The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee was created in the spring of 2021 to build upon the work of the DEI Task Force.
DEI Task Force
The DEI Task Force was a grassroots movement of students, staff, and faculty that held a series of open meetings starting in 2018 to gather input on areas where the campus could improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competency. They advocated for a DEI assessment to be completed by an external consultant, and once the assessment was complete the task force became a more formalized committee. The Task Force was initiated by the JCCC Faculty Senate.
The MGT Report:
The work of the DEI Task Force also included working with JCCC to engage MGT Consulting to examine diversity, equity, and inclusion at JCCC and make recommendations for continued growth. MGT Consulting conducted a campus assessment from January 2020 to January 2021, which included surveys, focus groups and quantitative and qualitative data gathering. They provided JCCC with a final report in January 2021, based on their extensive research, which identified areas for improvement, examples of best practices from other institutions, and recommendations for JCCC based on best practices.
DEI Committee
The DEI Committee was formed in response to the work of the DEI Task Force and MGT Report in May 2021. An open call for volunteers to serve on the committee was sent out to the entire JCCC community via several InfoHub posts and members of the DEI Task Force individually contacted and recruited members of the college community, with the purpose of ensuring that the committee was diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Everyone who volunteered to serve on the DEI committee was added to the committee. The larger committee is over 60 people from around the college, including students, staff, administration, and faculty, and we continue to add members as people express an interest to participate. (As of spring 2023, the DEI Committee has over 70 members.) A smaller sub-group of the larger committee, referred to as the leadership team, was constructed based on criteria provided by JCCC’s President, Dr. Bowne, to ensure that all branches of the college are represented on the leadership team. In addition, members of the leadership team were selected to ensure that the leadership team is demographically diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
The committee met throughout the summer of 2021 to read the MGT report, review the report recommendations, and identify best practices to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion at JCCC. This work was very time and labor intensive, and included several meetings to brainstorm specific solutions based on components identified in the MGT report (organizational culture and climate, student belonging and success, employee belonging and success, and the structures needed to facilitate the implementation of recommendations—such as a DEI Office) and was followed by subgroup work to synthesize the output from the brainstorming sessions and start the process of preparing the report of recommendations.
The DEI Committee’s Goals and Working Definitions:
The committee’s goal is to ensure that JCCC’s work and learning environment promotes a diverse community that begins with students, faculty, staff and administration who respect and value diversity and inclusion in various forms including race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, culture, marital status, national origin, religion, age, disability status, and political perspective.
The DEI Committee’s working definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion were developed by the DEI Task Force and reaffirmed by the MGT Report. The Committee has continued to rely on those definitions for the purpose of continuity and consistency.
Diversity
We commit to increasing diversity, which is expressed in myriad forms, including race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments, age, (dis)ability status and political perspective.
Equity
We commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, and discrimination. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status.
Inclusion
We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our campus is a place where differences are welcomed, different perspectives are respectfully heard and where every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. We know that by building a critical mass of diverse groups on campus and creating a vibrant climate of inclusiveness, we can more effectively leverage the resources of diversity to advance our collective capabilities.