Strategies &
EDI Strategic
EDI StrategyWe actively cultivate internal and external community connections where trust is built, the effects of injustice are uprooted, and long-term and sustainable outcomes and relationships are developed.
Strategic Goal No. 1
Enhance and improve internal and external relationships with stakeholders.
Key Strategies
- Leverage Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation framework to engage with and connect to diverse audiences.
- Leverage historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) partners and Saturday Academy programs to improve pipeline and access to diverse potential students.
Action Steps
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- Ensure affinity groups and other stakeholder groups contribute to and understand shared equity leadership.
- Identify and sunset all duplicative stakeholder groups.
- Socialize across campus the Race, Ethnicity, and Sex in Utah report by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
- Establish greater working relationships with the interfaith communities to engage stakeholders.
- Recruit and retain diverse K-12 grade students to provide condensed learning and growth opportunities as a Pathway through the Saturday Academy.
- Develop an emerging Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) taskforce to develop strategies for achieving HSI status
- Pursue the hiring of staff dedicated to the HSI initiative (including identifying funding of positions).
- Identify key stakeholders to serve as an HSI Steering Committee
- Establish an HSI Implementation Framework/ Structure.
- Develop an HSI External Advisory Board to advance the work of the HSI initiative
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- Leverage the Truth, Racial healing and Transformation framework to engage various stakeholder groups.
- Understand and identify the different cultures, experiences and perspectives that coexist in a community to develop mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Coordinate campus partnerships with HBCU’s through the HBCU partnership manager.
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- Prepare for application based on federal requirements
- Submit application by 2027.
- Establish and identify stakeholders (students, staff, and faculty) to serve on the Emerging HSI Taskforce
- Implementation Team to sequence, execute and track the implementation of the HSI report recommendations.
- Conduct equity-oriented impact analysis with metrics.These metrics could focus on student success outcomes, teaching and mentoring effectiveness, sense of belonging for students, faculty, and staff.
- Provide a transparent tracking system that communicates both internally and externally the progress the HSI Implementation team is making on the recommendations.
Strategic Goal No. 2
Equip University of Utah and external leaders with the knowledge, tools, and courage to plan for, commit to, and act on organizational change goals for equity, diversity, and inclusion in their respective roles.
Key Strategies
- Position New Leadership Academy (NLA) as a national leader and institutional leadership resource to drive organizational change toward centering equity.
- Ensure New Leadership Academy has resources to develop leaders in Utah and in higher education institutions and organizations across the nation.
Action Steps
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- Complete the process to launch NLA as an Institute with “provisional status” for a period no longer than 3 years (goal to become Institute by Year 3 at the latest). Investigate and pursue grant, foundation, and other external funding.
- Generate at least 35 Fellows for the 2023 NLA Fellows Program cohort.
- Complete Utah Board of Higher Education and Utah System of Higher Education leadership development curriculum in 2022; funded by the $125,000 Strada sponsorship.
- Launch pilot New Leadership Academy cohort for the Higher Education Strengthening Activity (HESSA) grant in Pakistan.
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- Grow NLA Alumni Community to include a virtual or in-person alumni event to coincide with either the AAHHE Annual Conference or NLA Summer Institute.
- Generate at least 35 Fellows for the 2023 NLA Fellows Program cohort.
- Submit larger Strada grant proposal to expand NLA leadership development to additional organizations, boards, or higher education systems in the intermountain west.
- Build toward generating $1.5 million per year to achieve Institute status.
- Promote NLA Learning Partners through a robust website, application process, and streamlined offerings for NLA institutional equity, diversity, and inclusion assessment, workshops, and written reports.
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- Launch the New Leadership Academy as an Institute at the University of Utah.
- Generate at least 35 Fellows for the 2023 NLA Fellows Program cohort.
- Expand NLA Learning Partners to generate academic reports, articles, or white papers to share the knowledge created through NLA’s work.
- Elevate NLA to a nationally-recognized brand for leadership development.
Strategic Goal No. 3
Establish a voice for national conversations on topics related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Key Strategies
- Position the University of Utah EDI division as a national leader for equity-centered campus transformation
- Establish opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and trainees can learn best practices from leading universities in equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Explore ways to pilot leading-edge national concepts in equity, diversity, and inclusion
Action Steps
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- Continue Friday Forum on Racism in Higher Education series as a way of bringing national topics and speakers to the university to discuss issues that affect faculty and staff.
- Utilize Reframing the Conversation to discuss trending issues facing marginalized communities.
- Leverage the New Leadership Academy to demonstrate the expertise in teaching leadership through an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens.
- Develop learning circles for Shared Equity Leadership and sharing the concepts through EDI Strategy Council and NLA.
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- Continue Friday Forum on Racism in Higher Education series as a way of bringing national topics and speakers to the university to discuss issues that affect faculty and staff.
- Utilize Reframing the Conversation to discuss trending issues facing marginalized communities.
- Continue to participate in learning circles for Shared Equity Leadership and sharing the concepts through EDI Strategy Council and NLA
- Leverage the New Leadership Academy to demonstrate the expertise in teaching leadership through an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens.
- Seek external opportunities for EDI leadership team to speak on priority areas.