Goal 1: Promote a welcoming and respectful environment

  • Strategy 1: Use empirically validated methods to address the challenges and opportunities that arise for CLAS students, faculty, and staff
  • Strategy 2: Integrate strategies for cultural and global competency throughout the educational and scholarly experience in CLAS
  • Strategy 3: Foster a greater sense of community within the college

Goal 2:  Build stronger infrastructure to support efforts

  • Strategy 1: Increase support provided to first-generation, URM, and international students, faculty, and staff in CLAS
  • Strategy 2: Increase support to improve recruitment and retention across all stakeholder groups including students, staff and faculty

Goal 3:  Prioritize mental health and well-being for all students, faculty, and staff by strengthening [enhancing] and supporting CLAS initiatives and improving access to resources

  • Strategy 1: Restructure assessment and evaluations to promote mental health; recognize and incorporate cultural differences; provide education and support related to grading and academic success and failures; create a framework to assess the mental health toll and recognize and address the unacknowledged labor provided within a community of care
  • Strategy 2: Provide and support access to well-being and mental health resources within the college; increase access and awareness of mental health and well-being resources through an online hub; increase opportunities for faculty and staff trainings 
Elizabeth Mendez-Shannon

Elizabeth Mendez-Shannon

Director of Accreditation, Opportunity, and Diversity

Year Two Progress

  • Co-developed an inaugural new staff orientation, launched in spring 2023

  • Established funding awards for event programs, conferences and pilot initiatives that increase accessibility and education for diversity, equity, and inclusion, open to all faculty, students and staff

  • Developed a curriculum module accessible to all faculty and staff

  • Established CLAS network bringing together representatives from every department

  • Formed work groups to address mentoring, service equity, and toolkit priorities:

  • Survey designed to support a pairing system for mentoring, with pilot set to launch August 2023 during new faculty orientation

  • Recommended a process for defining Service and proposed time commitment

  • Developed toolkit of resources for instructors to make available beginning August 2023

Year Three Priorities

  • Provide mechanisms to enhance, create, or inform policies and procedures related to challenges and opportunities in the college

  • Provide feedback mechanisms to respond to issues in College

  • Assess and strengthen general education (GE CLAS Core) requirement

  • Enhance educational opportunities for the college community to increase awareness, knowledge, and skill development

  • Strengthen departmental and unit infrastructure

  • Leverage resources to enhance faculty, staff, and departmental engagement

  • Raise awareness and increase opportunities

  • Develop opportunities to amplify voices and experiences of faculty, students, and staff at the University of Iowa and in CLAS

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