NYUAD Accountability Framework
This accountability framework was developed in collaboration with numerous stakeholders, including colleagues from the Office of Inclusion & Equity, NYU’s Office of Global Inclusion, and the Implementation Committee on Race, Diversity, and Belonging, (which has now transitioned to the Inclusion, Equity, and Action Committee). Actions and measures were also informed by more than twenty listening sessions conducted with community groups across campus in October 2020 by the Implementation Committee, as well as the Our NYUAD, Journey to Belonging Campus Climate Survey.
The framework was launched in Spring 2021, including a launch event with Vice Chancellor Westermann , the Senior Director of the Office of Inclusion and Equity, and the Implementation Committee co-chairs.
Commitment to a Truly Inclusive NYUAD
Actions and Progress
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Build a Renewed Office of Inclusion and Equity 1
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Senior Director of Office of Inclusion and Equity to be hired and office to be restructured to better support the NYUAD community.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED
- January 2021: Office restructured to ensure OIE can focus on leading and advancing NYUAD's implementation of practices and programs that foster inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity (IDBE) in the workplace.
- OIE led an institutional approach to IDBE which included strengthening the relationship with Spiritual Life and InterCultural Education (SLICE) and the Office of the Provost.
- OIE led an institutional approach to IDBE which included strengthening the relationship with Spiritual Life and InterCultural Education (SLICE) and the Office of the Provost.
- January 2021: Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) Officer position created and hired. This critical reporting and work is separate from OIE.
- February 2021: The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) was restructured and incorporated within the OIE.
- September 2021: Inclusion, Equity, and Action Committee was formed, with expanded representation particularly from students. Their work builds on the work undertaken by the former Implementation Committee on Race, Diversity, and Belonging and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
- January 2021: Office restructured to ensure OIE can focus on leading and advancing NYUAD's implementation of practices and programs that foster inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity (IDBE) in the workplace.
Category
- People
- Policies
- Programs
- Resources and Research
1 Accountability frameworks are a common paradigm from big consulting firms. In terms of inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity (IDBE), several frameworks were considered, but the concepts here came from work found at the City of Portland, Oregon in the United States.
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Provide Mandatory Training on Diversity, Race, Inclusion, and Equity to All Members of the University’s Academic and Operational Leadership Teams 2
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Provide the training.
- Provide additional training from the OIE with pre- and post-assessments to measure progress.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED*
- August-September 2020: Training from the University of Maryland (UMD) provided over two days to University Leadership.
- December 2020: Specialized training delivered from UMD to academic leadership.
- Spring 2021 - Spring 2022: The OIE continues to offer follow up training.
* While this specific action item is completed, the work is ongoing and training will continue to be developed and provided
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
Category
- People
- Programs
2 Worthington, R. L., Stanley, C. A., & Smith, D. G. (2020). “Advancing the professionalization of diversity officers in higher education: Report of the Presidential Task Force on the Revision of the NADOHE standards of professional practice.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 13(1), pp. 1-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000175
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Offer Community-wide Training on Equity and Inclusion
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Seventy-five percent of staff, faculty, and students to engage in at least one internal/external IDBE workshop/training.
- OIE will conduct pre- and post-training assessments to measure progress.
Status — Where are we? | ONGOING
- Spring 2021: Trainings were developed by the OIE, L&OD, and SLICE, including but not limited to:
- The IDBE Learning Journey
- Understanding Implicit Bias
- Inclusive Marketing and Communications
- Managing the Macro Impact of Microaggressions Towards Faculty
- Accessibility Zone
- Inclusive Leadership
- Cultural Intelligence
- Creating Belonging
- Psychological Safety in Teams
- Social Intelligence
- Embodying Anti-Racism in Education Abroad Programming
- Inclusive Language Training for Global Education
- Safe Zone and Disability Zone training for all Student Affairs staff
- Fall 2021: Trainings continue to be offered, including but not limited to:
- Inclusive Language Training for Admissions
- Sustained Dialogue
- Inclusive Teaching Training for all Teaching Assistants
- Trained leaders of the student newspaper, focused on leaning into difference and understanding their intercultural development and conflict styles
- Student Interest Group (SIG) leadership training module on inclusion, equity, and anti-racism mandatory for all SIG leaders
- Trained 44 staff members across Student Affairs, Global Education, Admissions, and the Office of Inclusion and Equity to become qualified administrators for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)
- 1:1 debriefs for 461 first year students on the IDI profile results
- Spring 2022
- Continued Inclusive Teaching Training for Teaching Assistants
- Continued training staff members to become qualified administrators for the IDI
- Continued 1:1 debrief of IDI profile results to 461 first year students
- Conflict competency training is provided for designated Student Affairs staff
- A number of departments continue to require IDBE workshop attendance for team members on IDBE committees and/or all team members
- Continued Inclusive Teaching Training for Teaching Assistants
*We recognize that IDBE is necessarily an ongoing progress, so while this commitment could be said to be completed for the given time period, it is being transitioned into the new commitments.
