A Resource Guide for Planning and Reporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Activities for Promotion and Tenure

A Resource Guide for Planning and Reporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Activities for Promotion and Tenure

Oregon State University is committed to maintaining and enhancing a culture and environment that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). As a land grant institution, OSU’s mission contributes to the prosperity of communities in Oregon, the nation and the world through teaching, research, extension and engagement, service, and other scholarly and creative activities. DEI is embedded in OSU’s mission and values and all faculty members are expected to contribute to this aspect of the University’s mission as members of the OSU community.

This resource guide below provides a structure to aid the planning and reporting of DEI efforts for position duties typical of faculty seeking tenure and/or promotion (e.g., research and creative activity; teaching and advising; service; and administration). It is populated with specific ideas and examples from units across OSU to help faculty see how DEI efforts may align with their position responsibilities, and might have impact at individual, program, or institutional levels. The guide is applicable to all faculty, including faculty serving the Corvallis and OSU Cascades campuses and Extension faculty serving OSU and communities across the state. The ideas and examples provided are intended to inspire and are not prescriptive or exhaustive.

Every area of responsibility in a faculty member’s position description brings opportunities to contribute to DEI. Activities may range from participating in DEI-centered professional development to engaged scholarship, teaching, and service. Additional links and resources are presented.

v. 10/1/23

Examples of DEI Activities for Promotion and Tenure

Below, you will find four areas of responsibility, each depicting levels of impact for an individual, a program, and the institution: 

• Research and Creative activity,
• Teaching and Advising,
• Service, and
• Administration.

Research and Creative Activity Examples

Ideas: 

Different ways to embed DEI activities in assigned areas of responsibility. Ideas are not prescriptive or exhaustive.

• Enhance one’s own or colleagues’ skills about DEI in research via professional development
• Incorporate DEI issuesand/or diversity in participants or areas under study (e.g., address health disparities)
• Apply for agency funding to support diversity hires on research grants
• Use community-engaged and culturally appropriate methodologies in research process (e.g., questions, funding, recruitment, data gathering, analysis, dissemination)
• Collaborate and co-create with community partners who reflect and serve the diverse audiences you, your program, division, OSU seeks to reach, problem solve and create change with and for through scholarship

Individual-Level Activities:

DEI efforts of individual faculty in the context of their own position responsibilities.

• An Associate Professor in Health Promotion and Health Behavior intentionally strives for broad/ intersectional representation when recruiting graduate research assistants and seeking research funding
• A Fisheries and Wildlife faculty member works with Federally recognized tribes in Oregon to co- create, implement, and evaluate a project to help tribes share traditional knowledge with indigenous youth about First Foods.
• A Women’s Studies faculty member engages a Latino-serving non-profit to inform cultural relevance and competence of study tools and team, respectively.

Program-Level Activities:

DEI efforts that demonstrate significantleadership to a formalized program/unit

• The SNAP-Ed program PI includes line-item funding in the SNAP-Ed grant to ensure all research materials and activities are translated and interpreted as needed.
• A research center applies for funding to support postdoctoral diversity hires on center-based projects.
• An Associate Professor in Global Health works with faculty across the College of Health and with communities denied opportunity to access higher education in the past and present to obtain a grant to Transform Academia through Equity and develop a strategic plan to guide COH efforts to advance justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the college.

Institutional-Level Activities:

DEI efforts contributing to strengthening institutional policies or practices

• The Director of a University Research Center establishes a research initiative addressing issues of racial inequity among older adults.
• A College institutes a policy to review GRA funding and FTE distribution across demographic groups to ensure equity.
• A group of researchers from multiple OSU Colleges share new research findings about educational policies and their impacts via a conference that is hosted by OSU. Research and education sector partners and affected community members are invited for free, and the conference has built in opportunities to co-create new research questions.

Teaching and Advising Activity Examples

Ideas 

Different ways to embed DEI activities in assigned areas of responsibility. Ideas are not prescriptive or exhaustive.

• Enhance one’s own or colleagues’ skills about DEI in teaching and mentoring via professional development
• Participate in mentor or pipeline programs
• Apply OSU DEI-centered teaching and mentoring initiatives (e.g., Quality Teaching Framework Principle 1)
• Consult with target audiences to determine needs and extend your expertise, teaching, research findings, etc. to groups of people who maynot otherwise have access
• Co-create educational materials with members of communities that have had less opportunity to benefit from higher education and share those with communities through non- credit education events.
• Co-teach with community partners

Individual-Level Activities

DEI efforts of individual faculty in the context of their own position responsibilities.

• A Marine Biology instructor engages in self-study to examine the Eurocentric nature of their curriculum and ascertains that their approach to marine ecology doesn’t reconcile with indigenous epistemologies.
• An Extension Instructor ensures recruitment, teaching and social media materials address needs, values and/or assets of one or more underserved or priority audiences by engaging community members in the process of development (e.g., plain language, trauma informed principles, translated as appropriate).
• An HDFS faculty member co-creates a trauma informed training with Extension based on a community- needs assessment and provides free trainings to teachers in high need communities.
• A Marine Biology instructor works collaboratively with community members and graduate students from federally recognized tribes to revise marine ecology curriculum to include indigenous epistemologies.

