From the School of Education
Listening & Responding to Students’ Perceptions of Inclusivity
by Judi Harris
On Wednesday, April 23rd, Jim Barber, chair of the School of Education’s (SoE’s) 6-member standing Diversity Committee, shared the results of an inclusivity review of the SoE’s media that the committee had produced with SoE faculty, staff, and administrators. SoE faculty had previously charged the Diversity Committee to design, coordinate and conduct a review of the School of Education's Web presence, paper media, and physical spaces for their perceived efficacy in communicating inclusiveness, as described in the SoE's Diversity Statement.
Data generation for this review was conducted in late September 2013 with 21 volunteer SoE students. A panel of seven of the Media Review participants, representing multiple diversities among SoE students, shared their experiences and perceptions of inclusivity in the SoE, then answered questions from a rapt audience of faculty and staff, on April 14th. Judi Harris, the SoE’s representative to the College Diversity Advisory Committee, organized and facilitated the session.
The 27-page report, which was made available to SoE personnel and W&M’s Chief Diversity Officer, contains an executive summary, detailed results, six specific recommendations for short-term action and three suggestions for longer-term action. After the overview of the report’s results was discussed at the April faculty meeting, three faculty/student/staff workgroups were formed to address the recommended changes in the SoE’s Web site, print media, and building décor. Twenty faculty and staff volunteers signed up as members of these workgroups, which will recruit student volunteers and begin their collaborations in fall 2014.