- Spring 2021: Trainings were developed by the OIE, L&OD, and SLICE, including but not limited to:
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
- Office of the Vice Chancellor
- Office of Inclusion and Equity (OIE)
- Human Resources (HR)
- Office of Learning and Organizational Development (L&OD)
- Office of Spiritual Life and Intercultural Education (SLICE)
Category
- People
1 Worthington, R. L., Stanley, C. A., & Smith, D. G. (2020). “Advancing the professionalization of diversity officers in higher education: Report of the Presidential Task Force on the Revision of the NADOHE standards of professional practice.” Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 13(1), pp. 1-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000175
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Participate in the Development of Required Learning Modules on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for NYU Students, and Require Them for Our Students at NYUAD
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Offerings made available for the NYUAD community through the OIE.
- One-hundred percent of undergraduate and graduate students engage with materials.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED
OIE partnered with OGI to ensure trainings such as Safe Zone, Justice Zone, and Disability Zone are customized for the NYUAD audience — videos and training materials are currently in development in New York.
- December 2020: Safe Zone trainings by OGI for NYUAD
- Spring 2021: Disability Zone trainings
- Fall 2021: Student Affairs introduced conversations on social identities, home, and belonging in First Year Dialogue, which is mandatory for all first-year students. All first-year students were provided a personal Intercultural Development Inventory assessment and received a 1:1 coaching session with trained staff to debrief their results.
- Spring 2022: The Office of Global Inclusion continued to develop the learning modules with a plan to roll them out across the global network in the next AY.
*The learning modules themselves are still in-progress. While NYU Abu Dhabi will require them for students when they are launched, a number of departments have introduced other mandatory IDBE requirements for students to ensure that the goals of this commitment are achieved even as the learning modules themselves still come into being.
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
- The Office of Global Inclusion (OGI) in New York, with support from:
- The Office of Inclusion and Equity (OIE), and
- Spiritual Life and InterCultural Education (SLICE)
Category
- People
- Programs
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Develop Better, Properly Nuanced Ways to Describe Our Campus Population in Terms of Diversity and Inclusion, So That Measures of Progress Can Be Developed 3
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Develop integrated HR systems that capture demographic information of NYUAD employees properly.
- Develop a similar system for student data collection.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED
- October 2020: Data Subcommittee formed to establish required key data points and level of granularity, with regular attendance from Assistant Director, IR (Vice Provost, FDE, and Deputy Director of HR part of subgroup).
- December 2020: Assistant Director of Institutional Research (IR) presented to the committee on existing known data and gaps.
- Fall 2020-Spring 2021: Vice Provost, FDE in conversation with HR and Academic Affairs to establish baseline diversity data.
- January 2021: OIE and Assistant Director of IR partnered to create a data guideline for the NYUAD community.3
- Spring 2021: The release of NYUAD's first campus climate survey included the creation of a new demographic data model that better represents our global population.
- Fall 2021 - Spring 2021: The new demographic data model is being integrated into our systems of records and Workday.
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
- Office of Inclusion and Equity (OIE)
- Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Engagement (FDE)
- Human Resources (HR)
- Assistant Director of Institutional Research (IR)
Category
- People
3 In order to begin the process of how we measure our campus populations, here are some tools: Be Equal - IBM, United Nations Statistics, NYUAD Diversity Data Overview Summer 2020.
