• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

• The SPH Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Alignment Team (AAT) is active. AAT has been meeting monthly to share successes, challenges, and resources across the school. Some wins that have emerged include:
  • Each division now has a DEI committee and a graduate assistant.
  • We have used more than $200K of our GAGE funds (grants intended to help identify and implement effective diversity initiatives); $105K in direct student support.
  • The AAT has helped to bolster the communications work that is connected to SPAR and the school began adding DEI and antiracist language to all leadership job descriptions and into performance review processes.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

• Some faculty created new curricula or revised existing curricula and syllabi to align with antiracism principles. This work includes engaging paid community members to review syllabi.
• Under the guidance of the associate dean for research, SPH developed goals to ensure that DEI and antiracism are central to the SPH research agenda.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

• In fall 2021, the school began reimagining where to locate the Office of DEI.
• SPH promoted the DEI program coordinator to associate director in August 2021, and hired the DEI program manager in February 2022.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

SPAR Launch Communications Plan

• In spring through fall 2021, the school developed and implemented a communications plan for the SPAR launch. It had three key objectives: 1) Make sure every member of our school knows what SPAR is and the role they play; 2) Showcase leadership commitment to the plan; 3) Engage people by educating and inspiring them to act.
• Communications strategies included meetings; development of the SPAR theme, “Building Equity, Driving Justice: Commit | Challenge | Change” and related design assets; key messages; videos; decal and letter mailed to SPH faculty and staff; mass emails and newsletter placements; social media; and an Advances magazine feature.

Ongoing SPAR Communications Plan

• In summer 2021 through summer 2022, the school developed and implemented a long-term communications plan in service of SPAR. Goals include: 1) Create transparency about who is leading, planning, and implementing SPAR and how others can get involved; 2) Model equitable approaches through engagement, feedback opportunities, and multi-channel communications; 3) Provide support, guidance, and resources to divisions and units; 4) Provide timely information about research, events, community engagement, resources, and training; 5) Reinforce that DEI and antiracism are top priorities for the school.
• Strategies included events; Agents for Change profiles; “Notes on Antiracism, Justice, and Equity” newsletter; “Antiracism and Health Equity” printed booklet; social media; videos; DEI website redesign and new web landing page; mass emails and newsletter placements; internal building signage; American Public Health Association (APHA) exhibit booth; promotional materials; and newsletter templates and webpages for divisions.

Hiring

• SPH hired an internal communications and antiracism strategist in spring 2022 with key responsibilities that include the ongoing implementation of the SPAR communications plan.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

In SPAR’s first year, the school began developing a standardized and authentic model for gathering, analyzing, and reporting data.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Inclusive Events

• SPH Commencement, held in May 2022 at Northrop Auditorium, provided Spanish interpretation for guests — a new accommodation for both SPH and Northrop Auditorium. SPH worked with Northrop to rent headsets that allowed contracted interpreters to speak to guests in the audience. Now Northrop can support similar requests.
• In academic year 2021–2022, SPH held 45 equity, justice, and antiracism-focused events including those that the Office of DEI, SPH divisions, student senate, and Health Equity Work Group organized.
• The events manager and DEI program manager began working with EDIT (Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Team) to produce inclusive, mandatory parameters for all future events.

Building Signage

• SPH crafted new building signage that encourages students, staff, faculty, and visitors to practice antiracism in their work and conversations.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Student Representatives on SPH Committees

• There is now student representation on the DEI Action Alignment Team, EDIT, Orientation Planning Committee, Commencement Planning Committee, SPH Alumni Society, and Research Committee.
• The SPH student senate president was appointed to the Education Policy Committee (EPC) as an ex-officio member.
• There is additional student representation in various committees at the program and division level as well.
• SPH secured stipends for student leaders of the Diversity Network.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Affinity Spaces

• SPH In/Color was developed in 2020 to provide BIPOC students an opportunity to connect and build community. SPH In/Color hosted virtual sessions in fall 2020 and spring 2021, and was active in fall 2021 for current and incoming BIPOC students.

Professional Development

• SPH held an event for BIPOC students to engage with BIPOC public health professionals (including SPH alumni) currently working in the field.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Student Counts by Race/Ethnicity

• 2021 total headcount 1,428; BIPOC 24.26%; nonresident international 14.10%; white 56.89%; unknown 4.75% (Data pulled on August 12, 2021, from “2021 SPH Current Student Counts for Official Reporting”)

Applications and Scholarships

• SPH reviewed application materials to ensure language is inclusive, antiracist, and free of implicit bias. SPH reported to the Associate for Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) implicit bias in boilerplate language that is common across U.S. applications. In these materials, the school also acknowledges the past harms done to BIPOC applicants in the application process and invites applicants to consider their role in antiracism and anti-oppression.
• SPH updated scholarship processes to increase BIPOC applicants and recipients.
• The school began to review SPH admission and graduate program websites to ensure that the language is inclusive and antiracist. Sites are also reviewed for coded language and implicit bias.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

GRE & Holistic Reviews

• The school permanently eliminated requirements for the GRE and instituted a holistic review of all applicants beginning with the 2021-2022 admissions cycle.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Faculty Counts by Race/Ethnicity

• 2021 total headcount 130; BIPOC 26 (20%); nonresident international 2; white 102
• 2022 total headcount 123; BIPOC 27 (21.95%); nonresident international 2; white 94
• Notes:
  1. Data reflects workforce snapshot counts taken spring of 2021 and 2022
  2. Data include all faculty who were paid when the snapshot was taken
  3. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Ethnicity Calculation is used to align with the student demographic reporting.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Salary Equity Review Committee (SERC)

