Winter 2023 Culture, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CEDI) Newsletter

Update -- Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence

Since January of last year, a committee of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and stakeholders has been working to craft the College’s first-ever Strategic Action Plan for Inclusive Excellence.  The aim of the plan is to improve opportunities and outcomes for traditionally underrepresented students, faculty, staff, and stakeholders of the College.

The committee was tasked with developing the plan in consultation with the broader College community, and to ensure alignment with OSU’s 2019-2023 Strategic Plan SP4.0, as well as OSU’s Diversity Strategic Plan, Innovate and Integrate: Plan for Inclusive Excellence. 

Over the past year, the committee has worked with Teresita Alvarez-Cortez, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Diversity Initiatives in OSU’s Office of Institutional Diversity, to identify a collective vision for an accessible, inclusive, and equitable College of Agricultural Sciences. Following an internal visioning session, the committee cross-checked key goals and priorities by inviting the broader College community to share their vision for an accessible, inclusive, and equitable environment. 

This input informed the first draft of the Strategic Action Plan for Inclusive Excellence, which was recently shared with a series of five Focus Groups which provided specific feedback which is now in the process of being incorporated into a near-final version for approval by the Dean’s office.

With the goal to build a plan that would truly embody an actionable strategy to guide the College towards an inclusive, equitable culture it was critical that the process of the plan development reflected those values. To date, 704 College-wide community members, including faculty, staff, students, industry stakeholders, and ag extension volunteers have engaged with the development of this plan. The diverse, thoughtful, and extensive participation has resulted in more than 116 pages of written text and helped to identify convergent priorities and opportunities for investment.

Some of the key themes that have emerged throughout this process that will be reflected in the final plan include a desire for:

• Accurate and just representation of diversity within the College
• Financial and other support to enable individuals from all backgrounds to flourish at OSU

Goals were structured around these collective desires and touch on recruitment and retention, supporting inclusive learning and workspaces, and growing a portfolio of work across teaching, research, and extension that reflects the needs of diverse groups across Oregon.

As the Strategic Planning Committee nears the end of its work to draft the plan, the Dean’s office will act to put prioritized actions in place, and work towards achieving the College’s collectively stated goals.

One thing that is important to note is the plan is a living document. One that will be continually revisited, evaluated, and revised (as needed). The bulk of the work to deploy the measurable goals and strategies embedded in the final plan will fall to the Culture, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (CEDI) taskforce. Outcomes from those efforts will be reported upon via this newsletter and in the College’s Annual Report. However, success will depend on each member of the College community to remain committed to these shared values as we endeavor to uphold the College’s motto to make tomorrow better for everyone.