State of Diversity 2023 - Inclusive Excellence

Office of Diversity and Inclusion Author

12/01/2023 Added

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Highlight video showing how the University puts Inclusive Excellence into action.

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[00:00:08.460]When I first arrived in Nebraska in 2019,
[00:00:11.130]I ran around the campus displaying
[00:00:13.170]and talking about the importance
[00:00:14.490]of the collective impact model.
[00:00:16.950]This model reflects
[00:00:18.030]how every person in every office functions in a loosely
[00:00:21.210]coupled network because of their unique missions,
[00:00:24.120]but must have a common and shared agenda.
[00:00:27.210]I position our shared agenda as inclusive excellence.
[00:00:32.340]In 2022 ODI hosted its very first collective impact
[00:00:36.000]conference that was led by Dr. PeeksMease
[00:00:38.040]and organized by faculty and staff across the university.
[00:00:41.610]This event celebrated
[00:00:43.020]and acknowledged the breadth of work occurring
[00:00:46.470]and happening across campus and offered wellbeing
[00:00:49.920]and professional learning experiences meant
[00:00:52.200]to support individuals in their collective success.
[00:00:57.090]In the spirit of this collective work,
[00:00:58.740]we began last year highlighting
[00:01:00.450]inclusive excellence in action.
[00:01:02.730]Take a look at these efforts
[00:01:03.810]of inclusive excellence in the student experience,
[00:01:06.660]in the classroom, in building research teams
[00:01:09.930]and in practice.
[00:01:11.794](bright music)
[00:01:30.840]I've loved science my whole life.
[00:01:32.580]It's always been my favorite subject.
[00:01:34.590]I think that as a woman, often seeing other women in STEM is
[00:01:38.010]something that is very empowering
[00:01:39.390]because it's not something that we hear about very often.
[00:01:42.000]Oh yeah.
[00:01:43.082]I go talk to the founder today
[00:01:44.657]to see about recruiting students for the STEM Power Program.
[00:01:48.202]For the next...
[00:01:49.035]I started working
[00:01:49.868]with the STEM Power this past summer,
[00:01:51.930]and I was partnered with Dr. Kristi Montooth
[00:01:54.600]So I work with her in the Fly Lab.
[00:01:56.700]I think that the STEM Power Program is definitely focused
[00:01:58.950]on our inclusive excellence
[00:02:00.210]because it brings in underrepresented students
[00:02:02.400]from different communities and kind of allows them
[00:02:04.710]to get familiar with campus life as well as meeting mentors
[00:02:07.950]and faculty members that they could interact
[00:02:09.987]with throughout the school year and beyond that,
[00:02:12.960]and it kind of just helps them get to adjust
[00:02:15.150]to like resources that they may not know
[00:02:17.460]that is available for them.
[00:02:20.250]As a first-generation student, it was really hard for me
[00:02:22.290]to find programs that foster an inclusive community,
[00:02:24.960]and this time Power did that with other students
[00:02:27.030]who I could also relate to.
[00:02:28.890]And I think that oftentimes students feel like
[00:02:30.930]their voice is not heard.
[00:02:32.310]And I think that faculty members
[00:02:33.750]and campus leaders can just try to let students know
[00:02:37.080]that they have a voice
[00:02:38.100]and that their voice can be used to kind of, I guess,
[00:02:40.920]express and communicate the stuff that they need
[00:02:43.357]and resources that they might need
[00:02:45.210]that faculty members may not know about.
[00:02:47.280]So I think giving students a community
[00:02:48.990]where they feel like their voice is heard is the most
[00:02:50.970]important way for us to talk about inclusive excellence.
[00:02:55.980]I think that's something that I'm really passionate about,
[00:02:58.110]is inspiring others to learn about their potential,
[00:03:01.440]especially young girls who often are not encouraged
[00:03:03.810]to go into fields like STEM and sciences.
[00:03:06.780]So it's something that I hope to achieve.
[00:03:08.146]And I also have a younger sister, so I wanna show her
[00:03:10.650]that this is possible and that she can achieve her dreams
[00:03:13.410]and that no one can tell her not to because STEM is cool
[00:03:16.260]and it's cool for girls as well.
[00:03:18.100](bright music)
[00:03:20.950]I get that it's close like to your heart and I...
[00:03:24.710]So the Intergroup Dialogue Project is part
[00:03:26.850]of our department's larger initiative on communicating
[00:03:29.670]to connect in a divided world.
[00:03:31.440]It includes courses that we teach, it includes scholarship,
