Dear Carleton Community,
We are pleased to be able to update you on the work of the IDE Strategic Plan as it nears completion. We know the community is eagerly awaiting the final stages of the process so we’d like to communicate the schedule for the next round of feedback on the plan.
As background, the Carleton IDE Steering Committee kicked off in November of 2020. The charge of this group was to develop a 10-year strategic plan for Inclusion, Diversity and Equity with a special focus on racial identity and the Black experience.
The work so far has included several phases. Following the selection of a consultant partner, these phases included:
1. Data gathering and analysis
- Data was gathered through campus climate surveys and data sets.
- 29 focus groups were formed for faculty (including groups specifically for faculty who identify as women, Black, LGBTQIA+, Indigenous, international, and POC), staff (including groups specifically for staff who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, exempt, non exempt, and union), alumni (including groups for those 1-5 years past graduation, 5-12 years past graduation, BIPOC, and alumni leaders), and students by class year, first generation students, indigenous and DACA students, black students, Asian, Latinx and multiracial students, international students, LGBTQIA+ students, politically conservative students, peer leader students, and students with disabilities.
- The campus community was also encouraged to submit input through an online feedback form.
2. Development of broad, overarching IDE Goals
3. Development of the strategies to meet the IDE goals
We spent time this fall gathering feedback on the broad IDE Goals. Those goals were developed based on the data, experiences and feedback we gathered from students, faculty, staff and alumni. In November, 5 working groups that included faculty, staff, alumni and students were charged with developing recommended strategies to meet those goals. The working groups are now finalizing their recommendations.
Our next step is to again meet with stakeholders to get feedback on the specific IDE strategies developed by the working groups.
To accomplish this, we plan to:
- Post the draft recommendations from the working groups on February 1 on the IDE website where comments can be sent to the committee throughout February
- Conduct (Zoom) town hall meetings for students, faculty, staff and alumni(see the schedule below) to respond to the working group recommendations
IDE (Zoom) Town Hall Schedule (Central Time):
- February 15, noon: Faculty
- February 17, noon: Students
- February 18, noon: Staff
- February 21, noon: Students
- February 22, 11 am: Alumni
- February 22, 2:00 pm: Staff
- February 25, noon: Faculty
Information on how to join these sessions will be sent in a subsequent email. We hope you can find time to review the posted draft after February 1 and send your comments and/or attend a town hall. We believe that a final round of community input on plan specifics will be critical.
Thank you for your patience and your continued support of this process. We look forward to hearing from you.