{"id":57073,"date":"2021-08-09T14:41:07","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T18:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?post_type=r_cas_magazine&p=57073"},"modified":"2021-09-02T14:04:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T18:04:55","slug":"diversity-equity-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"r_cas_magazine","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/arts-sciences\/fall-2021\/diversity-equity-inclusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Diverse and Inclusive CAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Thurston | Photo by Tim Llewellyn<\/p>\n

When CAS assessed its diversity and inclusion performance in 2017, the findings made for bleak\u2014and for many, unsurprising\u2014reading. 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 \u201cserious issues about the degree to which our campus is welcoming to racial minorities and diverse others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, the college has worked to become a more inclusive place\u2014a 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many people it feels familiar, but for many, this is new and shocking and upsetting,\u201d says Vincent L. Stephens, CAS\u2019 first associate dean dedicated to diversity and inclusion<\/a>. \u201cLast year, there was a genuine sea change in terms of folks realizing that when people are talking about racism, they\u2019re not just talking about individual incidents. They\u2019re talking about systemic issues that impact specific populations in really specific ways.<\/p>\n

Last year, there was a genuine sea change in terms of folks realizing that when people are talking about racism, they\u2019re not just talking about individual incidents. They\u2019re talking about systemic issues that impact specific populations in really specific ways.<\/p>\n

\u2014Vincent L. Stephens<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe key is, what do we do beyond the flash points?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past 18 months, CAS has hired Stephens, founded an action team of faculty, staff, and students<\/a>, and laid plans to launch the University\u2019s 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\u2019s emerging scholars program, which aims to expand the University\u2019s recruitment pool.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of work to do, but we\u2019ve made some demonstrable progress,\u201d says Stan Sclaroff, dean of CAS. One measure: an increase in the number of faculty from underrepresented groups. \u201cWe\u2019re a community of people, and if we exclude people, we\u2019re missing out on all this talent, all these ideas, all these perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community Involvement<\/h2>\n

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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vincent L. Stephens joined CAS in January 2021 as its first associate dean dedicated to diversity and inclusion. Photo by Janice Checchio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sclaroff adds that the college\u2019s new strategic plan has diversity and inclusion baked in. \u201cIt\u2019s not a separate thing,\u201d he says, \u201cit actually permeates everything that we do.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cInclusion must happen at all levels to be effective,\u201d says Grace Lee (CAS\u201922), one of four student representatives. \u201cBy bringing in the input of the full CAS community, all perspectives can be heard and understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s room for alumni to get involved, too<\/a>, whether in mentoring students or sharing their experiences\u2014good and bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlums are part of the BU community, and they have experiences and insights that can help us make BU more inclusive and equitable,\u201d says Maurice Lee, action team chair and a professor of English. \u201cThere\u2019s no single solution or mechanism here. Alums can get involved in many ways, and that involvement doesn\u2019t always need to be celebratory. We need to face hard truths to do the hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New hiring and recruitment efforts, social justice courses, and faculty and student antiracism groups build momentum for change<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":57472,"template":"","department":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/r_cas_magazine"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57970,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-articles\/57073\/revisions\/57970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"r_cas_department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=57073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}