Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Faculty are needed to engage as DEI Curriculum Champions in order to revamp or create one or more of the following, centering the history, experiences, or needs of underrepresented minorities and other marginalized groups.

• Lecture
• Unit
• In-class group discussion assignment
• One formative and one summative course assignment
• Grading Rubric

*One Curriculum Champion will be selected from the School of Education, College of Science and Health, College of Business, and College of Liberal Arts.

Eligibility and Requirements

1. Be a full or part-time faculty member.
2. Create or revamp one or more of the following: 1) a class lecture; 2) a curriculum unit; 3) an in-class group discussion assignment; 4) one formative and one summative assignment; and/or 5) a grading rubric.
3. Express a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
4. Have the support of your Chair or Dean.
5. Implement the deliverables in your course and share your work with department colleagues.
6. Give a brief presentation of your work at a University event.
7. Share your work on the DEI webpage.
8. Communicate regularly with the Associate Provost for DEI
9. Adhere to the project deadlines.
10. Submit deliverable(s) by May 26, 2023.

Stipend – $150 to $600

Application and Selection Process

1. Complete the application.
2. Be available to answer questions from the selection committee, if needed.
3. Participate in a short interview, if needed.
4. Submit the application by February 17, 2023.

Eligibility and Requirements

1. Be a full or part-time faculty member.
2. Curate a repository of 25 academic digital sources, categorized, tagged or labeled for ease of use, with brief descriptions of each. Examples include
3. Express a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
4. Have the support of your Chair or Dean.
5. Implement the deliverables in your course and share your work with department colleagues.
6. Give a brief presentation of your work at a University event.
7. Share your work on the DEI webpage.
8. Communicate regularly with the Associate Provost for DEI
9. Adhere to the project deadlines.
10. Submit deliverables by May 26, 2023.

Stipend – $400

Application and Selection Process

1. Complete the application.
2. Be available to answer questions from the selection committee, if needed.
3. Participate in a short interview, if needed.
4. Submit the application by February 17, 2023.

1. Be a full or part-time faculty member.
2. Identify concrete practices that demonstrate actionable steps toward actualizing our land acknowledgements.
3. Develop a work plan to study the history of Benedictine University in connection to the lands the university occupies.
4. Collaborate with the Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to develop a strategy for recruiting Native American students (and for providing better support to those currently enrolled).
5. Express a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
6. Have the support of your Chair or Dean.
7. Give a brief presentation of your work at a University event.
8. Share your work on the DEI webpage.
9. Communicate regularly with the Associate Provost of DEI
10. Adhere to the project deadlines.
11. Submit deliverables by May 26, 2023.

Stipend – $1000

Application and Selection Process

1. Complete the application.
2. Be available to answer questions from the selection committee, if needed.
3. Participate in a short interview, if needed.
4. Submit the application by February 17, 2023.

Any full or part-time faculty who …

• Has some knowledge of close reading or critical text examination skills.
• Is comfortable facilitating a group of no more than 25 participants.
• Can commit to facilitating one or more 2-hour discussion sessions, up to a total of 3 sessions. (Two sessions will take place in person, and one will take place virtually.)

*Note – Faculty are allowed to apply for both the Facilitator and Writing Team roles.

Stipend – $200 per session

Application Process

1. Complete a short application.
2. Express a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
3. Meet with the PI.
4. Submit the application by February 17, 2023.

Join the Writing Team

Collaborate as a small working group (3 to 4 people) that will serve as the writing team responsible for capturing succinct language and brief descriptions from the discussion sessions to be used to clarify each hallmark.

Eligibility

Any full or part-time faculty who …

• Has excellent writing skills in ways that can capture language accurately and succinctly.
• Can commit to attending one or more 2-hour discussion sessions, up to a total of 3 sessions. (Two sessions will take place in person, and one will take place virtually.)
• Can work both autonomously and collaboratively with other members of the Writing Team.

*Note – Faculty are allowed to apply for both the Facilitator and Writing Team roles and Faculty

Stipend – $250 per writing team member

Application Process

1. Complete a short application.
2. Express a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
3. Meet with the PI.
4. Submit the application by February 17, 2023.

Participate as a Community Contributor

Student, staff, and faculty participants are invited to attend and actively engage in a two-hour close reading and discussion session to explore our Benedictine values in critical ways that translate our mission and hallmarks into clear expectations and simple, practical traditions.

