President’s Inclusion and Diversity Executive Council posts 86 InclusiveVT initiatives
The 86 InclusiveVT initiatives proposed by senior leadership at Virginia Tech are now available for the university community to review.
InclusiveVT is the new university-wide effort to advance inclusion and diversity initiatives on campus. President Timothy Sands accepted the new model following unanimous recommendations by the Task Force on Inclusive Excellence.
As part of the new approach, the university’s deans, vice presidents, and other senior leaders were asked to identify at least three initiatives designed to advance inclusion and diversity within their scope of responsibility. Leaders submitted the ideas to the President’s Inclusion and Diversity Executive Council in late November and had two weeks to read through all of the submissions and make revisions.
“Now that the initiatives are posted, I encourage members of the university community to review the proposals and see the plans that are on the horizon to make our campus an inclusive and more diverse environment,” said Sands.
Themes among the initiatives include pipeline and student access programs; mentoring opportunities for students, staff, and faculty; improved classroom environments; raising awareness of unconscious bias; and inclusive scholarship and pedagogy.
The initiatives were strongly influenced by the suggestions offered at the information forum held in September.
“It’s exciting to see the development of 86 initiatives, with many of them ready to begin right away,” said Provost Mark McNamee. “By sharing the initiatives and ways to measure their success publicly, our senior managers are taking personal responsibility that new efforts are being made to advance inclusion and diversity.”
The executive council and inclusion coordinators will be reaching out to invite individuals and groups to participate in an Advisory Community Web. The web is in formation and will be comprised of individuals and groups both within and outside of the Virginia Tech community to bring unique perspectives to InclusiveVT. It will provide feedback to the executive council and university leadership on initiatives and other inclusion and diversity efforts.
Opportunities for additional input from students, staff, and faculty, similar to the recent “InclusiveVT: Let’s Talk” forum held on Dec. 10, will be provided throughout the year.
