Prior Actions & Progress Reports

ACTIONS:

The President’s Office continued to support Teach-ins led by students, faculty and staff, assisted by two paid student coordinators. A total of 27 Teach-In sessions were held, 13 of which attracted 10+ attendees.

The Racial Justice Fund supported a pilot Praxis course, Advancing Racial Justice, taught by Professor of Social Work and Social Research Darlyne Bailey. Ten students (8 BMC, 2 HC) worked on capacity-building projects with three community organizations: Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Youth Art and Self-Empowerment Project, and the Korean-American Association of Philadelphia.

The Change Agent Fund sponsored three projects:

• Two trainers brought to campus in Fall 2022 to train campus change agents (students, faculty, and staff)
• Creation of a website for an online mentoring handbook for faculty and staff to begin creating a “culture of mentoring on campus”
• Spring 2023 workshop led by four campus presenters speaking about model projects to advance anti-racist practices.

The fund was administered by The Impact Center and determined by a committee of students, faculty, and staff. The Campaign for Anti-Racist Literacy at BMC (CARLA) was an active facilitator of the above activities.

The Curriculum Committee approved sixty-seven courses proposed to meet the new Power, Inequity, and Justice requirement that will go into effect for the class of 2027. These are tagged PIJ.

Black History Month programming:

• A robust array of undergraduate programming was developed by Sisterhood* and Assistant Dean Joi Dallas with support from campus administrative offices, highlighted by keynote speaker Dr. Patrice Douglass.
• GSSWSR co-hosted a Black History Month Alumni Panel in collaboration with the GSSWSR Black Alumni Group and Alumnae Relations and Development.
• GSAS hosted a virtual Black at Bryn Mawr tour.

The President’s Office launched a new distinguished speaker series, Advancing Inclusive Excellence, in March 2023 to bring outside expertise to campus to inform our work on inclusivity and addressing structural barriers. The inaugural program featured Tuajuanda Jordan, President of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and Freeman Hrabowski, President Emeritus of UMBC, speaking on inclusion and success in STEM.

• Nearly 150 students, faculty and staff participated and response was strongly positive.
• In spite of intensive outreach by students, faculty, and staff, a point of view survey revealed that many community members were unaware of the program. We will continue to work to improve awareness of this important series.

THRIVE sessions for first-year students intended to reduce harm caused by ignorance or bias and to promote positive social interaction included:

• the Black at Bryn Mawr tour followed by a session on intersectionality
• a session on calling in/ calling out and approaches to difficult conversations
• a session on the academic and social Honor Code, including participation in small group scenarios on holding peers accountable for violations.

THRIVE participants were surveyed to assess impact. Based on results, the THRIVE curriculum for Fall 2023 will devote additional time to developing social and emotional awareness and to practicing conflict resolution strategies.

Online training modules on preventing discrimination and harassment and on committing to DEI are now required of all staff and are part of new staff orientation sessions.

Bryn Mawr joined LACRELA (Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance) in fall 2020 to access new professional development resources and campus climate assessment tools for the staff and faculty. This has not yielded the benefits the College had hoped. LACRELA has not consistently provided the resources promised and is currently reorganizing. The College is considering alternative external sources to support our DEIA organizational goals.

The President’s Office and Provost’s Office supported a variety of faculty gatherings intended to build community and belonging across the faculty. The Provost’s Office also addressed many issues that were raised as part of exit interviews of departing faculty. This work is ongoing.

ACTIONS:

Of 11 tenure-track searches completed during 2022-2023, six resulted in appointments of new faculty members who identify as BIPOC.

• In fall 2022, 35.3% of Bryn Mawr’s tenured and tenure-track faculty identified as BIPOC. In the most recent comparative data (2021) published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Bryn Mawr’s faculty diversity exceeded that of all but two of the 18 COFHE liberal arts colleges.
• Retention of faculty of color improved in FY23.

The percentage of staff who identify as BIPOC increased to 25.3% as of the fall 2022 census date (compared to 22.4% in fall 2020).

The College focused FY24 budget increases on supporting its people, including hourly rate increases for students and for hourly staff in the lowest salary ranges as well as an additional overall salary pool increase of 6.75% for both staff and faculty.

During 2022-2023, GSSWSR worked with an outside consultant to assess inequities that may exist in its policies and practices and to implement training in response to the assessment.

Improvements in Access Services and accessibility:

Increased staffing for Access Services: in FY23 a graduate assistant was hired to work with the office director. For FY24, the College has hired a new full-time assistant director (beginning June 2022) and the director will become full-time.

Access Services will implement the YuJa Enterprise Platform that allows faculty to audit their syllabi and course materials for accessibility.

