Greetings:
Efforts to advance equity and inclusion at OSU have never been more important. As DEI programs in higher education face challenges around the country, our path remains clear: enhancing access, belonging and success for every community member who interacts with the university is a guiding priority.
It’s in this spirit that we bring you the first edition of Equity Insights – a new quarterly newsletter from the Office of Institutional Diversity providing updates on efforts led by OSU partners creating equitable organizational change.
Unlike Taking Action, a sister publication intended for a broad audience amplifying the change efforts of individuals and units at OSU, Equity Insights is intended for community leaders and practitioners, providing actionable information to enhance our collective ability to collaborate and connect to each other’s work.
I hope you find Equity Insights useful. We’re always open to suggestions for improvement at [email protected].
Scott A. Vignos, J.D.
Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer
Updates in this edition of Equity Insights include:
- Prosperity Widely Shared and Diversity Action Plan pave way for inclusive excellence
- President and Provost’s Leadership Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion makes progress on employee retention and success efforts
- New positions support engagement with Tribal and Indigenous communities
- Workforce Diversity Committee launches to support recruitment and hiring excellence
- Equity Data Insights Portal provides tools to inform equitable decision making
- Lyra Health offers culturally responsive care to employees and dependents
- Child Care Pathways creates expanded support for parents and guardians
- 2024 Employee Community Climate Survey launches soon
Prosperity Widely Shared and Diversity Action Plan pave way for inclusive excellence
OSU launched Prosperity Widely Shared: The Oregon State Plan at the beginning of 2024 establishing an ambitious vision and roadmap for the university’s next seven years. Embedded in Prosperity Widely Shared is a foundational commitment to inclusive excellence, made real by actions and targets to create equitable organizational change.
The Diversity Action Plan was developed in consultation with more than 300 OSU community members representing all colleges, administrative units and locations. The Diversity Action Plan directly aligns with the actions in Prosperity Widely Shared and will be implemented alongside the strategic plan. This alignment is unique among institutional strategic and diversity plans and will enable closer collaboration, shared responsibility and more rapid progress.
The Diversity Action Plan integrates many ongoing areas of work and integrates strategies developed by units and employee organizations. Some actions include equalizing student success outcomes through innovative strategies, enhancing government-to-government relationships with Tribal nations, re-engaging learners across the country to complete degrees, and building strong, mutually beneficial relationships with underserved communities. Successful execution of the Diversity Action Plan will require the commitment and effort of every university community member.
Implementation of Prosperity Widely Shared and the Diversity Action Plan is underway, and progress updates will be shared here regularly.
President and Provost’s Leadership Council on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion makes progress on employee retention and success efforts
In 2022, the President and Provost’s Leadership Council for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (PPLC) developed and began implementation of a strategy to support the retention and success of minoritized employees.
Prioritizing four actions – enhancing onboarding for minoritized employees, building a culture of culturally equitable supervision, creating opportunities for mentorship and improving community livability – the PPLC has made steady progress over the last year and a half. Completed actions include launching the university’s first employee departure survey, launching a new employee onboarding site, adopting a new employee assistance program (more on that below), launching a new core curriculum for managers and supervisors and engaging local community partners to discuss shared workforce housing.
More updates on the PPLC’s activities are included in the February 2024 meeting presentation.
New positions support engagement with Tribal and Indigenous communities
Two new positions were recently created at OSU to strengthen relationships with and programs serving Tribal and Indigenous communities.
Chance White Eyes - Director of Tribal Relations, Office of Government Relations
Dr. White Eyes’ role includes leading OSU’s efforts to build and maintain collaborative, mutual and trusting relationships with Tribal nations in Oregon and beyond, and consulting with the OSU president and leadership, colleges and programs to advance the university’s teaching, research and engagement missions in collaboration with Tribes.
Angie Morrill - Director of Native American and Tribal Programs, Division of Outreach and Engagement
Dr. Morrill will provide leadership for curriculum development, scholarship, research and data gathering related to collaboration with Native American/Alaska Native and Tribal communities within the Division of Extension and Engagement.
Plans are underway for government-to-government engagement with Tribes in Oregon beginning this spring, and a new Tribal Relations website is forthcoming.
We’re incredibly excited to welcome Drs. White Eyes and Morrill and encourage you to reach out directly with questions.
Workforce Diversity Committee launches to support strategic recruitment and hiring
The OSU Workforce Diversity Committee was charged by President Murthy and Provost Feser in March 2024 to support and advance the university’s commitment to enhancing employee diversity and excellence through innovative and strategic recruitment and hiring practices.
Chaired by Scott Vignos, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, the committee will work with college and administrative unit leaders, the PPLC, Presidential Affinity Commissions and other university partners to create mission-driven diversity goals for recruitment and hiring and incorporate data-driven insights into strategic initiatives to diversify OSU’s workforce.
The committee represents a new collaborative effort to integrate the recruitment experience and expertise of multiple offices and includes representatives from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access, Office of University Human Resources, Office of Faculty Affairs and the Office of Institutional Diversity.
Equity Data Insights Portal provides access to data to inform decision making
The Equity Data Insights Portal launched in winter 2024 to provide access to institutional data related to student and employee equity initiatives. University leaders are encouraged to engage with the educational resources and interactive dashboards on the portal as they design and assess strategic equity initiatives.
The portal is a collaboration between University Information Technology and the Office of Institutional Diversity.
Lyra Health offers culturally responsive care to employees and dependents
In fall 2023, Lyra Health came on board as OSU’s new Employee Assistance Program. A best-in-class EAP provider, care options through Lyra include culturally responsive coaching, guided self-care and counseling available to employees and their dependents, including children.
A high percentage of Lyra providers identify as a person of color and/or LGBTQIA and are matched according to employee interests and preferences. Additionally, a Lyra provider specializing in care for employees of color maintains office hours at OSU and can develop group specific workshops.
Questions about Lyra can be directed to Bonny Ray or Christina Schaaf in University Human Resources.
Child Care Pathways provides expanded support for parents and guardians
Child Care Pathways is a new consultative service offered by the Family Resource Center to assist employee parents and supervisors in planning for family leave, early bonding, dependent care and return-to-work needs.
Questions about Child Care Pathways can be directed to Cari Maes in the Family Resource Center.
2024 Employee Community Climate Survey launches soon
The 2024 Employee Community Climate Survey will be distributed during spring term to all employees at OSU, including graduate employees. The survey is administered every two years to assess employee experience at OSU. The survey is entirely anonymous.
University Human Resources and the Office of Institutional Diversity are partnering with the Oregon State University Policy Analysis Lab (OPAL) for analysis of the data collected and Institutional Analytics and Reporting (IAR) for visualization of the data in interactive dashboards available to the university community.
Questions about the employee climate survey may be directed to the Office of Institutional Diversity.