[00:03:35.550]and also working on different projects
[00:03:37.620]or initiatives with the campus and the community.
[00:03:40.230]So I think we all know we live in a polarized world.
[00:03:42.960]We typically are not really trying to take perspectives
[00:03:46.138]of other people's experiences, of their sides.
[00:03:49.740]We're also not amplifying voices of communities
[00:03:52.890]that historically have been marginalized,
[00:03:54.893]and that's creating a lot of issues in society.
[00:03:57.840]And what this course tries to do is introduce students
[00:04:01.050]to the theories, the research
[00:04:03.180]and the practice of actually communicating across
[00:04:05.550]difference in a manner that amplifies voices of those
[00:04:10.200]who haven't had voices,
[00:04:11.880]and also in a way that really can lead
[00:04:14.370]to pragmatic important outcomes.
[00:04:17.511]And it's more of like a pattern, and then you know -
[00:04:19.737]Now we teach this as more than just talk.
[00:04:22.230]You can't just bring people together to talk.
[00:04:24.330]You have to think about the power structures
[00:04:27.030]that come into play.
[00:04:27.863]You have to think about how you can sustain these
[00:04:30.210]so they're not one-off interactions.
[00:04:32.790]And most importantly, you have to think about
[00:04:34.710]how can we make sure there are benefits
[00:04:37.020]and outcomes of this, especially when people are
[00:04:38.940]going to be vulnerable?
[00:04:40.956]I feel like there should be a little bit more grace.
[00:04:42.450]I would ideally like to see this project inform
[00:04:46.290]initiatives across Nebraska,
[00:04:48.690]so whether you're talking about conversations
[00:04:50.850]between different racial ethnic groups, religious group,
[00:04:53.730]rural and non-rural communities, really engage people across
[00:04:57.480]Nebraska to talk with each other, to learn from each other
[00:05:00.360]and better the state.
[00:05:01.786]But the brand is responding to -
[00:05:04.230]We live in a polarized rural, we're not talking
[00:05:07.200]to each other, and the only way I believe
[00:05:09.540]we're gonna be able to solve and address
[00:05:11.160]our most important issues is if we engage with each other.
[00:05:14.640]And that's the purpose of this initiative.
[00:05:24.900]I can't fully explain it,
[00:05:26.790]but people around the world are fascinated by birds.
[00:05:30.660]And you can see that from the stories people tell
[00:05:34.140]about the birds around them and their place in the world.
[00:05:36.914]Over the pandemic, tt coincided with a lot
[00:05:41.580]of social movements about disparities among people
[00:05:46.470]and their experiences.
[00:05:47.460]And one of those was about actually birds.
[00:05:51.360]So we recently got a grant
[00:05:52.800]through a national science foundation's program
[00:05:55.380]called Bio Leaps.
[00:05:56.730]So this is a grant designed to harness
[00:05:59.010]the unique position of professional societies
[00:06:01.500]in promoting inclusion.
[00:06:03.630]And so we're studying various aspects
[00:06:06.240]of how having connections with people
[00:06:09.056]like themselves fosters a sense of belonging,
[00:06:12.510]how they can encourage them to pursue the love of research.
[00:06:17.461]Just switch hands. And then...
[00:06:20.970]So I'm really passionate about getting more people,
[00:06:24.270]specifically women of color into STEM
[00:06:26.640]and science and field research.
[00:06:29.070]And I feel like birds were just that common thread of like,
[00:06:33.300]everybody sees birds, everybody knows what birds are.
[00:06:36.630]So I feel like it's a really good gateway in a sense
[00:06:39.720]to get people into just being outside
[00:06:42.360]and learning more about wildlife.
[00:06:44.010]And hopefully it can spark some interest in some people
[00:06:47.970]to go more into STEM and science and research.
[00:06:51.872]But here where it's like flat and (indistinct).
[00:06:56.825]And out in the forest back here, we study kind of
[00:06:59.940]how the social lives of birds help them survive
[00:07:04.680]these cold Nebraska winters.
[00:07:06.990]They form these really cool things called
[00:07:08.580]mixed species flocks.
[00:07:10.020]Social connections play a big part in animals' lives,
[00:07:13.830]not just humans'.
[00:07:15.038]Do you have a bit extra?
[00:07:16.439]Yeah, we got -
[00:07:17.272]You got another set?
[00:07:18.586]We should have two sets.
[00:07:20.610]I actually owe a lot of my ideas
[00:07:23.964]and my thoughts about inclusion
[00:07:25.710]to the connections I've made at the university.
