The College of Pharmacy (COP) Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI)
2014/15 Annual Report
Presented to: Dr. Jerry Bauman, Dean
June 9, 2015
The 2015/15 year has been one of looking back and forward for the College of
Pharmacy Urban Health Program and the Office of Diversity and Inclsion. We have
spent this past academic year in strategic directions through ambious studenty
recruitment, retention and graduation of underrepresented minority students
(URMs) albiet with a small hard working and dedicated staff and limited budget.
Deespite the prolifiration of colleges of pharmacy in the Chicagoland areas who are
also competing with the College for talented URM students, we are happy to say that
UIC College of Pharmacy remains the number one preference of URMs. Through
proactive recruitment efforts using social media and technology and partnerships,
we are reaching URM potential pharmacy students who are originally from Illinois.
We have conducted pre-pharmacy sessions at community and Universities with
sizable URM students. In total, we have reached approximately over 25,000
potential URMs. In addition, we are continuing our focus of building URM pharmacy
pipeline through our Chicago Public School Urban Pipeline Program.
Forming strategic partnerships with several of the College’s departments and
offices, including other UHP health science staff has been critical in our outreach
efforts of attracting and enrolling URMs into the College. To this end, the College
reach an important goal the Urban Pharmacy (UPHARM) Services Program was
approved as a concentration, making it possible for our students to practice in urban
communities throughout Chicago and across the state to address the healthcare
disparities that plague our communities and citizens.
Our full report shows that though the efforts from ODI though the publication of the
community engagement report of our students and faculty highlighting the many
hours that our students and faculty members are engaged in providing services as
volunteers with the various communities. A foreign language survey was conducted
that shows the diversity of students in languages spoken; English language
immersion program for assisting non-native international students for patient
communication. We implemented the peer education program for assisting in our
student retention; workshops on stress management and mental health well-being
of students across the two campuses. We have hosted several student supported
cultural competency seminars and discussions with students from medicine,
dentistry and applied health sciences. We are very proud of our accomplishments
and excited about the future. The COP-UHP/ODI team bring new and fresh ideas as
programmative initiatives. We have been productive this year thanks to Tiffany
Bumpers, COP-UHP Recruitment Coordinator and Jason Rebello, Associate Director
for Diversity and Inclusion.
The goals for next year includes an advising presence two days a week for our UIC
undergraduate’s students who will potentially be our biggest feeder for the College.
We will work collaboratively with the campus UHP, the African American Academic
Network, the Trio Program and the Latin American Recruitment Educational
Services, and the Native American Student Support Program.
I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Jerry Bauman, Dean and Professor, College of
Pharmacy for his support.
ODI Report: Progress and Accomplishments
The Office of Diversity and Inclusion works collaboratively with all COP units to
make sure that,“The College community fosters an inclusive and supportive
environment encompassing acceptance and respect of differences among students,
staff, faculty and guests. Differences include, but are not limited to race, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities, and beliefs (e.g., health, sociological,
religious and socio-cultural barriers). These different groups will be represented in
all facets of the College’s education and experiences such as our curricula content,
faculty, student, staff and research representations to ensure a College climate that
promotes the well-being and success of all”.
The following activities show some of the initiatives that helped in accomplishing
some of our charge:
Scholarships & Awards
Every year the College awards 97 scholarships to its current students. Scholarships
range from academic performance, interests and focus of research/volunteer work,
as well as heritage and background. This year, the ODI worked to increase the overall
UHP scholarship applicant pool. As a result 12% of scholarships were awarded to
URM students.
College Student, Faculty, and Staff Climate of Diversity and
Equity Support
As a strategic goal, the ODI doubled its efforts to achieve a greater interaction with
students, faculty, and staff as a way to monitor any climate issues. We also provide
and welcome students in need of a safe place to ask questions on any issue. ODI
offices are designed safe zones for students/faculty and staff. ODI collaborates with
other units in the College to promote and educate on issues of diversity and inclusion
and work closely with the Provost for Diversity at the campus level. Through our
efforts, at the end of the academic year, we had 51 climate-type appointments which
included 5 visits to the Rockford Campus.
COP-Diversity and Strategic Thinking and Planning (DSTP)
Committee
The Diversity Teaching and Learning Subcommittee, focused on creating a
student focus group for spring 2016 with the goal of “Assessing the cultural
awareness of the UIC College of Pharmacy faculty” by students. The
subcommittee met many times to work on the IRB, focus group questions. The
subcommittee under the leadership of Dr. Nick Popovich, is made up of
students and faculty.
