The Sustainable Inclusive Excellence Action (SIE) Plan was designed to publicly share WPI's strategic approach to actualizing a culture of inclusion and belonging across the campus. This initiative spanned three phases designed to:
- Engage our community in the university’s mission and values.
- Center the voices and lived experiences of marginalized and underrepresented communities.
- Collaborate in the development of action plans to blend diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) into the full fabric of the institution.
Members of the WPI community have made significant gains in these areas, including identifying works-in-progress, which underscores that DEIB is always ongoing.
Starting in the summer of 2023, Tony Laing, Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging will be convening with SIE members to discuss new or continuous DEIB goals, along with bringing all stakeholders together, to hear what is being done with respect to DEIB work throughout the fall 2023 and spring 2024.
We would also like to recognize and highlight the work completed and/or in progress by some of WPI’s divisions/schools from 2021-2023. Please see below for a summary of DEIB work over the past three years:
Completed Goals
- Inclusive Editorial and Promotional Content / Campaigns
- Accessible Web Tools
- DEI Professional Development Conferences/Workshops
- Strategic DEI Marketing, Engagement, and Support
Goals in Progress
Host Seminar Speakers
- Invite speakers whose identities and/or work center and elevate the voices of those who are marginalized and underserved for departmental seminar series.
Inclusive Strategies for Course Development:
- Add DEIB statements on faculty syllabi.
- Develop and provide examples from different viewpoints/ cultures/genders/races, e.g., IQP.
- Work closely with Morgan Teaching Center for guiding faculty for the above.
Create a climate of inclusion and action towards equity implementation Strategies and Actions:
- Invite students to department committees/meetings/boards.
- Leverage department meetings to increase faculty and staff awareness of student support resources and for anti-bias discussions:
Aim to have all faculty search committee members trained in best practices in inclusive and equitable recruitment and hiring processes:
- Work with Talent/HR on generating and utilizing demographic reports of candidate pool for reference.
Goals in Progress
- Policy and Initiative Review
- WPI Campus Accessibility
Completed Goals
Goals in Progress
Analyze Pre-Collegiate program pipeline data and review current dashboard with this information.
Completed Goals
Created a position for Director of Admissions for Diversity & Outreach Initiatives to support institutional efforts to lead a strategic diversity recruitment plan.
Goals in Progress
Improve Student Retention:
- Explore and improve Undergraduate and Graduate Student enrollment, persistence, retention, and experience.
- Participate in recruitment and student support activities to increase the diversity of undergraduate and graduate student body.
- Attend conferences with large populations of undergraduate students underrepresented in the sciences. Sponsor WPI faculty and students to attend conferences.
- Invest in sustainability of student groups and organizations that promote DEI.
Improve Accessibility of Courses:
- Work with faculty to reduce or eliminate dependence of courses on expensive textbooks, software, or other materials that students would pay for out of pocket.
- Engage faculty and students to be co-creators of knowledge using open pedagogies through course-based project work overhaul courses to increase accessibility and inclusivity of course syllabi.
Completed Goals
Inclusive Department Culture:
- Implement DEI Initiatives within departments.
- Establish, develop, and/or grow department/program DEI committees.
International Recruiting Practices:
- Recruit faculty and postdoctoral students from marginalized and/or underrepresented communities.
- Advertise job openings in a variety of platforms.
- Highlight the role and importance of diversity in job descriptions.
Support and highlight DEI disciplines and programs:
- Organize events, programs, and initiatives that support and highlight the intersections of disciplines and programs with DEI.
- Recruit faculty and postdoctoral students from marginalized and/or underrepresented communities.
- Invite speakers to departmental seminar series with research that intersects with DEI publicize speakers across campus to engage broader participation of faculty, staff, and students.
Goals in Progress
- Evaluate and Re-Form the GS curriculum.
- Integrate inclusive and equitable practices into hiring and promotion practices.
- Piloted inclusive and equitable hiring practices for faculty, need to evaluate and share practices within GS to be used for faculty and staff.
Completed Goals
JET Advisory Council
Goals in Progress
Inclusive language:
Regularly assess the importance of verbal, written and audio communication and the value of being inclusive in our word choice through all mediums.
Career Development Center:
Annually, the CDC reviews their website, social media platforms, and newsletters to ensure inclusive language is utilized throughout.