• SPH convened a standing SPH SERC in January 2022.
• SERC co-chairs are SPH Professors Xianghua Luo and Shalini Kulasingam. Other committee members represent diversity across divisions, gender, rank, track (i.e. contract, tenure-track, tenured), and race/ethnicity.
• SERC will meet through summer 2022 to review all full-time faculty base salaries with a focus on equity across track, race/ethnicity, and gender.
• In early fall 2022, the committee will produce an open report that describes its review process. At that time, it will also produce a closed report to SPH leadership with recommendations about individuals needing an equity increase in base pay and how much is recommended.
• In fall and winter 2022, SPH leadership will review the reports and decide on the amount and timing of equity increases.
• References: Guidelines for Faculty Salary Equity Review Process for Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty (UMN, 2022); Guidelines for Faculty Salary Equity Reviews (UMN, 2018); U of M compensation principles and policies; SPH compensation principles and guidance documents.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Networking Event

• The SPH Offices of DEI, HR, Communications, and Faculty Affairs met in May 2022 to share ideas about faculty onboarding and networking events. From that meeting, the group began coordinating an annual networking event for all BIPOC faculty and staff that will also serve as a welcome for new BIPOC faculty and staff.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Policy

• SPH revised the tenure-track/tenured faculty Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Policy (7.12 Statement) and the U of M Provost gave final approval in July 2021. SPH prepared an executive summary of the changes in September 2021.

Promotion Dossier CV

• The faculty CV nested within the promotion dossier is required to follow the U of M template. DEI contributions do not currently have specific section(s) in the template CV. The SPH Office of Faculty Affairs holds a promotion workshop each May for faculty who are requesting promotion in the coming academic year. The associate dean for faculty Affairs encourages faculty to include DEI work in all the major sections of the CV (teaching, research/scholarship, service) and to demonstrate (in particular through the teaching narrative, the research narrative, and the service narrative) how DEI work is interwoven throughout those sections.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Staff Counts by Race/Ethnicity

• Staff Headcount Trend
  • 2021 total headcount 354; BIPOC 56 (15.82%); nonresident international 2; not specified 4; white 292
  • 2022 total headcount 389; BIPOC 71 (18.25%); nonresident international 6; not specified 9; white 303
• Staff Hiring Trend
  • 2021 total headcount 39; BIPOC 9 (23.1%); nonresident international 2; not reported 1; white 27
  • 2022 total headcount 70; BIPOC 22 (31.4%); nonresident international 2; not reported 2; white 4
  •  Notes:
    1. Data reflects workforce snapshot counts taken in spring of 2021 and 2022.
    2. Data include all staff who were paid when the spring snapshot was taken;
    3. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Ethnicity Calculation is used to align with the student demographic reporting.

Hiring Practices

The school made the following changes to staff hiring practices to prioritize antiracism and inclusivity in the hiring process:

• The school’s commitment to antiracism is now included in all staff job postings to highlight its importance in our culture and the hiring process. Salary ranges are now included in all staff job postings for transparency and to help candidates make an informed decision about whether to apply for a position.
• Some required qualifications in staff job postings have been recharacterized as preferred qualifications, thereby increasing the size of applicant pools rather than automatically screening out candidates as unqualified before consideration.
• Minimum posting time for staff positions has been increased from 7 to 14 days to help create larger, more diverse applicant pools.
• Work arrangement information has been included in all staff job postings to highlight the availability of remote or hybrid work, thereby promoting inclusivity and flexibility leading to larger, more diverse applicant pools.
• Instructions for indicating preferred name and pronouns have been included to promote a more inclusive hiring process for non-binary and transgendered applicants.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

Staff Salaries

• Over the past year, the school has made progress toward ensuring equitable, market-competitive staff salaries, including:
  • SPH developed new practices for salary setting and equity adjustments and integrated them with hiring and budgeting processes.
  • Ongoing work involves making this a sustainable practice, codifying it in a policy shared with and accessible to SPH employees (see current school compensation guidelines), and continuing to adjust as we learn from implementation.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

New Employee Orientation

• In August 2021, the SPH Human Resources Team updated the new employee orientation to introduce the Strategic Plan for Antiracism (SPAR), highlight the school’s commitment and work in antiracism and health equity, and encourage and inspire new employees to live the theme of SPAR, “Building Equity, Driving Justice: Commit | Challenge | Change.”
• SPH New Employee Orientation Participation Trends (May-April; Invitations go out to all faculty and staff hires 0.50-1.0 FTE)
  • 2021 total invites 80, attendees 69 (86.25%)
  • 2022 total invites 123, attendees 84 (68.29%)

• In Progress

• Alumni Career Trends Survey: The school completed its first Alumni Career Trends survey in 2021. Among other pieces of information, the survey collects critical data from alumni as it relates to our SPH commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion and helps inform the future of SPH education, programming, and our learning environment. The 2021 survey served as a baseline and will be repeated every five years.
  • Sent to 9,713 (all contactable living) alumni.
  • 1,453 alumni completed the survey (15% completion rate).
  • Survey results were shared in fall 2021 with SPH leadership, AAT, SPH Alumni Society board leaders, University of Minnesota Foundation, and University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
• Alumni and students reviewed and modified the mentor program application to include questions that would allow students and mentors to request to be matched with folks who have similar identities.
• Alumni reviewed and modified the Alumni Society board application to include questions that identify and address gaps in board representation in relation to the communities they serve.

• In Progress

Accomplishments to date:

• In September 2021, SPH created a DEI committee on the Alumni Society board. The committee will inform board strategy for engaging alumni around the issues of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion in research and community engagement.
• In September 2021, the school completed its Alumni Society board assessment. The assessment found that board membership does not reflect the diversity of our school’s alumni. It also found that our SPH alumni leaders do not receive training from their employers for addressing and leading work around issues of antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• SPH Alumni Society board completed DEI training with the SPH DEI office in August 2021.