barriers to it. These conversaons can promote empathy and understanding among members that spreads into classrooms and corridors.01020310 IDEAS TO FOSTERBelongingDrawn from Dr. Geoffrey L. CohenJames G. March Professor of Organizaonal Studies in Educaon and Business at Stanford; from Belonging: The Science of Creang Connecon and Bridging Divides (W. W. Norton, 2022).DE&I IDEABOOK | page 11College of Arts and Sciences
for students, through group acvies, clubs, and events; and for faculty and sta through picnics and gatherings throughout the year. Posive connecons with peers can signicantly contribute to a sense of belonging. 04by recognizing faculty members who intenonally build supporve relaonships with their students and colleagues. Regular interacon, approachability, and personalized aenon can make everyone feel connected to the campus community.05by reaching out to minorized and underrepresented members of your program and department for a lunch, and be sure to connect with colleagues across axes of dierence to ensure they're receiving the support they need.07by helping students, sta, and faculty nd a sense of purpose and connecon to the instuon's mission. When people feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, they are more likely to feel a sense of belonging.06page 12 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
by providing resources and a tailored support system, according to the unique challenges faced by rst-generaon students, sta, and faculty.09by addressing and migang negave stereotypes about various social groups when they arise and by creang a "rapid response" plan to be agile when things happen on campus.08. . . Georey Cohen's book is available through the resource list in our shared Canvas site for Chairs and Program Directors, "In Good Company."Next Stepsby looking at your common spaces with an eye for representaon, and then expand the diversity of representaon so that all faculty, sta, and students see themselves reected in your common spaces.10DE&I IDEABOOK | page 13College of Arts and Sciences
Tips for Chairs/Directors:Departmental Workpage 14 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
.or a working group, or a designee, to develop a strategic plan, to dra a statement about departmental commitments to inclusion to post online, and/or to devise a "rapid response" system to react to events as they happen.to audit syllabi for % readings by female and/or BIPOC and or LGBTQIA+ authors/writers; % events presented by women or BIPOC or LGBTQIA+; % arcles published on topics without a Euro-centric focus, % syllabi with inclusive statements, etc., with the ulmate goal of improving in these areas.such as xx number of faculty will complete the IDI, xx number will be cered by the ICI, xx number will complete the Pride or Becoming Human or Compassionate Communicaon badges, xx number of BIPOC students will be supported in the program by 20xx.01020310 IDEAS TO JUMP STARTDepartmental WorkDr. Tanya GladneyAssociate Professor, Justice & Society StudiesDE&I IDEABOOK | page 15College of Arts and Sciences
draed by the department, with expectaons around unbiased conduct, as well as a system of accountability for when the code is violated.04with a disicpline-specic focus, such as workshops, book clubs, "lunch and learn" opportunies, etc., on such things as culturally responsive pedagogy, decolonizaon of the curriculum, grant opps., acquiring familiarity with eecve bystander pracces, gaining uency in microintervenons; etc. etc.05through incenve structures that reward scholarship that focuses on non-Eurocentric subject maer. 07featuring BIPOC speakers, and focussing on topics of interest to and relevant for audiences that are representave of a variety of backgrounds (BIPOC, gender, LGBTQIA+, etc.).06page 16 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
by researching a set of disciplinary DEI best pracces and make resources available to members of your Department. Articulate Disciplinary "Best Practices"08such as the IDI, which oers personalized debrieng sessions as well as plans tailored to support development through stages. See page page 18 for addional details.09As the Chair of a Department or a Program Director, you have an incredible opportunity to shape the direcon of your department or program. We're here to support you.Next Stepsby creang a funding stream to support student parcipaon in conferences (all expenses paid, including lodging, meals, and registraon) and to fund their subscripons to journals while at St. Thomas.10DE&I IDEABOOK | page 17College of Arts and Sciences
INVENTORYIntercultural DevelopmentCONTINUUMWe encourage Departments to invite members to take the inventory. The Intercultural Development Connuum (IDCTM) describes orientaons toward cultural dierence and commonality that are arrayed along a connuum from the more monocultural mindsets through the transional orientaon of minimizaon to the intercultural or global mindsets at later stages. The capability of deeply shiing cultural perspecve and bridging behavior across cultural dierences is most fully achieved when one maintains an "adaptaon" perspecve, which can make instuons more welcoming and inclusive. One vision is to have faculty members take the IDI and to have a debrieng session with a licensed "qualied administrator," who is able to customize a program to help guide the individual through acvies and reecons that can help to build intercultural competence developmentally. Moreover, workshops and acvies can be designed and targeted with varying stages in mind, into which people can self select. Units may also measure their progress along IDC lines if a department-wide baseline is established. For more informaon about the IDI, reach out to Kha Yang, the Associate VP for Inclusive Excellence.READ MOREpage 18 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
