Goals

Goals for an Inclusive Community

To achieve our mission as a Texas public university, creating new knowledge and preparing graduates to excel in the world, we must ensure that all members of the university community have equitable opportunities.

Our student body represents the population of Texas more closely now than ever before. To make our present and future more inclusive than our past, we need to acknowledge historical inequities and address the personal biases and systemic barriers that persist today. The campus climate survey is a tool for assessing how well we’re doing and what work still needs to be done.

Our Goals

1. Strengthen Our Culture of Respect and Inclusion

Develop and use a more inclusive definition of diversity that builds on and broadens the race and gender diversity focus of previous diversity strategic plans.

Create and implement strategies that provide an effective framework for student success with exposure to a broad array of differences, new and different points of view, a global perspective, and a spirit of inclusiveness.

Create an optional, internal inclusion skill certificate program for faculty and staff members to build capacity of all members of the university community to treat every individual with respect, to value and leverage differences, and to collectively work to enhance our safe and supportive environment that honors and promotes the physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being of all community members. It will be a voluntary program that requires completion of existing training programs: Veterans, Title IX, ADA, Managing at Texas State, Allies, Bystander Intervention, Faculty Hiring, Curriculum Transformation Institute, and potential new programs. It will also include required reading of selected literature.

Increase faculty participation in Curriculum Transformation Institute.

Create and implement responsive strategies based on an analysis of the results of the Student Campus Climate Survey and Great Colleges to Work For Survey and other assessments.

Support research studies, scholarship, curricular development, and extra-curricular critical conversation opportunities for the university community.

2. Strengthen Our Efforts to Better Identify and Overcome Barriers to Inclusion

Create and implement strategies that allow the university community to engage in conversations about inclusion with the goal of identifying barriers to inclusion and ways in which the identified barriers may be overcome.

In view of the changing demographics at Texas State, the more inclusive definition of diversity to be agreed upon as a part of this plan, and the emerging literature relating to the concept of intersectionality, explore the ways in which the Equity and Access Committee and affinity groups can assist in identifying, creating, and implementing strategies to overcome barriers.

3. Strengthen Our Ability to Better Understand and Define Our University Community

Develop a data-based University “Portrait” that will tell our diversity stories: HSI, growth of diversity, values/mission, history of Equity and Access Committee.

Develop unit-specific “Portraits” that contain relevant historic and comparative peer data.

Complete analysis of results of the Student Campus Climate Survey Data and re-administer the survey during the planning period to provide comparative results.

Conduct comprehensive data gathering and analysis using as many categories of diversity as possible.

Recommend adding faculty and staff campus climate survey tool and re-administering the survey during the planning period to provide comparative results.

Create inventory of all activities across the university that relate to diversity and inclusion efforts.

4. Strengthen Our Efforts to Maintain a Safe University Environment Free From Discrimination and Sexual Misconduct

Create additional Title IX trainings and poster campaigns to educate and raise awareness of sexual misconduct, the affirmative consent standard, reporting avenues, existing policies and procedures, and related issues.

Create and implement strategies to prevent sexual misconduct and eliminate discrimination.

Engage in research concerning Best Practices and peer-practices.

Create and implement strategies that encourage all members of the university community to find commonality and build alliances across differences; to promote character development both inside and outside the classroom; and to foster an environment that expects all community members to interact with one another civilly, honestly, equitably, compassionately, fairly, and ethically.

5. Strengthen the Diversity of Faculty and Senior-level Administrators (Director & above)

Increase training and consulting related to faculty recruitment and selection.

Increase diversity of applicant pools in faculty and staff postings.

Provide a trend analysis related to unit specific “Portraits” which includes historical review, internal comparisons, external comparisons with peers, and available workforce data.

Definitions

When talking about something as important and complex as inclusion and diversity, we must understand each other. Here are explanations of the words we’re using in these conversations.

View terminology guide