In each session, participants will engage in clarifying selected hallmarks from the core text, “Education within the Benedictine Wisdom Tradition,” by the Association of Benedictine Colleges and Universities. After close examination of selected passages, there will be a discussion during which the group reflects on language that clarifies how each hallmark translates to observable attitudes and clear, distinct behaviors indicative of respect, tolerance, fairness, and open-mindedness, keeping in mind that while on the surface, the hallmarks may seem to support a diverse, equitable, and inclusive university community, but in reality, these historical precepts may seem ambiguous or not easily interpreted by many in our community. In order to bridge the past with the present and future, our values must be clarified in plain, simple language, leaving no one with the burden of misunderstanding or the feeling that the university does not support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This opportunity is an invitation to recognize that the Benedictine hallmarks are not simply ten bullet points on a checklist, but rather, a set of meaningful principles that inform our care for and interaction with one another. Ultimately, this project will allow the university to move from a superficial to a more challenging level of engagement in a way that will affirm the most marginalized individuals with evidence that their presence is desired and that they are valued in our community.

For each two-hour, in-person session, lunch will be served. Two sessions will be offered in person, and one will be offered via Zoom. One adjunct faculty participant will receive a $100 stipend and two student participants will receive a $50 stipend, per person, to attend and actively engage in each session.

The “Awareness to Action” project is made possible by a small grant from the Lilly Fellows Project.

Eligibility

Any student, staff, or faculty member who participates actively in one or more 2-hour discussion sessions (up to a total of 3 sessions). Two sessions will take place in person, and one will take place virtually.

*Note – One adjunct faculty member will receive a $100 stipend per session and two student participants will receive a $50 stipend per session for full participation. General community participants will not receive a stipend.

Application Process

Complete and submit this short application by February 17, 2023.

The TRHT Committee consists of faculty, staff, and students who attend the annual Institute on Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers. The committee is responsible for overseeing action plans for projects that courageously interrogate the university’s past and actively embodies the Benedictine core values of Community, Hospitality, and Conversatio (transformation) to make Benedictine University both an equitable academic space for all and a community that actively engages in social justice practices. Faculty, staff, or students interested in attending the TRHT Institute should send an email expressing interest to [email protected].

Members:

Steven Burgess, Assistant Professor – Philosophy
Julie Cowgill, Assistant Provost – Mesa
Elaine Davies, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs
Julie Dockery, Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Cheryl Heinz, Department Chair – Biological Sciences
Peter Huff, Chief Mission Officer
Harold Watson, Director of Student Activities & Recreational Sports/Camps
Chen Wilson, Professor – English Language and Literature

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Steering Committee is responsible for leading the coordination of university-wide efforts to implement the recommendations of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. Faculty or staff interested in serving on the steering committee should send an email expressing interest to [email protected].

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership and advocacy to advance the University’s efforts to addressing systemic and structural issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Serve as a resource to senior leadership as the University seeks to embed and layer diversity, equity, and inclusion into its culture and in all University-wide activities and initiatives.
• Facilitate collaboration and communication between offices implementing DEI initiatives.
• Advocate for the development and implementation of programs and initiatives for students, faculty, and staff in order to support campus-wide efforts relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Review University policies, practices, and procedures to assess their impact on our efforts to support and promote an anti-racist environment.
• Propose University policies and procedures that promote positive systemic changes in addressing racism and inequality in all areas of the institution.
• Monitor and support efforts to recruit and retain diverse populations of students, faculty, and staff.
• Provide oversight for diversity, equity, and inclusion training programs.
• Develop plans for ongoing assessment of our effort pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University.
• Track data pertaining to recruitment, retention, and graduation rates and use these data to recommend programming and interventions.

Members:

Julie Cowgill, Assistant Provost – Mesa
Katie Culotta, Director of Advising Center
Marc Davidson, Director of Student Affairs
Elaine Davies, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs
Julie D. Dockery, EdD (Chair), Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Tiara Perez Morales, Assistant Professor – Biological Sciences
Fannie Rushing, Professor – History

We respectfully acknowledge the stewardship and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples who have protected and nurtured vast tribal lands, natural resources, and cultural traditions that enrich the Midwest and the Southwest.

We acknowledge that Benedictine University’s Lisle campus is located on the lands of many Indigenous peoples who have called this area home, including the Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Ojibwe, Odawa, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Myaamia (Miami), Sauk Fox, Illini, Dakota, and Ochethi Sakowin Nations.

We acknowledge that Benedictine University’s Mesa campus is located on the lands of Ak-Chin, Fort McDowell Yavapai, Gila River and Salt River Akimel O’odham (Pima)-Piipaash (Maricopa), and Tohono-O’odham Nations.

As a Catholic and Benedictine institution of higher learning, our university is morally and intellectually obligated to recognize and honor the enduring legacy of the Indigenous communities of Illinois and Arizona onto whose ancestral homelands our university was built and which it continues to occupy.

We commit to ongoing study of the historic role played by the Church and Benedictine communities in conquest and oppression and to concrete action to promote social justice for Indigenous peoples.