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Provide Resources to Support the Faculty’s Interest in Creating More Equitable and Inclusive Learning Environments, Including Reviews of Curricula, Syllabi, and Pedagogical Methods to Ensure a Rich Diversity of Perspectives Across Our Educational Offerings
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Offerings made available to the NYUAD community on a regular basis.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED*
- Spring 2021 - Spring 2022: The OIE and Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning have offered sessions on topics including but not limited to:
- Inclusive Pedagogy (discipline specific)
- Anti-Blackness
- Rubrics: Tools for Fairness and Consistency in Grading and Assessment
- Diversifying your Syllabus Content
- Faith and Spirituality in the Classroom
- Inclusive Teaching for NYUAD Students Belonging
- Remote Instruction Best Practices
- Trauma Informed Teaching in the COVID-19 Context
- Constructing Inclusive Syllabi
- Building Community in the Remote and Hybrid Classroom
- Problematizing Language Policy and Practice in English-as-a-medium and Transnational Higher Education
- Spring 2022: Developed the Provost’s Inclusion and Equity Committee which focuses on the IDBE strategy for the NYUAD Provost Office.
- GPPO is working to provide funding programs for families in distress, improving financial aid for master’s programs, and working on a holistic review of graduate applications to improve the accessibility of graduate programs.
- Spring 2021 - Spring 2022: The OIE and Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning have offered sessions on topics including but not limited to:
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
- Office of Inclusion and Equity (OIE)
- Office of the Provost
- Hilary Ballon Center for Teaching and Learning
- Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs Office (GPPO)
Category
- Resources and Research
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Provide Resources and Venues for Faculty, Students, and Staff to Engage with Research Focused on Globally Dismantling Racism in Relation to Disciplines and Social Practices, Including a New Series of Talks, Panels, and Workshops Involving NYUAD and NYU New York Scholars of Race in Relation to STEM Fields, Social Sciences, and the Arts and Humanities
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- OIE can be resources across the institution for all divisions and units to help them ensure their programming is inclusive.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED*
- Academic Year 2020-2021: Created Vice Chancellor Speaker Series on Race, Diversity, and the Learning Community.
- Spring 2021: Created Blackness Without Borders Series for spring.
- Speaker series included scholars from various disciplines in relation to topics involving race, diversity, and inclusion.
- Fall 2021-Spring 2022:
- Divisions and offices across campus continue to offer talks on a number of IDBE related topics, including the newly launched Climate Conversations focused on sustainability and the Engineering IDBE Seminar Series.
- Creation of Fund for Inclusion and Innovation which provided grants and resources to faculty and academic divisions to fund research projects, programs, and events that work toward addressing histories, legacies, and present-day realities of colonialism and the oppression of historically marginalized communities.
- Awarded six faculty members with the Fund for Inclusion and Innovation.
- Divisions and offices across campus continue to offer talks on a number of IDBE related topics, including the newly launched Climate Conversations focused on sustainability and the Engineering IDBE Seminar Series.
- Spring 2022:
- OSS launched Climate Conversations, with the first conversation focused on the intersection of IDBE and the climate crisis and the disproportionate impact on historically marginalized communities. OSS continues to center IDBE throughout its programming
- The Library formed an IDBE Working Group which includes a focus on resource collection, as a local counterpart to NYU’s IDBE Steering Committee that they have been represented on since Spring 2019.
* While this specific action item is completed, the work is ongoing and training will continue to be developed and provided
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
Category
- People
- Resources and Research
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Support the Interests of Our Black Students in Creating a Black Students Association that Would Build on the Important and Continuing Work of Africa Global, AZIZA, and the Caribbean Students Association
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Supporting students in the creation of the Black Student Association (BSA) and the future development of AZIZA.
- Continuing to provide support and advisement to the Caribbean Students Association and Africa Global.
- Affinity-based outreach and support to first-year students.
- Providing financial support and advisement for skillbuilding opportunities and student-led projects.
Status — Where are we? | IN PROGRESS
- Fall 2020: Engaged in listening sessions including named SIGs and Black Community Members; seeking feedback as to how best to achieve the creation of the BSA.
- Academic Year 2020-2021: Ongoing conversations in 2020-2021 between Student Affairs and student leaders around the establishment of a SIG. Pending student consensus around establishing a Black student association.
- Spring 2021: Outreach between existing student groups for Black students and the staff affinity group Black and African Diaspora Community of Action (BADCOA).
- Summer 2020: Affinity-based outreach by Student Affairs through affinity-based SIGs as part of summer onboarding and Marhaba.
- Fall 2021: Creation of a Black Professional Network by students, with the support of SLICE and the Career Development Center (CDC), creating space for Black-identifying students to be supported in the professional sphere through workshops, panel discussions, and mentorship.
