College of the Atlantic
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

In 2018, College of the Atlantic formed the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Working Group, to help the college consider diversity more fully. Specifically, the DEI Working Group was charged with taking a thorough and wide-ranging look at our current practices, policy, and culture around diversity, equity, and inclusion. They will survey the climate on campus for students, faculty, and staff, to learn where we are doing well and what challenges we face. The group will survey literature and DEI initiatives at other institutions, to ensure that we are current in this evolving area of study and practice. A goal of the DEI group is to help ensure that COA is a place where people want to be---to learn and work and live---regardless of race, religion, cultural background, socioeconomic status, national origin, disability, marital status, parental status, gender identity, or age. All community members should feel included and central to the fabric of the college. This will be a multi-year, ongoing effort. In order to allow for an open-ended, careful, deliberate exploration, the group will operate largely independently from the All College Meeting and the administration, although they will report on their work as requested. The first year will mainly involve research on-campus and off, dialogue, and listening, as well as promoting additional opportunities for discussion and learning around DEI. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group will also coordinate with other DEI efforts on campus including the Faculty Diversity Working Group, and the Student Persistence Working Group (SPWG). Moving forward we expect the DEI group to recommend changes in policies and practice. Any such changes would go through the appropriate All College Meeting committees and campus offices. The committee is composed of faculty members, staff members, and students.

In 2018 a local community group focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion organized a two-day workshop led by trainers and educators from the Racial Equity Institute of Greensboro, North Carolina. College of the Atlantic covered costs for several students, faculty, and one staff member to attend and participate. Additionally, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Working Group has organized several on-campus dialogues and a visioning session for students, faculty, and staff to come together in structured conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion at College of the Atlantic. The most recent workshop, in February 2019, was a visioning session intended to facilitate the process of gathering visions of an equitable, inclusive College of the Atlantic, including what that would look like and why it's important to us as individual members of this institution.