De Anza College
2014
EO REP
(Equity Official Representative)
Equal Opportunity
Hiring Committee Training
Facilitators:
Dr. Veronica Neal
Director of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education
X5338
1
Dr. Jackie Reza
Director of Staff & Organizational Development
X8366
Equity / Equal Opportunity Training
Workshop Abstract with Outcomes Embedded:
At the completion of this three-hour workshop Equal Opportunity Representatives (EO) will have a solid
grounding in De Anza College’s philosophy and commitment to diversity & social justice, which are at
the heart of our Institutional Core Competencies. EO Reps will understand their role on the hiring
committee, the six major segments of the hiring process and be able to demonstrate a variety of
strategies they can use to implement concepts of inclusion and social justice during each segment of the
hiring process.
Agenda
Introduction and Purpose
Sharing Our Stories: How did I get here?
Building Common Language
What we do what we do. Our commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice Exercise
Report Outs and Large Group Discussion
The Hiring Process and Social Justice Consciousness- Through-out
Applying Our Skills: Scenarios (oldies and newbies)
Discussion & Closing
De Anza College Mission Statement
De Anza College provides an academically rich, multicultural learning environment that challenges students of
every background to develop their intellect, character and abilities; to realize their goals; and to be socially
responsible leaders in their communities, the nation and the world.
De Anza College fulfills its missions by engaging students in creative work that demonstrates the knowledge,
skills and attitudes contained within the college’s Institutional Core Competencies:




Communication and expression
Information literacy
Physical/mental wellness and personal
responsibility

2
Global, cultural, social and environmental
awareness
Critical thinking
Building Common Language
Equity
Equality
Diversity
Inclusion
Hiring for What?
A Working Definition of Social Justice
Social Justice is a process, not an outcome, which (1) seeks fair (re)distribution of resources,
opportunities, and responsibilities; (2) challenges the roots of oppression and injustice; (3)
empowers all people to exercise self-determination and realize their full potential; (4) and builds
social solidarity and community capacity for collaborative action. – UC Berkeley, School of
Social Work
Why do we need EO Reps for hiring?
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights/The Leadership Conference Education
Fund summarizes the need for EO Reps as follows: Equal opportunity hiring representatives and
the processes involved are designed to ensure a fair chance at job opportunities through:





