In the Spring of 2020 Campus Assembly approved UMN Morris’s Equity and Diversity Advocate (EDA) program which requires each constitutional and standing committee to include at least one staff or faculty EDA. EDAs facilitate understanding and conversation around issues of inclusivity, equity, and diversity as these inform the committee’s work, promote systematic attention to inclusivity, equity, and diversity as a matter of regular shared governance, and facilitate coordination across committees and workgroups in these areas. The Equity and Diversity committee invites all students, staff, and faculty to participate in the EDA workshops as development opportunities to support their work on campus.
Vision for UMN Morris’s Equity & Diversity Advocates'
We envision a campus where inclusivity, equity and justice are:
- Integrated into the work and lives of every student, faculty, and staff member
- Recognized as core institutional values that inform thinking, policies, and practices throughout UMN Morris
- Integrative to academic excellence and the development of leaders for a globally inclusive society
Examples of Equity & Diversity Advocates’ Roles on Committees:
- Facilitate an understanding of evolving trends in higher education, and at UMN Morris, around inclusivity, equity, and diversity
- Present and steward data about these trends with an understanding of its deficiencies
- Offer campus and system-wide resources supporting inclusivity, equity, and diversity
- Ensure that data is being examined and presented in ways that reflect our ongoing commitment to equity and diversity. For example, ask for reports to be broken down by pertinent identities.
- Be aware of evolving demographic trends as well as trends that are not commonly captured (i.e., students, faculty, and staff with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ students, faculty, and staff).
- Understand that many underrepresented groups and groups who experience marginalization may not be reflected in institutional data
- Recognize power dynamics in committees
- Advocate for efforts to acknowledge underrepresented populations
- If measures, polices, outside visitors, topics related to underrepresented populations come to your committee try to tie the issue being discussed to the mission of your committee and to UMN Morris’s larger dedication to equity and diversity so all committee members understand why the issue is relevant and important.
- Facilitate an environment where all committee members can participate and are acknowledged for their contributions (e.g., attribute and second ideas that question power/marginalization)
- Be aware of resources available to UMN Morris community members via campus support offices and identify these in discussions when relevant.
- Facilitate broader understanding of privilege and opportunities students can and cannot access because of a lack of privilege.
- Recognize when deficit-based perspectives of groups who experience marginalization are reflected in discussions and facilitate broader understanding of difference between a lack of access and privilege versus a lack of motivation or dedication.