CAHNRS For All DEI Ribbon System
DEI helps promote personal growth and helps our learning communities communicate effectively with people from all backgrounds. Instilling DEI principles at all levels of the CAHNRS helps us build stronger classrooms, teams, and societies. It is our mission as a land grant university to serve traditionally underrepresented communities as well as underserved populations, and CAHNRS takes this responsibility very seriously. As a result, CAHNRS will implement the DEI Ribbon System to inspire, validate, and recognize DEI efforts at every level of the college while also providing a rewarding system of accountability.
The CAHNRS for All DEI Ribbon System’s goal is to provide a guide and a motivator to promote DEI processes and to commit to recruiting and retaining faculty, staff, and students from underrepresented groups while providing the best education in the Pacific Northwest. We are opening the doors to transparency and to providing an inclusive environment that values all of its members while recognizing difference in diversity and providing a safe environment for all. CAHNRS embraces inclusion and everyone whose academic, cultural, and natural curiosity leads them to our doors. We are a nexus of shared information, and we value everyone’s participation.
The CAHNRS for All DEI Ribbon System strives to ensure that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are the cultural and social fabric of the college and WSU, and that these values, -recognizing and embracing difference, making sure that all are valued and included equally- are embedded in all policies and practices.
Tier 1 – Seed
- Establish a DEI Committee (pdf) in your unit or department. Include a committee charter with expectations of membership
- Have members from every level of the unit engage in DEI activities in your unit or department
- Develop a list of identified projects and events in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion (e.g., professional trainings, workshops, seminars, surveys, accessibility efforts)
- Establish and document expected community norms in your unit or department
Tier 2 – Sprout
- Meet all requirements of Tier 1
- Provide examples of DEI community collaboration projects or programs that your unit or department is currently doing
- Have a department or unit representative participating in the CAHNRS DEI committee
- Have some percentage of members who have completed at least one course of the Community Equity Certificate from the Office of Outreach and Education
- Display efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion through grants and participation in national organizations such as:
Tier 3 – Bloom
- Meet all requirements of Tier 1 and 2
- Demonstrate diversity, equity, and inclusion through hiring and/or implementation of data collection like DEI surveys
- Collaboration with other units/departments in CAHNRS, other colleges, with any WSU campus, community members or external partners
- Create and present new content (workshops, trainings, etc.) within department and beyond that encourages an inclusive environment for all
- Proven effort to have all members of your unit or department (including students and volunteers) have baseline competency in understanding and articulating the importance of DEI through training and other development opportunities (participants may want to take the certificate from the Office of Outreach and Education or use CAHNRS DEI professional training workshops)
- Show leadership areas to create and support initiatives that make DEI a focus and guiding principle like creating a DEI fund
- Encourage the creation of affinity groups and offer faculty, staff, volunteer, and unit DEI award ceremonies
- Work with Assistant Dean for DEI to develop, implement, and assess a unit or department DEI plan
WSU RESOURCES:
Office of Outreach and Education
Gender Identity/Expression and Sexual Orientation Resource Center