Dean of Students:
Use inclusive language in all department communications and publications.
Student Development and Counseling Center:
- Update the SDCC website to be more inclusive and user-friendly.
- Enhance and develop the current programming overseen by the SDCC on how underrepresented populations are impacted by institutional oppression.
- Encourage and engage the SDCC staff through team and individual professional development training to increase competency in equitable and inclusive therapeutic services to support the emotional health of all WPI students.
Amplifying Student Voices and Experiences:
Providing a platforms and support for historically underrepresented students to share their experiences and make space for change.
Residential Services Office:
Expand our Leaders Engaging In Advocacy and Diversity (L.E.A.D.) workshop to include an online, self-guided format for student leaders.
Student Activities Office:
Offer DEI Training once per year for building managers in conjunction with ODIME.
Staff Development:
Encourage departments to internally grow and develop both department-specific and collaborative DEI initiatives.
Goals in Progress
Prioritize DEI within Hiring Process:
- International recruiting of underrepresented graduate students.
- Ensure that hiring practices in Graduate Studies are using DEI best practices to recruit and retain diverse staff and students.
- Streamline and coordinate recruiting channels within Graduate Studies, in order to provide more intentional outreach to underrepresented groups.
Improve Underrepresented Graduate Student Retention:
Establish baseline data on the retention of graduate students from underrepresented populations, and leverage this data to develop outreach solutions.
Goals in Progress
Increase Employee Retention/Lower Voluntary Attrition of Diverse Faculty and Staffing:
- Build diverse pipeline of talent by increasing engagement and outreach to professional associations, community organizations and networking groups that center marginalized and underrepresented populations.
- Launch a comprehensive review of position classification and compensation to analyze equity, job levels, and career ladders in efforts to ensure fair and competitive salaries and increase employee retention.
- Develop comprehensive centralized onboarding strategies.
Improve Talent Acquisition Strategies & Initiatives - Implementation Strategies and Actions:
- Develop a robust set of professional development and learning programs for faculty and staff that consistently will have DEI concepts embedded to foster a culture of respect and inclusion as well as mental health and well-being.
- Develop and provide training on implicit bias training model for faculty and staff.
- Provide accessible tools and resources to better understand workforce availability, demographics of applicant pools and new hires.
Improve Underrepresented Graduate Student Retention:
Establish baseline data on the retention of graduate students from underrepresented populations, and leverage this data to develop outreach solutions.
DEI Student Co-curricular Education:
Establish an anti-racist and advocacy educational workshop series to support student co-curricular education around topics of identity, diversity, equity, access, and inclusion with establishing and enhancing advocacy workshop series.
Completed Goals
Staff and Retention:
- Hired inaugural Assistant Vice President for DEI
- Increased Employee Retention/Lower voluntary attrition of diverse faculty and staffing.
- Established a new permanent remote/flexible work policy.
- Launched the Staff Council in collaberation with Our Inclusive Community committee.
- Added gender identity options in Workday for full WPI campus community.
- Revised exit interview process with new questions specifically on DEI and belonging to focus on a sense of belonging within the campus community and the department/division’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Modified the competencies for evaluating performance to incorporate more direct references to our values and expectations of the community to behave in ways that are aligned with them.
- Established the BIAS Response Team comprised on divisional / school faculty and staff to triage student and faculty bias response reports that are submitted.
DEI Student Co-curricular Education:
ODIME added an inaugural Assistant Director for Religion and Spiritual Life to support students and lead campus spiritual life programs and religious observations.
Affinity networking groups:
- ODIME and Talent and Inclusion are curating and launching faculty and staff support and networking groups for BIPOC/ALANA, LGBTQIAP+, and faith/spirituality communities at WPI to assist with supporting our students.
- ODIME, club advisors, and administrators will be assisting the Black Student Union (BSU), African Student Association (ASA), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), and Caribbean and Hispanic Student Association (CHSA) with facilitating more collaborative programs and learning experiences for students across the African diaspora at WPI.
- ODIME serves as partners and advisors to the Understanding the Experiences of Black Students at WPI—and How to Improve Them study by Dr. Hermine N. Vedogbeton and faculty in Department of Social Science and Policy Studies.
