University updates diversity roadmap

The University released an updated version of the Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion last Friday. While much of the descriptive information in the new Roadmap is the same as the initial version published last spring, the new version expands on diversity programs and initiatives, with an increased emphasis on accountability.

The initial Roadmap was created partially in response to the BSU protest of fall 2015 and the efforts of University President Ronald J. Daniels. Since the Roadmap’s initial publication, the University has been incorporating criticism and feedback from a wide range of groups.

In the opening letter of the new Roadmap, Daniels stresses that the initial document’s aim was not to be a conclusive solution to diversity, but to serve as a guide.

“The JHU Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion does not attempt to answer every question before us,” Daniels wrote. “Rather, it is intended to point us, urgently, toward a place where individuals will thrive on their own terms and where we foster the kind of academic pursuit that attracts and supports a broadly diverse community.”

The increased emphasis on the University’s accountability in carrying out its planned programs is a major overall addition to the new Roadmap.

“By clearly identifying our objectives, the Roadmap will help our community hold us accountable to our commitments in the months and years ahead,”  the  document states. “We will also employ a variety of mechanisms for accountability — surveys, data, periodic reports, and opportunities for community input — to quantify or redirect our work.”

The “Key Dates” section of the new document highlighted a step toward transparency and accountability. The section outlined a summary and a timeline of diversity initiatives taking place within the following subgroups: Restatement of Principles, Faculty, Students, Staff, Education, “Climate, Culture and Community” and Engaging with Baltimore. The section also included a list of the distinct administrative offices responsible for the initiatives and their current progress.

To make its efforts more transparent the University offers new websites on diversity, equity and accessibility.

With regard to faculty, the new Roadmap expanded on many of the points and programs of previous documents, such as the Faculty Diversity Initiative. It also emphasized the need to improve faculty mentoring programs.

While both Roadmaps acknowledged the fact that there is a small hiring pool for underrepresented minority faculty, the new document details the University’s commitment to creating a pipeline for underrepresented minority students to gain access to graduate level work, and expresses the hope of increasing this pool.

In terms of student diversity programs, the new Roadmap reiterated many of the points in the initial Roadmap but added further considerations for transgender students, veterans and graduate students.

In addition, the new Roadmap highlighted a new initiative where all current and incoming freshmen will be required to attend a cultural competency workshop. The undergraduate curriculum currently does not have a course requirement for cultural competency. The Office of the Provost is also in the process of making cultural competency training modules to address the varying facets of creating an inclusive environment. The document detailed similar new programs across the nine divisions of the University.

The new Roadmap also described efforts Hopkins has taken in exploring its own history of race and diversity. One such program is the Hopkins Retrospective, which includes an oral history project, the collection of alumni archives and symposia.

The new Roadmap stated that there is an increase in the number of administrators and faculty whose main focus is to oversee matters of equity, diversity and inclusion.

One new position is the associate dean for diversity and inclusion for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) and the Whiting School of Engineering (WSE). Each department in KSAS outlined an action plan for its cultural practices and appointed a tenure or tenure-track faculty to serve as Diversity Champion to enforce those practices.

The previous Roadmap called for greater student participation and leadership in the development of diversity policies. The new Roadmap described how the Diversity Leadership Council welcomed its largest number of student members in the 2016-17 academic year.

In response to the initial Roadmap’s commitment to increasing the number of Africana studies faculty members, the University has hired four of the five faculty it committed to in the previous Roadmap. However, there are currently no plans to make the Center for Africana Studies into a department.

Examining the University’s role in Baltimore, the new Roadmap detailed community-building projects, such as the East Baltimore Development Initiative, and partnerships with public schools.

Unlike the previous Roadmap, however, the new document does not include a section soliciting community feedback.