Intercultural DevelopmentINVENTORYSTAGE 02STAGE 03STAGE 04STAGE 05DenialSTAGE 01Denotes a stage with a limited capacity for understanding and responding appropriately to cultural dierences; may be disinterested and avoidantMarked by an "us vs. them" mentality that may be defensive (my ways are superior to yours) or reversal (their ways are superior to mine/ours)Transional mindset that highlights commonalies and universal values without understanding dynamics between the dominant and marginalizedAn orientaon that recognizes and appreciates cultural dierences and commonaliesAn orientaon whereby a person is able to shi one's cultural perspecve and interpersonal behavior in appropriate waysDE&I IDEABOOK | page 19College of Arts and SciencesIntercultural DevelopmentCONTINUUM
Tips for Chairs/Directors:10 IDEAS TOWARDGreater Adjunct Faculty Inclusionpage 20 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
Dr. Olga HerreraAssociate Professor, Englishor Q&A document to answer what adjunct faculty “need to know” when they begin.for adjunct faculty and tenure/tenure track faculty to build familiarity with each other. Structure opportunies for all faculty in the Department to gain insights from each other's teaching and research experience (i.e., sharing materials, etc.).that is accessible to everyone in the Department that includes examples from adjunct faculty and encourage everyone in the Department to peruse the repository for ideas about how to teach their courses.01Sponsor Opportunities020310 IDEAS TOWARDGreater Adjunct Faculty InclusionDE&I IDEABOOK | page 21College of Arts and Sciences
so that all adjunct faculty are paired with an instructor other than the Chair to share experiences and exchange strategies on teaching and professional development.04so that adjunct faculty are poised for posions at other instuons when they become available.Foster Goal Setting05(annually or biannually), with a transparent and common rubric, and provide an opportunity to give informal feedback at the end of the year. 07and make sure that adjunct faculty are aware of and feel welcome to parcipate in University-wide trainings, workshops, funding opportunies, etc.06page 22 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
for easy transfer of les in the Department, including annual evaluaon reports of adjunct faculty, so that records are readily accessible during transions from one Chair to the next.08so that adjunct faculty are able to plan their schedules and their nances accordingly.P09As the Chair of a Department or a Program Director, you are the rst point of contact for adjunct faculty—and your leadership in this area can greatly enhance the adjunct faculty experience.Next Stepsand consider naming an adjunct representave to aend meengs and to share content out with other adjunct members, enabling adjunct faculty to parcipate in processes that aect adjunct faculty, including curricular development, etc.10DE&I IDEABOOK | page 23College of Arts and Sciences
Tips for Chairs/Directors:page 24 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
Drawn from Dr. Mary JamesProfessor Emeritus, Department of Physics, Reed Collegeby arculang how you are searching for someone who diversies as well as complements your program's exisng strengths and for someone who embodies diversity through representaon or through diversifying curriculum, pedagogy, or praccing cultural uency and humility, etc.which in many disciplines include the study of the texts, creave products, and lived experiences of historically marginalized peoples and groups (ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientaon, physical ability, etc.)—to decolonize and recenter toward a more global perspecve.so as not to exclude Ph.D. students graduang from programs like African-American Studies, other ethnic studies programs, and so on, who might be superbly well-suited to your Department.01020310 IDEAS about HIRINGto Enhance Recruitment & Retention DE&I IDEABOOK | page 25College of Arts and Sciences
such as 1) that other schools will snatch all really good faculty of color; 2) we are not compeve in pay; 3) we're in the wrong part of the country; 4) everyone in our eld knows to apply to every job opportunity. The posion aracted us—so it can aract faculty of color, too.04before the search opens, by asking programs about graduates, by creang post-doc opportunies (pipelines), by aending conferences and conversing with candidates, and by aending conferences that aract underrepresented minority members.05using the criteria you have developed, not expecng candidates to know what else to add to their cover leers—and request evidence of inclusive pedagogical pracce and cultural uency.07outlining 1) essenal criteria (is a Ph.D. in a eld parcularly important or can we say "or closely related eld"); 2) highly desirable criteria (who can teach core courses xyz); 3) hidden criteria ("they'll hit the ground running" = familiarity with org. like ours); 4) non-criteria.06page 26 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
recognizing that implicit biases are human, that they are not character aws, and that they will not be overcome in me for the search. We want to agree on ways we are going to migate their eect on the search, by naming them, and by holding each other accountable.08e.g., ability to teach the core courses is evidenced by (strong): they have taught these courses somewhere x number of mes; weaker: they TA'd; sll weaker: they took the courses in grad program—and look for evidence in every part of the le (not just leer).09As the Chair of a Department or a Program Director, you have the unique opportunity to shape the composion of your Department/Program for decades to come. Stay true to your goals of diversifying and complemenng your program.Next Stepsassigning each interviewer a queson to explore informaon that is missing; describing how you intend to support your new colleague; and talking up St. Thomas!10DE&I IDEABOOK | page 27College of Arts and Sciences
