University of Iowa
PA-4: Diversity and Equity Coordination

The Chief Diversity Office (CDO) provides vision, leadership, and counsel on matters of diversity and inclusion at the University of Iowa. The CDO partners with all campus units to create a welcoming and respectful environment that enables everyone to perform at their full potential. The CDO provides services and resources for underrepresented faculty, staff, and students; persons with disabilities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons; persons of disadvantaged socioeconomic status; and nontraditional, first-generation, and international students. Support and input are critical to our efforts, and the CDO welcomes ideas for creating a campus where all feel welcome. The CDO has three primary teams that carry out its mission statement. 1) The Diversity Resources Team provides consultation, resource, and skill-building opportunities for University of Iowa faculty, staff, students and guests in order to foster an inclusive, respectful and equitable university community. 2) The Equal Opportunity and Diversity (EOD) implements diversity policies at the University of Iowa and supports the university’s compliance with federal/state laws and regulations and university policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment, retaliation and sexual harassment by or towards any UI community member. 3) The Center for Diversity and Enrichment (CDE) provides pre-college students development assistance with facilitating the enrollment process and provides programs and activities that support the ability of underrepresented student to increase their skills to thrive and succeed at the University of Iowa. Several key initiatives of the CDE include Military and Veteran Student Services, the TRIO Student Support Services, and the Upward Bound program.

The Chief Diversity Office provides a number of opportunities for faculty, staff, and students to increase their cultural knowledge and skills for contributing to a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable campus community. 1) The CDO is represented at the mandatory new faculty and staff orientation. 2) All first-year students receive mandatory diversity training through the orientation activities and the required CSI online modules (http://success.uiowa.edu/). 3) In addition to mandatory training through orientation, Faculty and Staff receive additional cultural competency training through decentralized department-specific sessions, UI Learning and Development (through HR), and optional training programs through the CDO. (https://diversity.uiowa.edu/unit/training) 4) Many diversity and inclusion activities exist on campus, starting with OnIowa! during the students first week of class and continued through the CDO, student organizations, and academic departments. These are decentralized and difficult to quantify, but they are prevalent throughout the university.