Eunice Matthews, Ph.D. LCSW
Professor, Social Work & Sociology
Chair, Diversity and Social Justice Council
4.5 Strategic initiative: Develop and implement a
comprehensive diversity plan that supports Eastern’s
Strategic Plan 2008-2013
Eastern will develop and implement a comprehensive
diversity plan that addresses creating a welcoming
university environment, enhancing efforts for a diverse
workforce, enhancing programs, and supporting a
diverse student population
Diversity and Social Justice Council
Mission Statement
The mission of the Diversity and Social Justice Council is
to support and monitor the University’s evolution
towards inclusive excellence through the promotion of
coherence, cohesion, and collaboration of diversity
initiatives and institutional structures within and
across organizational systems at Eastern Connecticut
State University.
Council Membership
 Elsa Nunez, President
 Rhona Free, Academic Affairs
 Carmen Cid, School of Arts &
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Sciences
Jaime Gomez ,School of Edu &
Prof Studies
Dennis Hannon ,Finance and
Administration
Walter Diaz ,Student Affairs
Angel Beltran, Facilities
Theresa Bouley ,Education
Carlos Escoto, Psychology
Suzanne Dowling, Counseling
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Kimberly Dugan, Sociology
Madelenine Fugere, Psychology
Lisa Hamilton, Public Safety
Susan Heyward, Advising Center
Edith Mavor, Registrar
LaQuana Price, Admissions
Pamela Starr, AccessAbility
Services
 Denis Ugurlu, Student
Council Structure
1 Council Chair , Eunice Matthews
4 Sub-Committees Co-chairs
Each sub-committee will be lead by a co- chair that will be responsible for scheduling
and convening the meetings and reporting to the larger council.
 Campus Climate Sub Committee,
 Co- Chair, Madeleine Fugere
 Institutional Viability Sub-Committee,
 Co-Chair, Jaime Gomez,
 Academic Programming Sub-Committee
 Co-Chair, Kim Dugan
 Institutional Programming Sub-Committee.
 Co-Chair, Pam Star
Campus Climate Sub-Committee
 Creating a welcoming campus environment enriches campus life
and individuals to reach their potential. In the fall of 2007
President Nunez requested that the DRJ Committee administer a
campus climate survey to the entire university community
(students, faculty and staff) in order to assess perceptions about
the existing campus climate. This was the first time that such an
extensive survey had been administered at Eastern. A campus
climate survey was developed by the Diversity Race and Justice
(DRJ) Committee in the spring of 2008 and was administered in
the spring and fall of 2008. The purpose of the survey was to
provide baseline data about the perceptions of the university
campus climate by different segments of our population. A
major benefit of doing such a survey is that the data can be used
to help us institutionalize the university core value of “inclusion”.
The Campus climate sub-committee is charged with the
continued monitoring and redistribution of this survey.
Institutional Viability
 The institutional Viability sub-committee is concern with
issues of admission and retention among students, faculty,
and staff who make up Eastern Connecticut State
University Community for the purpose of maintaining a
diverse community. This sub-committee will focus on
such things as accessibility by various populations to
aspects of the university community; student admissions,
student major selection and success, student persistence,
retention, and graduation, hiring, departmental
compositions, promotion and tenure. The institutional
viability data (admissions, hiring, recruitment, promotion
and retention) is essential for assessing diversity initiatives
and progress over time.
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Institutional Programming
 The Institutional programming sub- committee will
focus on the non-academic departments [such as
student affairs, support staff, etc. ] for the purpose of
facilitating the development of opportunities for
interdepartmental collaborations as well as individual
departmental initiatives that support the diversity
mission and support the distribution of information
regarding best practices among non- academic
departments
Academic Programming
 The academic programming sub- committee will focus
on the academic departments for the purpose of
facilitating the development of opportunities for
interdepartmental collaborations as well as individual
departmental initiatives in the areas of curriculum
development, responsive teaching methods, and faculty
development, that support the diversity mission and
support the distribution of information regarding best
practices among academic departments .
Our Journey
The Goals for Our Journey
 To begin to address the achievement gap among
underrepresented groups
 To move towards utilizing a comprehensive framework
for excellence that incorporates diversity at its core,
creating an interconnectedness between diversity and
quality in regards to education
 To create a system whereby the need for cohesion and
collaboration among diversity initiatives can be
addressed
The reality of the Achievement Gap
Average Cumulative GPA, 1st year 2007 for Eastern
students
 White 2.73
 Black 2.38
 Hispanic 2.25
 Asian 2.6
The achievement gap among underrepresented students
is not unique to Eastern, but a struggle for colleges and
university across the country.
The reality of the Achievement Gap
 According to The Condition of Education Report for
2010 the achievement gap among underrepresented
students persists. 6 year graduation rates by race
 67% Asian
 60% White
 48% Hispanic
 42% Blacks
 40% American Indian/ Alaskan
Traditional Explanations for Disparities
 Student involvement
 Intensity of their high school curriculum
 Lack of cultural capital
 Limited social and academic integration
A need for a shift
 Although, students should accept responsibility for
their own success, the persistence of the achievement
gap among underrepresented students demands a
shift in our focus to one of shared responsibility for
students’ educational outcomes and the possibility of
deficits at the institutional level
Inclusive excellence
 Requires that we begin to understand diversity not as an
outcome but as process that influences a set of critical
educational outcomes and,
 Inspires a shift in our thinking of diversity away from that
of separate from educational quality to an understanding
of diversity as being fundamentally linked to desired
student learning outcomes and,
 Supports the understanding of diversity as being more
than demographic compositions, and explorations of
differences but also interested in opposing unfair forms of
exclusion , prejudice, and discrimination thus changing
existing arrangements of power.
Inclusive Excellence as a Conceptual
Framework : Basic principles
 A focus on student intellectual and social development
 A purposeful development and utilization of
organizational resources to enhance student learning
 Attention to the cultural differences learners bring to
the educational experience and enhance the enterprise
 A welcoming community that engages all of its
diversity in the service of student and organizational
learning.
American Association of Colleges and University:
Making excellence inclusive
Four Important levels for enacting
Change
 Senior leadership and accountability- must be
committed to establishing inclusive excellence
 Vision and buy in – the vision for change must be
communicated to stakeholders at multiple levels so
that they can define, reframe adapt and implement the
vision according to their unique vantage points.
 Building capacity : building long term organizational
capacity, investing in developing faculty, staff, and unit
capabilities
 Leveraging resources – make available necessary
financial technical human and symbolic resources
Inclusive Excellence Scorecard Framework
Williams,D;Berger,J;and McClendon, S.(2005)
Toward a modeld of inclusive excellence and
change in post secondary institutions , AAC&U
Eastern Connecticut State University
Diversity and Social Justice Council
2011-2012
Eastern Connecticut State University
DSJ Council Initiatives 2011-2012
 Host Discussion groups- to encourage the identification and an
examination of best practices regarding methods to confront the
achievement gap within and across departments.
 Faculty Development Pilot Project: Book Club
 Title-Other people’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the classroom by Lisa
Delpit
 Title: Degrees of inequality Culture, class, an d gender in American higher
education by Ann L. Muller
 Campus Climate Survey #2