Community Engagement Report
Building on last years inaugural community engagement report, which was a
highlighted positive feature during the colleges accreditation review, the
Office of diversity & Inclusion embarked on increasing the promotion of the
community engagement report to our student organizations, and faculty. The
2013-2014 report featured 77 student community health outreach events.
Based on our promotion, the 2014-2015 report tallied 200 impactful
community engagement events. This reflects 48% increase in community
based events with 22% increase in total hours served. Overall, a 72% increase
in the number of community members served.
COP Foreign Language Survey
ODI created the College’s inaugural foreign Language Survey which collects
and tallies the foreign languages spoken by our student population. This
served 3 main purposes: adding another layer of quantifiable metrics on the
diversity at the College for internal tracking; to better market the diversity of
the college to prospective students, and prospective employers; and finally, to
provided a tool for the experiential faculty coordinators and faculty members
with clinical outreach programs that are located in the City of Chicago and
suburban Cook County since some of the programs are periodically conducted
in languages, other than English. The information collected from this informal
survey was instrumental in these faculty members in identifying students that
speak various languages who might be able to participate in their programs.
Marketing & Advancement
Created a new Poster for the lobby display, which marketed the College’s
“Urban Mission”. The poster features basic details about our Urban Pipeline
Program in addition to highlighting the UPHARM concentration. The display
has received very positive feedback from guests visiting the college.
Peer Education Program
ODI continued its initiative of supporting the academic progress of all
students through the Peer Education Program. This program facilitates peereducation services that are offered free throughout the academic year for
students in Chicago and Rockford. By the end of the academic year, 17 peer
educators had a total of 23 hours of peer education services for 108 students.
The feedback from students on peer education was very positive.
Stress Management
With the assistance of the campus Office of Academic Excellence, ODI and
Office of Student Affairs, conducted stress management workshops and
services throughout the year. The workshops included, test taking strategies,
time management skills, coping mechanisms, and physical therapy in the form
of chair massages for students during finals week. A total of 79 students
participated in our various stress management activities.
Interpersonal Communication Workshop
Based on feedback from course coordinators and other faculty members, it
became clear that we needed to create an opportunity for some of our nonnative speaking students to practice their speaking, presentation, and
interaction skills in a supportive small group environment. We piloted the
program in the spring semester utilizing free campus resources from the east
campus to help design and facilitate a communication workshop series.
Student participants we as a result of faculty recommendations. The next step
will be creating an ongoing workshop series for students across the P1-P3
years.
Transgender Patient Care Program
In collaboration with the College of Medicine, and the west campus QUEERS &
ALLIES, group, we presented a lecture on transgender Patient Care featuring
the Dr. Renata Smith, Clinical Assistant Professor, Pharmacy Practice.
Cultural Competency Inter-Professional Education (IPE)
Seminar
ODI provided support to the College’s Muslim Student Association (MuPHSA)
in an IPE with students from the colleges of pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and
dentistry on April 17th on the topic of “Islam and Caring for the Muslim
Patient”. Ahmed Abdemageed, PharmD. Was the seminar presenter. The
seminar was made part of the leadership series that resulted in large student
turnout.
Black History Month Program
In collaboration with SNPhA, College of Medicine, and the College of Dentistry,
we hosted an inter-professional panel series with 6 healthcare professionals
from various fields of practice discussing minority health issues, healthcare
disparities in general in addition to career development/mentorship
opportunities. There 75 students who attended the event.
Student Leadership Series
In collaboration with OSA, and Pharmacy Student Council, we facilitated 9
workshop events across both campuses with 280 total student participants.
Thirty-four (34) student leadership certificates (24 Chicago, 10 Rockford)
were presented to students who had participated in 4 leadership series events
throughout the year
ODI Key Highlights and Accomplishments
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Publication of first COP Foreign Language Survey
Publication of 2nd Annual Chicago/Rockford Community Engagement
Report
 200 community engagement events
 5,500 hours of community service
 13,352 members of the community served
Launched Interpersonal Communication pilot workshop April 17,2015
Facilitated Peer Education Program
o Creation of peer education corner in the student lounge
o 17 Peer Educators (Chicago/Rockford)
o 108 Students participated in peer education services
(Chicago/Rockford)
12% of total COP scholarships awarded to URM students
Advised approximately 45 students across Chicago/Rockford
Ongoing collaboration with Office of Student Affairs in Rockford
Maintained bi-monthly office hours at Rockford campus
Awarded Travel scholarship to support the SNPhA regional conference
Hosted Stress Management program. 79 students participated
Hosted Transgender Patient Care Program. 65 students participated
Hosted inter-professional panel series for Black History Month. 75 students
participated
Hosted Cultural competency workshop for Muslim patient care. 60 students
participated
Co-sponsored 9 Student Leadership workshops with OSA. 280 students
participated