[00:07:28.770]By including everybody,
[00:07:31.020]it makes the university or ornothilogical societies
[00:07:36.120]or any institution stronger.
[00:07:38.220]We can't really achieve excellence without
[00:07:41.190]promoting everyone's excellence, I guess.
[00:07:43.650]And to do that, everyone has to buy in
[00:07:46.290]and feel like they belong.
[00:07:48.270]A lot of what we talk about in ornithology now is this
[00:07:51.930]looming sense that we are losing the diversity of birds.
[00:07:55.380]And this is an all-hands-on-deck situation.
[00:07:57.930]And we can't afford to not include anyone that's got
[00:08:01.958]that passion and that interest in studying nature
[00:08:06.570]and conserving our natural legacy.
[00:08:09.420]And so from that perspective, I think it's an urgent
[00:08:13.882]need to really include everyone so that we can solve some
[00:08:18.480]of these global problems.
[00:08:21.545](bright music)
[00:08:28.380]Inclusive excellence is important to engineering
[00:08:30.840]for two very simple reasons.
[00:08:32.670]First of all, if we're going to meet the workforce needs
[00:08:35.190]of the state and the nation,
[00:08:36.570]we need more people studying engineering.
[00:08:38.520]And that's only gonna happen if we
[00:08:40.260]diversify our student body.
[00:08:42.240]Secondly, it's been documented in several studies
[00:08:45.450]that diverse engineering teams are more productive
[00:08:48.030]and lead to better solutions.
[00:08:49.410]So industry is demanding a more diverse workforce.
[00:08:52.470]It's our job to provide that workforce, so it's important.
[00:08:58.237](bright music)
[00:09:00.630]We are one of only three colleges
[00:09:02.280]of engineering in the United States
[00:09:04.260]to have received silver recognition from the American
[00:09:07.320]Society of Engineering Education.
[00:09:09.450]We're very proud of that accomplishment,
[00:09:11.160]and other universities are coming to us to learn
[00:09:14.310]about what we did to earn that recognition.
[00:09:17.940]Among our initiatives with respect to inclusive excellence,
[00:09:21.600]include our complete engineer program that seeks
[00:09:24.630]to develop six non-technical competencies.
[00:09:28.110]They include things such as teamwork, communications,
[00:09:31.530]professional ethics, and inclusive excellence.
[00:09:35.726](bright music)
[00:09:38.820]We have created several cohort programs
[00:09:40.710]to diversify our student body.
[00:09:43.110]This includes our Women in Engineering Program
[00:09:45.570]and our Multicultural Engineering Program.
[00:09:48.450]We've also partnered with the Peter Kiewit Foundation
[00:09:51.600]to create the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy.
[00:09:55.410]This amazing program provides the complete cost of education
[00:09:59.100]for 40 students per year
[00:10:01.140]and is focused on diversifying the engineering workforce.
[00:10:05.430]These are just some of the things that we are doing
[00:10:07.551]to broaden the diversity
[00:10:09.734]of students at the College of Engineering.
[00:10:12.319](bright music)
[00:10:17.160]We wouldn't have had the success we've had
[00:10:19.350]with respective inclusive excellence if it hadn't been part
[00:10:22.380]of a broader culture change in the college,
[00:10:24.720]and if it hadn't been fully embraced
[00:10:26.310]by our faculty, staff, and students.
[00:10:28.890]And we're fortunate that we are now a national
[00:10:30.960]leader in these efforts.
[00:10:32.430]People are looking to us to explore
[00:10:34.950]how they can have the similar change within their colleges.
[00:10:39.330]We have lots of work yet to do, but we're on the right track
[00:10:42.570]and our trajectory is really great.
[00:10:44.288](bright music)
[00:10:53.820]If you are part of the College of Engineering,
[00:10:58.530]the STEM Power Research Mentored Scholars Program,
[00:11:01.710]Bio Leaps, or the Intergroup Dialogue Project in
[00:11:04.290]Communication Studies, will you please either stand
[00:11:07.230]or raise your hand to be recognized, see Di.
[00:11:11.112](audience applauding)
[00:11:21.150]Again, this is only a fraction of the work
[00:11:23.820]and the impact
[00:11:24.653]that inclusive excellence has on our institution.
[00:11:27.420]I also want to give a special thanks as well
[00:11:30.480]to University Communication for production
[00:11:34.164]and creation of today's video.
[00:11:35.670]So a round of applause for University Communication.
[00:11:38.163](audience applauding)

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State of Diversity 2023 - Inclusive Excellence

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