*This commitment was created in response to a specific student request in 2020, and has been adapted for the new commitments to continue to support Black students and other minoritized groups through appropriate and impactful structures, while following their lead on what Student Interest Groups (SIGs) or associations they want to create.
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
Category
- People
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Review Hiring, Performance Evaluation, Promotion, and Vendor Selection Policies to Ensure Equitable and Inclusive Practices Are Maintained, and a Culture of Belonging is Fostered Across the Institution
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- A comprehensive review of all CABO processes conducted with an external vendor and/or OIE Director.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED AND ONGOING
- Spring 2021: In partnership with HR and OIE, developed a strategy that includes measuring all processes with an inclusive framework including talent acquisition, evaluation, promotion, and bonus structures. 4 The OIE led an equitable hiring training with Student Affairs for student leaders and staff involved in various recruitment processes.
- Fall 2021: The OIE continues to meet with offices within the Chief Administrative and Business Office to ensure completion. HR works directly with OIE to implement a strategy for equitable practices across all units.
- Spring 2022: A pay equity survey is being developed between Human Resources and the Office of General Counsel at NYUAD and NYUNY. Human Resources is working with Inclusion & Equity on Strategic Techniques for Administrative Recruitment Success (STARS) for best practices for hiring managers toward an inclusive recruitment process.
- Developed and incorporated a tool in the year-end performance reviews for staff to self-reflect on their cultural competencies and proficiencies related to IDBE.
*Many of these measures have been completed while recognizing that there is still more that can be done to ensure equitable and inclusive practices and furthering a culture of belonging. Performance evaluation, promotion, vendor selection, and hiring are all reflected in the new commitments.
4 Human Resources and OIE — Inclusive Frameworks
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
- Chief Administration Business Office (CABO)
- Office of Inclusion and Equity (OIE)
- Legal and Compliance
Category
- People
- Policies
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Expand Programs to Amplify Diversity and Mobility Among Staff at All Levels of Our Administration Through Mentoring and Training Programs, Several of Which Have Already Been Designed to be Launched This Coming Academic Year
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Twenty percent staff engagement in mentoring program as well as involvement from all TAG (The Vice Chancellor’s Advisory Group) members.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED*
- Spring 2021: A pilot mentoring program was launched, with all mentees that registered matched with a mentor.
- August 2021: Sixteen graduate fellows joined the Tomoh Graduates Program, providing competency based professional development supported by a comprehensive training schedule.
- Spring 2022: L&OD are facilitating group mentoring sessions, collaborating with the OIE on inclusive engagement and outreach.
* While this specific action item is completed, the work is ongoing and training will continue to be developed and provided
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
Category
- People
- Programs
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Ensure Faculty and Staff Have Comprehensive Training on the University's Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Complaint Procedures for Employees
- Measure
- Status
Measure — How do we know we succeeded?
- Create a training module that is accessible through i-Learn and at least 70 percent of the community should attend. This will be included in orientations for new joiners as well.
Status — Where are we? | COMPLETED*
- Fall 2020: 87% of administrative, researchers, and academic staff completed the OEO101 training on preventing discrimination and harassment on campus.
- Spring 2021: OEO Policies/Procedures presentation given to all new faculty as part of orientation, as well as to the Arts and Humanities division All Faculty Meeting. OEO policies and procedures presentation given as part of Accessibility Zone training, concerning Workplace Modifications focused on empowering NYUAD persons of determination.
- Spring/Fall 2021: All new NYUAD employees received a presentation on OEO Policies/Procedures during new starter orientations. OEO 101 training continues to be offered throughout the semester(s).
- Fall 2021: Launched OEO 102 Supervisors Workshop on Preventing Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation, focusing on NYUAD supervisors' specific responsibilities as it concerns preventing discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace, as well as providing strategies on handling workplace modifications/accessibility, and other critical workplace matters involving OEO policies.
- Spring 2022: The OEO, in collaboration with the Office of Compliance, HR, Employee Relations, and the OIE, developed NYUAD's second K(no)w Retaliation initiative, to spread greater awareness of about the rights of employees and available procedures/resources with regards to protecting employees against retaliation in the workplace as it concerns those who engage in protected activity under OEO policies. The program will launch at the beginning of AY 22-23.
* While this specific action item is completed, the work is ongoing and training will continue to be developed and provided.
Responsibility — Who is doing it?
Category
- People
- Policies