Accessibility improvements to buildings and grounds, including:

• the Controller’s Office (including Student Accounts and Payroll) being moved to an accessible location
• development of a wayfinding plan to assist people in finding accessible parking and entrances to buildings.

LITS continues robust workshops, consultation, and provision of new tools to support accessibility for students and faculty.

The Financial Aid Office is gathering data to determine possibilities for further enhancements to financial aid in the 2024-2025 academic year.

Following NAGPRA guidelines, LITS staff have held conversations with many tribes concerning repatriation of materials, and several repatriations are in process. The Departmental Collections Working Group will be reconvened to craft a policy to share with faculty.

The Title IX Officer provided Title IX training to dorm leadership teams at the beginning of the academic year and brought in an external group to provide Title IX training to all first-year undergraduates in August. The Student Engagement Office also provided a Title IX FAQ brochure for first-year students.

The Title IX Officer also provided information and resources to new GSAS students and TAs and to new staff and faculty at their respective orientations.

ACTIONS:

The College will pilot the Intercultural Living and Learning Center for FY24 to provide additional affinity housing and serve as a hub for community building and learning within the Center and for the whole campus with support from the Impact Center.

The Campus Safety department will become part of the Undergraduate Dean’s division in summer 2023 with the goals of re-imagining safety and support and enhancing relationships with students.

• A Campus Safety Liaison will join the staff in July 2023 to work with officers to facilitate positive relationships with students. The Liaison will provide training and mediation necessary to resolve student conflicts; conduct wellness checks; and respond to calls from students who are experiencing duress to connect them with College resources.

A new TriCo supervisor development program was launched that includes training on creating an inclusive work environment to support departmental supervisors.

GSAS offered DEIA workshops during orientation and inclusive pedagogy workshops for TAs.

GSSWSR created a Center for Student Success to support non-traditional students.

The Provost’s Office continues to support course releases for junior faculty engaging in DEIA work. The Provost notes fewer junior faculty applied in FY23.

The Provost and the Chair of CAP provided faculty with a high-level summary of faculty exit interviews held during summer 2022.

Following a summer 2022 pilot, the College launched the Dialogue Project to build capacity for active listening, examine complex ideas, and engage in open exchange. Associate Dean Ann-Therese Ortíz and Interfaith Chaplain Rabbi Nora Woods led a seven-week session each semester for a cohort of students, faculty and staff; the Project will continue in 2023-2024. We are exploring an option for advanced training of participants with the goal of developing additional Dialogue Project facilitators and other possibilities for engaging those with this training to support community growth.

Actions:

In March 2023, the Board of Trustees announced its decision to remove the inscription of M. Carey Thomas’s name from the main entrance to Old Library. Stones are scheduled to be removed in August 2023.

The President launched what will be a community process of reclaiming Old Library with two events in April that will inform planning for 2023-2024. A point of view survey found broad awareness of the launch and its goals.

The ARCH Project, Bryn Mawr’s collaboration with Monument Lab to help address the question “What stories are missing from Bryn Mawr?”:

• hosted a September 2022 community update and conversation
• sponsored two courses (from History, History of Art) engaging issues of memorialization and monuments
• Led a call for proposals, public presentations, and selection of a lasting artwork, “Don’t Forget to Remember (Me),” to be created by Nekisha Durrett.

The third Who Built Bryn Mawr? project was completed in summer 2022, resulting in the exhibit (physical and digital) “Why Build Bryn Mawr?” about the College’s founding.

• Faculty and staff have created a sustainable plan for the ongoing initiative. The summer 2023 project focuses on the experience of Asian students.

Information about College history projects now has increased visibility via

• A new exhibit on the first floor of Old Library
• A reorganized and redesigned web presence.

The Chief Communications Officer has developed a new plan for communicating about DEIA work and its impact that is being implemented for the 2023-2024 year.

The Campus Partnerships for Equity and Anti-Racism (CPEAR) continues to support accountability, communication, and strategic support for progress across all areas of the College. Members also participated in Dialogue Project sessions to add to their leadership skill sets.