Anti-racism: The active process of identifying, challenging, and confronting racism. This active process requires confronting systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, behaviors, and attitudes. This active process seeks to redistribute power to foster equitable outcomes.Bias: A tendency, inclination or prejudice for or against a person or group and can be explicit or implicit.Culture: Composed of taught and learned values, social norms, beliefs, expectations and ways of thinking. It is how we experience the world and act in it as shaped by what we learn and internalize from the groups to which we belong. Culture arises from within communities.Cultural Humility: The awareness and recognition of diversity and power imbalances among individuals, groups, or communities. It is a sophisticated yet simple response to the complexity that cultural diversity poses and is a powerfulextension of cultural awareness and cultural competence.Discrimination: State laws prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, public services, education, credit, and business based onDEFINITIONS This glossary of DEI Terms, with the goal of creating at St. Thomas a shared language and understanding around concepts related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, was developed by a workgroup organized by the Oce of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Our mission to advance the common good and convictions of human dignity and diversity, as a Catholic institution, calls upon each of us to promote a just and equitable society. We believe that shared language and understanding guides our collective work toward inclusion and belonging. Please find below the Oce for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’s preferred terms.Using Commonpage 28 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
protected class, such as: race, religion, disability, national origin, sex, marital status, familial status, age, sexual orientation, and gender identity.Diversity: Psychological, physical, and social dierences that occur among any and all individuals including but not limited to social or group dierences (e.g., race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation,marital status, ability, age, and familial status) and individual dierences (e.g., values, beliefs, prior knowledge, and life experiences).Equity: An informed understanding of disparities and inequities in society and the process of dismantling structures, systems and policies that have intentionally or unintentionally disadvantaged groups of people. It is a process that seeks, modifies and creates equitable treatment, access, opportunities, support and achievements.Equity-mindedness: a mode of thinking that seeks to address equity issues to ensure all have access, resources, services and support in the amount that they need to strive for their highest potentials.Inclusion: The active, intentional and ongoing engagement with diversity –in the curriculum, in cocurricular activities and in communities (intellectual, social, cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions.Intersectionality: The ways in which our multiple identities shape who we are as an individual and how we are perceived by other individuals, institutions, and societal standards and interactions. Intersecting systems of oppression acknowledges that the multiple social identities individuals hold can be a combination of some which have been historically privileged and some which have been historically marginalized by intersecting systems of domination and oppression.Inclusive Excellence: The holistic approach in synergizing diversity, equity and inclusion at all levels of the institution to achieve academic and institutional excellence.Intercultural competency: The link between diversity and inclusion, which makes a diverse environment an inclusive one. This requires the capacity to recognize, navigate and bridge the complexities of individuals and groups. It is the ability toshift cultural perspective and adapt behavior to cultural commonalities and dierences.Microaggression: The everyday verbal, behavioral, and/or environmental slights, insults, or snubs experienced by marginalized groups because of their group membership(s). Microaggressions can be intentional or unintentional whichcommunicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.Oppression: Systemic and institutional abuse of power by a group at the expense of others. Oppression includes but is not limited to racism, colorism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism and classism. Examples of oppression include racialinequality, persecution of the Jewish during the Holocaust, Jim Crow in the US, occupational sexism, xenophobia or Islamophobia.Privilege: The access to resources and opportunities that a person has; those who are part of the majority or dominant group in a society have more, while those who are part of minority or marginalized communities have less.Race: Race is a made-up social construct, and not an actual biological fact. Race designations have changed over time. Some groups that are considered “white” in the United States today were considered “non-white” in previous eras, in U.S. Census data and in mass media and popular culture (for example, Irish, Italian, and Jewish people).Racism: The system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how an individual looks based on skin color. This process unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages otherindividuals and communities, and may be intentional or unintentional. It operates at various levels in society.Social Identity: The identities with which a person characterizes themselves, including their group anities, social behaviors, values, and norms.Social Justice: Social Justice is the belief that all people should have equal rights and opportunities. How these rights and opportunities are made accessible and equal may not look or be the same for everyone. The dierences in how equality isachieved for everyone is equity at work.DE&I IDEABOOK | page 29College of Arts and SciencesUsing Common
