Creating a Diverse and Inclusive CAS
New hiring and recruitment efforts, social justice courses, and faculty and student antiracism groups build momentum for change
When CAS assessed its diversity and inclusion performance in 2017, the findings made for bleak—and for many, unsurprising—reading. The college was failing to attract and retain faculty from underrepresented groups, ranking below most of its national peers in teacher diversity. The dean at the time, Ann Cudd, said the report raised “serious issues about the degree to which our campus is welcoming to racial minorities and diverse others.”
Since then, the college has worked to become a more inclusive place—a push that intensified in 2020, a year when stark pandemic disparities, more police killings, and far-right violence brought new attention to the fights against racism and for equity.
“For many people it feels familiar, but for many, this is new and shocking and upsetting,” says Vincent L. Stephens, CAS’ first associate dean dedicated to diversity and inclusion. “Last year, there was a genuine sea change in terms of folks realizing that when people are talking about racism, they’re not just talking about individual incidents. They’re talking about systemic issues that impact specific populations in really specific ways.
Last year, there was a genuine sea change in terms of folks realizing that when people are talking about racism, they’re not just talking about individual incidents. They’re talking about systemic issues that impact specific populations in really specific ways.
“The key is, what do we do beyond the flash points?”
In the past 18 months, CAS has hired Stephens, founded an action team of faculty, staff, and students, and laid plans to launch the University’s first African American Studies major. Those moves build on existing efforts to provide diversity training for faculty search committees, add social justice courses into the curriculum, and support BU’s emerging scholars program, which aims to expand the University’s recruitment pool.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, but we’ve made some demonstrable progress,” says Stan Sclaroff, dean of CAS. One measure: an increase in the number of faculty from underrepresented groups. “We’re a community of people, and if we exclude people, we’re missing out on all this talent, all these ideas, all these perspectives.”
Community Involvement
Stephens started in January and has organized regular workshops for faculty, provided support to more than a dozen departmental diversity and antiracism groups, met with students, responded to individual concerns of bias, and guided the community through national moments of hurt, such as attacks on Asian Americans. Formerly head of Dickinson College’s race and ethnicity center and a director of multicultural student services at Bucknell University, he also advises the dean on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Sclaroff adds that the college’s new strategic plan has diversity and inclusion baked in. “It’s not a separate thing,” he says, “it actually permeates everything that we do.” A big part of that, he says, is making sure the whole community is involved in tackling racism and discrimination. The action team, which started its work in fall 2020, includes faculty, staff, and students.
“Inclusion must happen at all levels to be effective,” says Grace Lee (CAS’22), one of four student representatives. “By bringing in the input of the full CAS community, all perspectives can be heard and understood.”
There’s room for alumni to get involved, too, whether in mentoring students or sharing their experiences—good and bad.
“Alums are part of the BU community, and they have experiences and insights that can help us make BU more inclusive and equitable,” says Maurice Lee, action team chair and a professor of English. “There’s no single solution or mechanism here. Alums can get involved in many ways, and that involvement doesn’t always need to be celebratory. We need to face hard truths to do the hard work.”