FY24 Initiatives
Our DEI initiatives this year made strides in supporting college students' basic needs. By addressing fundamental needs such as food security, housing stability, and financial support, we aim to foster a more equitable educational experience, ensuring that all students can thrive academically and personally.
The council engaged with the ASUA Campus Pantry & Closet to better understand their program and the challenges they face. To increase awareness of their resources on campus, we worked with the University Initiatives & Policy office to incorporate basic needs language into syllabi across campus for broader faculty distribution. We also shared it with our Academic Affairs & Student Success team for distribution to enhance during recruitment and retention efforts. Additionally, we engaged with the Graduate & Professional Student Council on their past survey data and are exploring future survey opportunities. To improve access even further, SBS established a Pop-Up Pantry in the Social Sciences building to provide essential food and feminine hygiene products.
SBS also launched our first Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) awards to support outstanding research within our college. These awards celebrate innovative work to advance research that contributes to a more inclusive academic community and addresses pressing social issues. We awarded two graduate students and three faculty members with $1,500 from our Sociology, Anthropology, English-Writing Program and Linguistics departments for their projects relating to DEI. The projects ranged to understanding how individuals experience homelessness and access services in Tucson, region-socio-political implications of ritual cave use in Mexico, and academic writing in the Borderlands.
Lastly, the council engaged with the UA Communications team to improve access for the UA religious holiday calendar that is only found on the registrar site, in hopes of increasing awareness for planning of course work and events.
FY23 Initiatives
The FY23 council was composed of 47 faculty, staff, graduate, and undergraduate students from our diverse SBS units. This year's co-chairs are Antonio “Tom-Zé” Bacelar da Silva from the Center for Latin American Studies and Arlette Cordery from the Dean’s Office.
The council worked on various DEI projects within the college such as assisting the Dean with the strategic plan and developing a search advocate program to enhance equitable and diverse hiring practices. Other council projects included a new award that faculty, staff, and students can apply for to support DEI-related initiatives, creating paths to belonging with student groups across campus, curating DEI videos and seminars, and exploring DEI training programs and incentives. Visit our website or contact Jeannine Relly, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs & Inclusion, and Arlette Cordery, Coordinator of Strategic Projects, for more information.
FY21-22 Initiatives
The college DEI council and initiatives were led by Maribel Alvarez, Faculty of the Southwest Center, and Farid Matuk, Associate Professor of English. Accomplishments include the expansion of the council members to include graduate and undergraduate students for the first time, hosting a DEI-focused webinar for Student Admitted Day, and identifying funding support for a DEI Graduate Research Fellow and an Undergrad Fellow to help advance the council initiatives.
The council also focused on various forms of DEI curriculum such as the creation of the JEDI Leadership Academy that first took place in August 2021. This student-led, week-long seminar had in-depth exploration of Mass Incarceration, Justice, and Higher Education and is now offered every year. The council also supported Dr. Michelle Tellez in the design and submission of a proposal to create a JEDI Minor, which is now offered in the College of SBS. Lastly, SBS faculty Dr. Kelsey John worked closely with UA central Native American leaders Karen Francis-Begay and Levi Esquerra in crafting an official university-wide land acknowledgment statement in consultation with the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and the Tohono O'odhom Nation.