Final Charge: President’s Council for Inclusion, Transformative Social Justice & Advocacy
This document is the property of the UNI’s Council for Inclusion, Transformative Social Justice & Advocacy and subsequent to the finalization of the council’s name, was the first task completed by the council.
The Council
The council is a standing body of the university that functions independent from the president and university leaders. The council is charged with:
- providing recommendations for goals and action steps to the president and other university leaders across campus with regard to increasing inclusion, transformative social justice and advocacy and cultivating an equitable living, learning and working environment;
- ensuring the university analyzes, assesses and promotes the implementation of university- wide goals and action steps in partnership with divisions, departments, units, offices, shared governance groups, committees, employees, students and other stakeholders;
- evaluating progress towards dismantling systems of oppression and outcomes aligned with the achievement of action steps;
- identifying barriers and challenges to achieving goals and action steps and offering recommendations to the president, other university leaders, and appropriate stakeholders to address those barriers and challenges; and
- continuous updating of the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion statement and planning as necessary to meet the goals and outcomes delineated; and
- developing and revising a set of definitions for use in promoting the evolution of inclusive language across campus
- develop a bold, sustainable, and revitalized Transformative Social Justice Action Plan;
- provide a set of goals, strategies, and metrics for dismantling oppressive systems and employing strategies that embody equitable, just inclusive and welcoming community for all;
- determine and implement processes for ongoing identification and addressing barriers to academic, emotional and professional success;
- include achieving equitable representation among our students, faculty and staff.
- be a broadly comprehensive set of goals that will enhance multi-functional, cross- disciplinary collaboration, partnership, and accountability.
- recognize all aspects of the system and the integral role students, faculty, staff, and administration hold in achieving systemic change
- propel the institution to achieving a wonderfully diverse, welcoming, equitable, and inclusive living, learning, and working environment.
The council will be responsible for writing, reviewing, and updating the University’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Statement, and develop an accompanying set of definitions, that will serve as our campus’ vision point for creating systemic change so the university remains vigilant and effective in achieving our ideals of creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive community.
Finally, the council is responsible for coordinating and evaluating the hiring of an external consultant to evaluate the campus living, learning, and working environment and provide recommendations for improving the climate, achieving true equity and inclusion, and enhancing our efforts to increase the diversity of our students, faculty and staff.
The chair is responsible for guiding the council’s work, including the action planning process, delivering the Transformative Social Justice Action Plan recommendations to the Office of the President and oversees the facilitation and evaluation of the TSJA plan implementation, writing the diversity, equity and inclusion statement and accompanying definitions.