Campus-wide DEI Educational Workshops:
- Develop, curate, and facilitate multi-modal educational programs and enrichment opportunities for the WPI Community, though campus-wide events including, but not limited to WPI’s heritage month series, Stand Against Racism campaign, Great Minds, Brave Spaces speaker series, and collaborative events with campus partners.
- Provide support and guidance to campus partners through customized DEI workshops, trainings, mentorship and resources to meet the immediate DEI needs of the campus community.
- ODIME serves as partners and advisors to the Understanding the Experiences of Black Students at WPI—and How to Improve Them study by Dr. Hermine N. Vedogbeton and faculty in Department of Social Science and Policy Studies.
Goals in Progress
Increase Employee Retention/Lower Voluntary Attrition of Diverse Faculty and Staffing:
- Advise on evolving law governing race and gender-based affirmative action in admissions and financial aid.
- Provide legal advice to Undergraduate Admissions, Graduate Admissions, and the Office of Student Aid & Financial Literacy on regulatory compliance.
- Offer research on the latest legal developments, such as SFFA v. Harvard, and their potential impact on WPI.
- Advise on relevant federal and state anti-discrimination laws and regulations.
- Provide legal advice to relevant offices on campus, including the Office of Accessibility Services, Talent & Inclusion, Dean of Students, and Bias Response Program on regulatory compliance.
- Advise on Title IX and relevant state law and regulations on sexual misconduct.
- Provide legal advice to the Title IX Office on regulatory compliance.
- Offer research on the latest legal developments, such as Title IX regulations, state law, OCR complaints, and court cases. Support training for the Title IX team, students, and employees.
Goals in Progress
Inclusive Culture and Practices:
- Demonstrate leader commitment, engagement, and support to DEI practices in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, Academic Advising, Morgan Center for Teaching and Learning, STEM Education Center, Mass Academy, Robotics Resource Center, and Army ROTC at WPI.
- Improve recruiting and hiring practices and procedures to be more equitable such that talent acquisition strategies/initiatives have a broader outreach in attracting and engaging for more diverse staff candidates, student assistants, etc.
Improve Student Recruitment and Suppport:
- Students from underrepresented groups, first generation, and/or low-income are recruited and supported at Mass Academy, Army ROTC, Teacher Prep Program/STEM Education Center, Academic Advising, and Office of Undergraduate Studies.
- Create a WPI Bridge Program for students from backgrounds that are underrepresented in STEM that leads to greater and supported access to a WPI education.
- PreK-16 STEM outreach and educational efforts are intentionally designed and implemented with partners that serve low-income and historically underrepresented groups.
Embed DEI in Trainings and Consultations:
- Professional development workshops for educators, mentor trainings, and Teacher Preparation curriculum will include Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and practices.
- Equity lens applied in consultations for PK-12 STEM education and Broader Impacts in grant proposals.
Completed Goals
DEI Leadership and Student Recruitment at Mass Academy:
- Engaged in whole-faculty professional learning community to unpack implicit bias and other DEI topics.
- Conducted a programmatic equity self-assessment which included classroom walkthroughs, student surveys, staff surveys, family surveys, and analysis of data.
- Attended several Worcester community events, providing STEM activities for school-aged children and promoting Mass Academy as a tuition-free opportunity for high school students (WPL Block Party, Latin American Festival, Start on the Street) and implemented STEM Saturdays which are free events for school-aged children at local parks and libraries in Worcester.
- Conducted a targeted email marketing campaign to identified demographics through media outlets.
Goals in Progress
- Check that website and events are attractive to all backgrounds, including diverse groups' interests by ensuring they are accessible and work with the website team to update as needed.
- Develop survey (or add to T&I survey) to assess inclusive practices and procedures in all Research Enterprise areas.
- Review information systems with T&I (working with IT) to ensure proper name use.
- Showcase and track grants that have a DEI focus. Collect and analyze data/statistics on research work with diverse universities, data on support, grant, breakdown, and diversity statistics for our inventors.
- Create list of HBCUs and MSIs and reach out/network through, e.g., prof. organizations or personal connections.
- Promote funding opportunities to support faculty/staff in identifying and pursuing funding operations for projects that pursue DEI goals in teaching, research, and community engagement.
- Explore applying to National Science Foundation (NSF) catalyst award to engage/implement projects to improve DEI in our office/department.
- Invite peers from other universities who have a thriving DEI research enterprise to talk about their programs and workshops etc.