Equity Task Force Recommendations
More than 500 members of the Portland State University community created a vision for a just and equitable campus at the Time to Act Fall 2020 Equity Summit. Five cross-campus task forces then recommended continuing actions to make that vision a reality.
Prioritized recommendations will qualify for funding through the Racial Equity Fund — $1.5 million over three years — for investments to advance student retention and success, nurture an empowering climate for BIPOC employees, and support the development and deployment of an anti-racist lens.
We encourage you to review each task force's recommendations and share your thoughts via their respective feedback forms. Thank you for helping PSU create meaningful change for racial justice.
Leadership and Infrastructure: This group recommends addressing uneven distribution of labor, developing equity-based budget models and practices, and creating an equity analytics team to manage and report equity-related data. These broad organizational strategies will create a structure that supports our equity goals.
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Campus Climate and Intergroup Relations: This task force was asked to find ways to create a welcoming campus that supports all students and fosters positive interactions across cultures. They recommend: adopting a formal plan to guide the university toward its goals; creating a shared language around that work; and tracking progress with a new equity dashboard.
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Employee Access, Success and Equity: To recruit and retain a diverse workforce, this work group proposes using trauma-informed care practices, targeting talent development to prioritize marginalized employees, and creating more opportunities to hire and promote BIPOC individuals. These recommendations will help ensure equitable experiences and outcomes for employees.
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Education, Scholarship and Service: Recommendations to eliminate racism from the curriculum include: creating an accountability structure to infuse instruction with equity and cultural responsibility, bringing cultural sustainability and equity into the promotion and tenure process, and encouraging culturally responsive creative work across campus.
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Student Access, Success and Equity: The task force recommends developing an equity framework for student communications to remove any microaggressions or links to racial trauma. They also propose creating a committee of first-generation students to train staff in student services and a committee to ensure scholarships and student accounts are equitable.
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