ACTIONS:

Progress on Student Calls for Action:

Fifteen teach-ins offered in Fall 2021 and eight in Spring 2022 with stipends for facilitators

Annual open forum regarding the College budget:  10/19/21

THRIVE curriculum revamped by student consultants and the First Year Coordinator to include emphasis on white supremacy culture, forms of bias and the College’s history of exclusion:  new curriculum offered in Fall 2021.  Revisions being made in response to student and facilitator feedback for Fall 2022

Proposal submitted to Curriculum Committee of learning goals and possible models for a curricular requirement focusing on power, inequity and justice created by students participating in an independent study course and a faculty-student working group:  December 2021.  Curriculum Committee used this work as a basis for a formal proposal to the faculty, which was approved in April 2022.  In effect for the class of 2027; Provost’s Office providing funding for course development

Progress on College-Initiated Actions:

Continued membership in Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance to provide opportunities for professional development for faculty, staff, and administrators, as well as access to campus climate surveys.  Approximately 50 faculty, staff, and administrators attended one or more monthly workshops in 2021-2022, and a total of 70 have participated since inception

Created a professional development webpage to provide greater visibility for learning opportunities and as a means to share resources and knowledge across campus:  Fall 2021

ACTIONS:

Progress on Student Calls for Action:

Review and revision of the College’s policy on opportunity hires by the Committee on Appointments, Committee on Academic Priorities, and the Provost, and discussion of how faculty hiring practices should reflect the College’s commitment to DEI:  AY22

Faculty Handbook revised by the Committee on Appointments to incorporate inclusive language and added advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College as an example of significant contributions to the curriculum and the institution:  AY22.  The Committee also held exit interviews with faculty who have chosen to leave the College:  May-June 2022

Established a Social Work internship to improve services to BIPOC students with disabilities.  The intern attended student advisory council meetings; developed workshops; and ran the support group for students with disabilities every Friday with Assoc. Dean Reggie Jones:  Fall 2021

The Provost and Dean of the Undergraduate College proposed adoption of universal design for learning to the Faculty for discussion:  Fall 2021.

Faculty launched review of faculty bylaws:  Fall 2021

Established Graduate Student Emergency Fund and appointed a committee to administer it:  January 2022

Progress on College-Initiated Actions:

Began Dean’s Office-Faculty initiative to build inclusion in STEM through advising and mentoring:  launched summer 2021

Completion of accessible Student Life and Wellness Building:  Winter 2022. 

Assistive Technology Specialist hired:  Fall 2020.  Hiring of new full-time Assistant Director of Access Services approved:  Spring 2022

Changed Financial Aid policies to help students graduate with lower debt:  student loans eliminated for students with family incomes below $60,000 and reduced by $2,000 for all other students receiving need-based aid.

Published staff salary pay grades and job classifications:  December 2021

Increased staff salary pool 7.5%; directed nearly 1/3 of the salary pool for AY23 to bring long-serving staff to current market median pay for their job classification.  Instituted premium pay for staff who work to support all-staff campus events:  Spring 2022

Instituted premium pay for students who work during campus-wide events:  Spring 2022.  Approved 10% increase in student wages for AY23

Increased faculty salary pool 7%, continuing progress to achieve faculty salary medians of competitor liberal arts colleges:  Spring 2022

ACTIONS:

Progress on Student Calls for Action:

Hired 1) Assistant Dean for Intercultural Engagement and 2) Assistant Dean for Student Support and Belonging: Summer 2021

Development of robust programming for DACA+, first-generation, and limited income students by Assistant Dean for Student Support and Belonging:  Fall 2021 and ongoing

Student-developed UndocuAlly session piloted with faculty and staff:  Spring 2022

Increased advising support for multicultural organizations and program support for the ECC by Assistant Dean for Intercultural Engagement:  Fall 2021 and ongoing

Increased funding to the Enid Cook Center ’31 and funded a student coordinator position: Fall 2021

Created Racial Justice Impact Fund summer 2021 to support engagement with community organizations.  Structure reviewed to build greater student engagement:  new Praxis II course to be launched Fall 2022 in collaboration with the Social Justice Initiative led by Professor Darlyne Bailey

Created Change Agent Fund to analyze and address inequities on campus: launched October 2021, first application received and project funded spring 2022

Launched staff National Assessment of Campus Climate survey spring 2022; faculty and student surveys to follow in a three-year cycle

Published results of spring 2021 campus climate surveys of undergraduates and of faculty/ staff/ graduate and postbac students.  In response and in collaboration with the Campus Partnership for Equity and Anti-Racism (CPEAR), launched Campus Climate Action Plan

Progress on College-Initiated Actions:

Launched the STEMLA Fellows program, a program for first-generation, low-income students interested in STEM fields to support their academic success: Summer 2021 (20 student participants).  Second cohort recruited for Summer 2022. Applied and received NSF grant of nearly $1.5 million to support program through 2028; award announced November 2021

In consultation with the Provost and in coordination with the Committee on Academic Priorities, the Committee on Appointments has instituted exit interviews for departing faculty members to identify any barriers to success that they experienced during their time at the College:  May-June 2022

A group of faculty and staff convened by President Cassidy developed plans for The Dialogue Project, an initiative intended to bolster capacity for listening and discussion of difficult issues, and piloted the concept with a group of students and staff:  Spring 2022

