This page provides background on the new requirement for faculty to incorporate discussions of contributions to institutional equity and inclusion within their personal statements for review, tenure, and promotion. It includes some recommended best practices for committees and heads responsible for reviewing and assessing such statements.
A guidance document for instructional faculty on preparing their statements summarizing contributions to institutional equity and inclusion can be found here.
Background
- The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the UO and United Academics ratified in October 2013 stipulates that the personal statement of a candidate for tenure and promotion should “include discussion of contributions to institutional equity and inclusion.” (Article 20, Sec 8, p 32).
- Promotion reviews for Career Non-Tenure Track faculty carry a similar requirement (Article 19, Section 11, p 4).
- The University and the Union agreed to make this expectation mandatory rather than optional to encourage all faculty to play a proactive role in fulfilling the UO’s institutional goals of equity and inclusion. Hundreds of faculty across every unit in campus are already engaged in this work, and this policy places the University at the forefront nationally of research universities in this area.
- The requirement is intended to be interpreted broadly. It can be fulfilled through:
- service, research, and/or teaching,
- activities at the UO or within academic and professional associations, non-profit, governmental, and/or private sector organizations,
- addressing a wide range of equity and inclusion issues.
Implementation
- Support to faculty preparing statements. The Vice President for Equity and Inclusion and CoDaC have prepared a document (view here) that provides some direction for the types of work that faculty may engage and pursue to meet this requirement. CoDaC faculty are also available to meet with faculty preparing statements individually to review their records and provide support. They can be contacted at codac@uoregon.edu
- Inclusion within other forms of review: While the CBA stipulates that the discussion of contributions to equity and inclusion should be included in statements of candidates for tenure and promotion, faculty undergoing other types of review, including third year reviews (pre-tenure) and third and sixth year reviews (post-tenure) should also include contributions to institutional equity and inclusion within their personal statements.
- Departmental, college, and university-wide review committees preparing reviews of candidate files should include a specific discussion of the candidate’s contributions to institutional equity and inclusion in their reports. This discussion should summarize the candidate’s contributions and offer any evaluation of the impact this contribution has had with respect to teaching, research and service, as well as to the department, program, discipline or institution.
The rubric below offers of examples of faculty contributions to equity and promotion. The column and row headings offer a rubric that could be used to evaluate and situate a faculty member’s contributions.
| Individual impact: Equity work with individual students, faculty, community members or organizations | Programmatic impact: Equity work establishing or providing significant leadership to a formalized program | Institutional impact: Contributing to efforts that strengthen institutional policy or practice | |
| RESEARCH | *Research agenda incorporates equity and inclusion issues and/or diversity in objects of study (e.g. Psychology faculty incorporates diverse individuals within theirsubject pool) | *Leading or participating in a research group that addresses equity and inclusion(e.g. Law school faculty leads a research group on gender and labor) | *Establishing or supporting the creation of new academic initiatives(e.g. Education faculty establishes a disability studies research initiative) |
| TEACHING | *Efforts toward equity, diversity and inclusion in undergraduate and graduate teaching and mentoring(e.g. Journalism faculty incorporates themes of equity and inclusion within introductory course assignments) | *Participating in a disciplinary mentorship or pipeline program(i.e. PPPM faculty attends mentorship conference for underrepresented graduate students) | *Creating a new academic program, courses or graduate specialization focused on equity(e.g. Ethnomusicologist leads development of a new MA program in music of the African diaspora) |
| SERVICE | *Work with diverse groups of individual students and/or organizations on and off campus(e.g. Business faculty advises undergraduate Women in Business group) | *Participating in program building efforts (e.g. Environmental studies faculty collaborates with indigenous groups to produce multiple environmental impact studies) | *Creation or leadership role in new UO program serving community constituencies(e.g. Economist establishes summer pipeline program for low income high school students) |