Every employee deserves to be treated with dignity, empathy, respect and civility when interacting with students and colleagues, as well as to have opportunities for professional growth. USD recognizes the importance of collegial life in the development of the university as well as the fulfillment of individual potential. Student success relies on faculty, staff and administrators committed to inclusive excellence and who represent the diversity of the San Diego community.
May Fu, PhD
Associate Professor May Fu, PhD has watched USD’s Ethnic Studies Department grow for more than a decade, taking pride in the department’s strength and its role on campus as “a socially engaged, socially transformative discipline.”
The 2021 Woman of Impact faculty award recipient says, “It is a joy to cook up an intellectually rigorous, community-engaged curriculum that strengthens students’ critical thinking skills while building community power on- and off-campus.”
While she sees the award as a “lovely honor” from her colleagues and students, she stresses still more needs to be done in equitably recognizing “the everyday labor of BIPOC folks, women of color, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups” in our society.
It is a joy to cook up an intellectually rigorous, community-engaged curriculum that strengthens students’ critical thinking skills while building community power on- and off-campus.
A sample of initiatives related to Employee Access, Recruitment and Development:
- The Center for Educational Excellence (CEE) offers pedagogical training on inclusive teaching, is part of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversit, and offers racial equity awards. For more information, contact the director of CEE.
Facilities Management (FM) is a diverse unit and works with its staff to ensure they retain a healthy work/life balance and is considerate to the diverse needs of its staff. Going forward, FM may consider eliminating the timecard as a mechanism for accountability and instead implement a system of self-accountability and communal trust. For more information, contact the assistant vice president of Facilities Management.
- Human Resources conducts an annual affirmative action analysis, comparing incumbents and applicants across position types and comparing it with availability statistics in like positions to determine in what areas the university is exceeding or trailing in comparison to these local, regional and national statistics. Based on this information, goals are set each year to try to increase the diversity of our campus in ways that align with federal regulations.
- Human Resources has created new reports that can be provided to hiring managers to assess the diversity of their candidate pools for active recruitments. These reports help hiring managers determine whether their advertising strategies are yielding a diverse pool and, if not, they can change those strategies to reach underrepresented populations more effectively.
- Search committees are required to complete implicit bias training prior to participating in a search process. This is an initiative designed to help participants identify how hidden biases may unintentionally favor or disfavor different people in the search process.
- Professional development opportunities and programs are designed to be accessible across position levels. Selection processes for these programs always include an intentional review of the makeup of the group — gender, race, campus area and experience — to ensure a diverse set of perspectives and voices is present for a more robust learning environment. Programs include discussions examining the value of diversity, equity and inclusion as part of the curriculum. For more information, contact the Human Resources Department.
- The Kroc School hired a Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow for 2021-23. The fellow will spend three weeks engaging with students to discuss their experiences in leading social justice work. For more information, contact the dean of the Kroc School.
- The School of Business created the Diversity 2024 Project team to focus on developing and executing best practices in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) faculty hiring.
- The School of Business requires all applicants for faculty positions to provide a summary of their respective commitment to DEI.
- The School of Business created the Building Inclusive Excellence Council (BIEC), a forum for all on campus to come together at monthly meetings to share best practices and tools available for use by other groups on campus. The BIEC conducts a climate survey of staff and administration to have information on where we need to focus our resources to improve in diversity and inclusion. For more information, contact the Dean of the Knauss School of Business.
- Working with Mission Integration and other departments, the Provost’s Office revised its new faculty orientation to ensure the information provided promoted a culture of inclusivity, with emphasis on meeting the needs of new faculty members who are members of historically underrepresented groups in academia or specific disciplines.
- The Office of Mission is implementing a “hiring for mission” plan. This plan includes a more strategic approach to recruiting faculty who demonstrate academic, inclusive and mission excellence who are “enthusiastic about playing an active role in advancing our mission, including our commitment to diversity.” For more information, contact the director for Mission.
- Diversity is a priority in hiring and retention for all School of Law faculty, including adjunct faculty. The faculty appointments committee actively recruits a diverse pool of candidates, employing best practices, including using the University of San Diego hiring toolkit. For more information, contact the Dean of the Law School.
- Student Affairs utilizes its toolkit when hiring, which includes practices to reduce implicit bias in the recruitment and hiring process. For more information, contact the vice president of Student Affairs.
- University Advancement entered a contract with the Aspen Leadership Group — a recognized leader for recruiting diverse candidates in higher education — to manage recruitment for new directors of development so that USD has a more diverse candidate pool. For more information, contact the vice president for University Advancement.
- University Ministry recently worked with Admissions and Publications to create a new section of the USD homepage titled “Faith and Service.” This section highlights the direct connection between USD’s mission and Catholic identity to our commitment to diversity and inclusion. It also features diverse students describing their experiences on campus.
Areas of Focus