Systems Change: Dismantling systems of oppression by changing policies, practices, and procedures that perpetuate oppression of particular social identity groups and the privileging of dominant social identity groups in an institution.White Privilege: The power and advantages aorded to those who are white (or perceived as white). White privilege is derived from the historical oppression and exploitation of individuals and groups of color and unrelated to hard work or merit. One manifestation is White Fragility, where white people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress, leading to a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable,triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. This insulated environment buildsexpectations for racial comfort, and the inability to tolerate racial stress.Sources:American Association of Colleges and Universities (2012, April 16). Inclusive Excellence. https://www.aacu.org/Sue, D.W. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life: race, gender, and sexual orientation. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.DiAngelo, R.J. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.Hammer, M.R. (2020). The Intercultural Development Inventory® Resource Guide. Olney, MD: IDI LLC.Kendi, I. (2019). How to be an antiracist. Bodley Head.Minnesota Department of Human Rights (n.d.). Who is protected? https://mn.gov/mdhr/yourrights/who-is-protectedNational Association of Diversity Ocers in Higher Education (2021). A Framework for Advancing Anti-Racism Strategy on Campus. Fort Lauderdale, FL: NADOHE.PBS (2003). Race: The Power of an Illusion. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel.The Oce for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion extends a special thank you to the ODEI DEI Shared Language Workgroup members:Kha Yang, AVP for Inclusive Excellence, Oce for Diversity, Equity and InclusionCodi Soeun, Digital Project Manager, Marketing Insights and CommunicationsRama Hart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Opus College of BusinessJayne Sommers Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of EducationErin Curran, Ph.D., Associate Dean, Morrison Family College of HealthHugh Smeltekop, Ph.D., Clinical Faculty for Student Scholar Programs and RetentionNayely Becerra Balbuena, Program Manager, Student Diversity and Inclusion Servicespage 30 | DE&I IDEABOOK University of St. Thomas
Antija Allen and Justin Stewart, eds, We're Not OK: Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Gavin Henning, Reaming Assessment to Center Equity: eories, Models, and Practices (Routledge, 2022). Marshall Rosenberg, Noniolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships (Puddle Dancer Press, 2015). Georey Cohen, Belonging: e Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022). Netta Jenkins, e Inclusive Organization: Real Solutions, Impactful Change, and Meaningful Diversity (Wiley, 2023). Waziyatawin, What Does Justice Look Like?: e Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland (Living Justice Press, 2008).SuggestedREADINGDE&I IDEABOOK | page 31College of Arts and Sciences
RecommendedCANVAS COURSESREAD MORETransforming campus culture . . . nonviolently, with Dr. Yvee ErasmusThere are a number of tools we can access as we strive to become a community that cherishes our encounters with one another across various axes of dierence, including methods of compassionate communication. Join Dr. Yvette Erasmus for a six-module course that is accessible to University faculty and sta through Canvas. University of St. Thomaspage 32 | DE&I IDEABOOK
Recommended CANVAS COURSESREAD MORERecovering history . . . fearlessly,with faculty from the University of St. ThomasBecoming Human is rooted in the idea that the racial history people in the United States inherit is dehumanizing for all of us, though it is dehumanizing for white folks in dierent ways than it is dehumanizing for people of color. The only way to “become human” is to dismantle the structures that distribute advantages and disadvantages unequally on the basis of skin color.College of Arts and Sciences DE&I IDEABOOK | page 33
Since founding the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center, St. Thomas has trained 15 circle facilitators since 2022The methodology of racial healing circles can challenge negative social bias and foment social change (see Godsil & Goodale, 2013). Racial Healing Circles are for departments that want to explore racial narratives in an accessible and non-threatening way, employing narrative to combat stereotypes. The format can be a single session or multiple sessions. The CAS contact for requesting a Racial Healing Circle is Hugh Smeltekop.Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) SEED groups "build agency and capacity for change by asking what kind of justice we need individually, relationally, and systemically, and understanding and enacting change that is needed." SEED started in 2019 at St. Thomas, and has provoked deep thinking around identity, privilege and oppression, and how to use that knowledge to make our institution more welcoming and inclusive. SEED groups also create a sense of community and camaraderie with colleagues from across campus.SEED training typically consists of ten two-hour sessions with a group of colleagues, spent in conversation and reection. Sign-ups typically occur in September and sessions last through May of the following year. Contact Rachel Harris for more information.LearningOPPORTUNITIESREAD MOREUniversity of St. Thomaspage 34 | DE&I IDEABOOK
READ MORERestoring RelationsTelling the truth of this land . . . compassionately, with Rev. Jim Bear JacobsWhat happened on the very land upon which the University of St. Thomas is located? How did the University acquire the land? What was the role of the Catholic Church in the forced assimilation of indigenous children and families? And where do we go from here? During academic year 2023-2024, lean in for this series of important conversations and site visits.https://one.stthomas.edu/sites/schools-colleges/college-of-arts-sciences/SitePage/194721/compassionate-connections-series-indigenous-relationsLearningOPPORTUNITIESCollege of Arts and Sciences DE&I IDEABOOK | page 35
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