ACTIONS:

Progress on College-Initiated Actions:

Multi-year collaboration with Monument Lab to create a campus memorial/ artwork:  spring 2021.  Launched project in 2021-2022 academic year:  project design and student research assistant hiring and training Fall 2021; campus engagement week held February 2022; initial student reflections shared April 2022

Continued Telling Bryn Mawr Histories Praxis Course Spring 2022

Who Built Bryn Mawr?   funded summer student interns to create second installment Summer 2021; launched November 2021.  Student internship program funded for summer 2022

Recognized Juneteenth as a College Holiday

Revised campus maps to include the locations of Perry Garden and Perry House:  Summer 2021

Established a College Land Acknowledgement and associated initial actions:  Fall 2021

Reviewed departmental collections holdings to identify any human remains; departments are in the process of developing new collections policies

ACTIONS:

• Created the Enid Cook ’31 Center as a residence and program space for Black and Latinx students (2015)
• Offered institutional support for the Breaking Barriers program for first-generation college-goers, created by a student, as part of a broader initiative to increase support for first-generation low-income students (2019-present)
• Hired additional staff at the Pensby Center for Community Development and Inclusion, including an interfaith chaplain and new administrative support, and added two residential life coordinators, one of whom serves as advisor to the Enid Cook ’31 Center
• Designed and launched construction of a new consolidated Student Life and Wellness Center to help bolster community-building and student wellness. The Center will house counseling services, religious life, physical and mental health services, Career and Civic Engagement, and Bryn Mawr’s inclusion and community development work (projected completion Fall 2021)
• Increased grant aid and reduced loan expectations for low-income students, and increased grant aid and reduced summer savings expectations for all students receiving need-based financial aid.

ACTIONS:

• Significantly increased the proportion of tenured and tenure-track faculty who identify as nonwhite from 2013 (18.3%) to 2020 (33.9%); 8% of faculty identify as African American, 8% as Latinx, 12% as Asian American, and 6% as multiracial
• Implemented new hiring protocols to ensure more diverse applicant pools and to document diversity protocols during faculty searches; instituted required diversity, equity, and inclusion statement for all candidates for faculty positions
• Increased proportion of faculty who identify as women in several traditionally underrepresented fields and departments, to levels that exceed national averages, including Biology (60%), Chemistry (56%), Math (44%), Geology (40%), Physics (33%), and Computer Science (25%).

ACTIONS:

• Created new staff hiring handbook requiring new practices to build more diverse applicant pools and address implicit bias in the applicant review process
• Achieved a base $15/ hour minimum wage for full-time staff
• Expanded parental and family leave benefits (ongoing).

ACTIONS:

• Initiated annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plans and reports [link – Reports and Policies] (2016-present)
• Renamed the College’s original library as Old Library (2018) and created signage and space to engage issues of racism and exclusion in the College’s history
• Created new opportunities for students to study and conduct research on College histories through a Praxis course, Digital Scholarship-funded projects, and internships.  Research shared publicly through physical and digital exhibits
• Established ongoing History Advisory Committee (2019) to provide guidance on continuing priorities and projects.

ACTIONS:

• Engaged trainers from Race Matters Institute to work with staff in four operations areas (Advising, Alumnae Engagement, Faculty Hiring, Staff Hiring] to implement new tools and approaches to advance racial equity in policies, practices, and structures
• The Teaching and Learning Institute augmented the Summer Pedagogical Partnership to include an explicit focus on anti-racist pedagogy (2020)
• Initiated regular anti-bias training for all Campus Safety personnel, including but not limited to a safety-oriented (as opposed to policing-oriented) mission focus (2016-present). 
• Supported staff education on issues of implicit bias, racial equity, inclusion, and anti-racism for various administrative offices on campus.

ACTIONS:

• Created the annual Community Day of Learning (2015-2019)
• Created a new 360° course cluster, “Centering Critical Blackness” (2019)
• Brought the Cornell Interactive Theater Ensemble to conduct implicit bias training sessions on faculty searches (September 2018), advising (September 2019), and bias in the workplace (September 2018) involving more than 150 faculty and staff
• Brought StirFry Seminars program on Diversity and Inclusion to GSSWSR and to TriCo community members (2018), engaging more than 150 faculty, staff, and graduate students
• Invited national leaders on implicit bias in higher education to speak to faculty and the community as a whole, including Beverly Tatum
• Created interactive lectures on the history of racism at Bryn Mawr and integrated them into the first-year THRIVE curriculum (2017-present).  Added the Black at Bryn Mawr tour to THRIVE
• Developed a Museum Studies Program whose core courses and exhibitions critically engage with issues of race and cultural property (2015-present).