Identifying and dismantling discriminatory barriers such as biased testing or recruitment
and hiring practices
Conducting outreach to under-represented women and minorities by targeting colleges,
ethnic media, or women and minority organizations
Instituting and reviewing mentoring and targeted training programs
Addressing hidden biases in recruitment, hiring, promotion and compensation practices,
such as unnecessary job requirements
Setting flexible goals for managers and supervisors
3
Some Guiding Assumptions for EO Representatives
1. Our primary task in life is to develop to our fullest potential as human beings. As Paulo
Freire put it, our most fundamental “vocation” is to “become more fully human”.
2. To become fully human means to develop all the dimensions of our being, including the
emotional/social, spiritual/cultural, and physical aspects of our being as well as our
mental/intellectual capacities (the Medicine Wheel). This can also be conceived of as the
development of our “multiple intelligences”, including emotional and moral intelligence.
3. Our development as human beings occurs primarily in the context of relationships.
4. An essential capacity involved in cognitive / moral, emotional / social, and spiritual / cultural
development is that of empathy. The development of empathy is therefore essential to our
overall development, and so, to our primary task as human beings.
5. Full human development also requires the integration and application of our highest level of
development into all the contexts of our being. This means acting in all the situations and
relationships in our lives based on our highest level of understanding and practice. This can also
be understood as the process of developing integrity.
6. Racism, like all forms of oppression and exploitation, is predicated on the practice of
objectifying, dehumanizing, and demonizing particular “others”, of creating social, emotional,
cultural, and spiritual distance and disconnection from the other. Such objectification and
dehumanization is the antithesis of a capacity for empathy, which engenders connection and
identification with another.
7. To become fully human then, to develop to our greatest potential, requires that we fully
develop our capacity for empathy, which necessarily involves recognizing and overcoming racist
beliefs/ attitudes, relational practices, and the social/institutional structures that sustain them.
Education for human development, therefore, necessarily includes anti-racist education.
8. Education for human development must necessarily, and ultimately, address all forms of
objectification by pursuing social justice through actions that transform all institutions and
practices that foster dehumanization, and so, limit our ability to develop to our full potential.
9. While all forms of oppression have a very personal and interpersonal side to them, they are
also deeply embedded in laws, policies and social structures of society. Education for human
development must address both those personal dimensions of our experience that are very
accessible, and the underlying, and most often invisible, institutional structures of oppression.
10. The greatest challenge for many anti-racist educators and advocates for social justice is to
connect with and reawaken the humanity, the empathic capacity, in those who act in
dehumanizing ways; that is, those who are most disconnected from themselves and their own
humanity. To do this, we must continually reconnect with our own humanity.
4
Hiring Committee Process
5
Overall of Hiring Process & EO “Job Description”
Sept/Oct/Nov
Sept/Oct/Nov/Dec
EO Training,
Introductions &
Committee Assignments
Job Description
(Example)
What’s important here:
6
What’s important here:
Dec/Jan/Feb
Jan/Feb
Feb/March
March/April/May
Screening Criteria &
Questions, Paper Screening
Sort & Invite for
Interview
Interview
Sorting & forwarding of
candidates
What’s important here:
EO Level 1 Training: Hiring Committees
What’s important
here:
What’s important
here:
What’s important here:
FROM THE SCEANARIOS
What you don’t want to
see:
7
What you don’t want to
see:
EO Level 1 Training: Hiring Committees
What you don’t want to
see:
What you don’t
want to see:
What you don’t
want to see:
What you don’t want to
see:
EO Issues in Scenario Format
#1 CRITICAL INCIDENT IN WRITING OF THE POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT/JOB DESCRIPTION
You are an EO rep on the search committee for a dean position in the Physical Education &
Athletics Education. The committee is writing the position announcement. Along with the state
mandated minimum qualifications for the discipline and the “Understanding of, sensitivity to,
and respect for diverse academic, socio-economic…” etc., members of the committee would like
to add “one year of teaching and coaching experience.” The position does require the person to
teach and coach. Are there potential EO issues present here? What questions does this raise?
How might you handle the situation?
#2 CRITICAL INCIDENTS IN SCREENING APPLICATIONS
You are an EO rep on the search committee for a faculty position in the chemistry department.
All committee members have individually reviewed applications and you are now deciding who
to interview. There is much interest in one candidate from an east coast Ivy League school.
Because of the excellent reputation of the school and its science department, several members of
the committee would like to interview the person. But concerns are raised about the person
having a PhD and extensive teaching and research experience; would he be “challenged” at De
Anza? Are they applying just to get to the bay area? Do we have the money to fly them out for
the interview? What is your role as an EO representative in regards to these concerns?
#3 DEVELOPING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
You are an EO Rep on the search committee for a division secretary for Business and Computer
Information Systems Division. The committee has been trained, completed the job
announcement and the screening criteria. The committee is now developing interview questions.
The following conversation ensues:
Committee Chair: O.K. these first couple of questions look pretty good.
Committee member #1: We should have a diversity question, also. Do you (looking at the EO
Rep) have a suggestion?
EO Rep:?
Committee Chair: We’ve always relied on a focused question on diversity. Have we changed
how we are running things?
8
EO Level 1 Training: Hiring Committees
Committee member #2: Yeah, that’s my experience too. And I assume you (EO Rep) would ask
that question during the interview. Isn’t that your job on the committee? Or what is your job on
the committee?
EO Rep?
#4 INTERVIEW DELIBERATIONS ROLE PLAY #3
Position: Director of Financial Aid
Situation: First round interviews are complete. The committee is deciding who to forward to the
final round. It is mid-meeting and the discussion is just beginning about a Filipino candidate with
very strong credentials and experience. The EO Rep has ranked the candidate high on every
response. The following discussion ensues:
Chair: All right, let’s talk about Mr. Rivas. What do people think?
Committee Member #1: Well, I had him ranked fairly high, but I’m not sure I could forward
him…
Committee Member #2: I would have trouble as well, and I’ll tell you why. Our financial aid
office needs strong leadership at this point.
#1: Exactly what I was getting at.
#2: His response to the question about the employee who is habitually late was very disturbing.
He said he would work with this person to try and provide accommodation for her child care
needs. Well, what about our students who need service first thing in the morning? This is exactly
the kind of situation that would be abused in this area. He needs to draw a firm line with such
employees.
#1: I agree. This director needs to be able to make the hard decisions.
9
EO Level 1 Training: Hiring Committees