Program-Level Activities

DEI efforts that demonstrate significantleadership to a formalized program/unit

• Vet Med faculty make pedagogical changes to a required course to increase access for students with disabilities.

• An Associate Professor in CLA leads a collaborative team of CLA faculty toproduce videos welcoming students to OSU in a variety of languages to increase students’ sense of belonging.

• Extension Master Gardener Program faculty engage members of affected communities and advocacy groups to participate in a statewide work group to establish guidelines for promoting equity and inclusion in extension programming.
• Extension SNAP-Ed/FCH program faculty create a statewide work group that includes members of the target audience to establish guidelines for promoting equity and inclusion in extension educational programming (e.g., SNAP-Ed Cultural Workgroups).

Institutional-Level Activities

DEI efforts contributing to strengthening institutional policies or practices

• Instructors in CLA and COS co-lead a community of practice for the advancement of anti-racist instruction that is open to colleagues across campus.
• A Chemistry instructor leads a faculty collaborative to compile open-access resources into an online primer for first-year chemistry students to mitigate the rising costs of education.
• EXSS Faculty consult with families and disability advocates and develop a nationally recognized community- based program that fills a gap in programming for children with special needs and teaches OSUstudents about inclusion and working with special populations.
• A 4H faculty member develops and provides a paid summer internship and mentoring program for migrant youth to increase access to OSU among first-generation students attending OSU.
• Extension faculty collaborate with tribal community partners to identify and dismantle barriers to higher education and co-create a mentoring program with tribal youth to increase % of students who engage in pre-college programs.

Service Activity Examples

Ideas

Different ways to embed DEI activities in assigned areas of responsibility. Ideas are not prescriptive or exhaustive.

• Recruit, advocate for, and/or work with communities, students and/or faculty from underserved, marginalized and/or underrepresented groups
• Develop/deliver trainings for unit about communicating DEI for P&T
• Serve on community advisory boards to share your expertise on issues that impact community well-being.
• Provide expert testimony to influence policy or legislation that may positively impact groups disproportionately affected by existing policies, or the lack of supportive policies.
• Include community members on committees that are working on initiatives, policies or other outcomes that impact their community.
• Co-host events with/for community partners

Individual-Level Activities

DEI efforts of individual faculty in the context of their own position responsibilities.

• An Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department takes the search advocate training and serves as a search advocate on a search committee.
• A County-based Extension Instructor delivers a training about community engagement to participants in the Extension Diversity Champions professional development program.
• A College of Forestry faculty member provides scientific testimony about the effects of climate change to inform legislative actions that affect wildfire response.

Program-Level Activities

DEI efforts that demonstrate significantleadership to a formalized program/unit

• Environmental Engineering faculty serve as guest editors for a special issue of a professional journal focused on equity in environmental engineering undergraduate education.
• OSU’s Hallie Ford Center co- hosts the Oregon Parenting Education Conference to support access across a variety of attendee needs (income, disability, location).

Institutional-Level Activities

DEI efforts contributing to strengthening institutional policies or practices

• Several faculty members serve on a committee representing multiple programs and colleges to develop criteria for reporting and evaluating DEI in promotion and tenure.
• Extension faculty develop a “DEI- focused” professional development program that is open to all faculty and staff in the Division of Outreach & Engagement.
• OSU Co-hosts a conference about the impacts of four-day school week educational policies on students, families, and communities; impacted stakeholders (education sector partners, decision-makers, families) are invited to attend free of charge to reduce access barriers.

Administration Activity Examples

Ideas

Different ways to embed DEI activities in assigned areas of responsibility. Ideas are not prescriptive or exhaustive.

• Enhance one’s own or colleagues’ skills about promoting DEI through as an administrator through professional development
• Use a DEI lens in supervisory role (e.g., allocating work/FTE, annual review, provision of opportunities, onboarding, transparency, accountability)
• Champion DEI by ensuring meetings are inclusive and accessible for all

Individual-Level Activities

DEI efforts of individual faculty in the context of their own position responsibilities.

• A School Head, Program Leader or Program Director participates in DEI training specific for administrators to learn about how to manage organizational change as an inclusive leader.
• A School Head, Program Leader or Program Director attends a training to learn how DEI is embedded in OSU’s mission and values and how to mentor faculty about they can contribute to DEI through their assigned duties.

Program-Level Activities

DEI efforts that demonstrate significantleadership to aformalized program/unit

• A School Head ensures that all faculty understand expected contributions to DEI and embeds a mechanism to report activities and receive feedback about DEI activities in annual review processes.
• A College Dean requires all Associate and Full-level professorial faculty to participate in Search Advocate training and certification.

Institutional-Level Activities

DEI efforts contributing to strengthening institutional policies or practices

• The Division of Outreach and Engagement conducts a division- wide review of faculty promotion and tenure outcomes across demographic groups to evaluate equity.