Equity & Diversity Initiative Underway

Fall 2019 Department EDI Committee Report informs 3-year plan
Title page of EDI Report: white background and black text: We Are ALL in This: A Report Re; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, The Department of English, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
We Are ALL in This: A
Report Re: Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion (PDF)
In the spring of 2019 the English department formed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee. The committee worked over the summer to create a comprehensive report of the department's climate, representation, and programming "as a means of creating recommendations to help guide and compose aspects of our department’s 3-year plan." The document was presented to the department in the fall 2019 and discussed in a faculty meeting; the report informs the department's 3-year plan submitted this spring to the College of Liberal Arts. Available as a pdf (with appendix) and as a web page, it is an extensive overview, noting strengths and weaknesses. As the report notes, "[W]e do agree that the work of EDI is a praxis, not a quick fix. That our department, like many of the other departments here, needs practice at it. And we, along with the departmental chair, have agreed about the urgency of our purpose for the fundamental well-being of our campus community."
We Are ALL in This: A
Report Re: Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion (html)
 
Spring 2020 departmental actions:
  • Ongoing work by departmental EDI committee.
  • The role of gender in inequitable faculty salaries: The department salary equity committee's recommendations for salary equalization on the basis of gender have been forwarded to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
  • Create a book club around EDI issues: A monthly EDI book club organized by staff member Holly Vanderhaar discussed Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Sabrina and Corina, Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries, and Claudia Rankine's Citizen.
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