2021–2022: The Work Ahead

Bowdoin is at the beginning of the next chapter in our work to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with an initial focus on racial inequity broadly, and the issues facing the Black members of our community more specifically, motivated by inequality that has been allowed to continue unremedied for generations. This focus does not, of course, allow us to set aside other critical issues, and it will inform and enhance all the work we will do on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This is a long-term effort, and we will evaluate our goals, measure our work, acknowledge our accomplishments and shortfalls each year, make changes as needed, and be transparent about all of this. We each share the responsibility for creating true equity in the opportunity for profound, positive, and life-changing experiences at Bowdoin, and for the powerful sense of belonging that we desire for everyone here. Success necessarily requires the engagement of everyone in our community, and as part of this we invite feedback on any aspect of this work or on anything we are doing to advance our DEI efforts and to further racial justice.

As shared in President Rose’s messages to the community beginning in June 2020, there are three main pillars to our work:

Sustained programming and education to better understand the issues, challenges, and work ahead in diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a particular focus on racial justice.
Changes in practices throughout the College designed to build anti-racism skills and structures and to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work of the College; and
A project to understand our institutional history with respect to race (in particular, our relationship to Black members of our community and to Maine’s indigenous peoples), to explore the possible implications of this history, and to create a foundation for further work.

Importantly, the College is also focused on developing and adopting a model of Inclusive Excellence* (IE). This effort is underway in academic affairs, and there is significant work that is being done by the academic dean’s office, faculty committees, departments and programs, and individual faculty to embody the philosophy of IE. Our ultimate goal is to expand this model beyond the faculty to include the entire Bowdoin community.

This page describes the key work that will be done across the College during the calendar year 2021 to identify and change policies, practices, and operations to move us toward our goals (the second “pillar” described above) and the semi-annual update on the work for the calendar year 2021 that was announced by the College on December 21, 2020—work to identify and change policies, practices, and operations in order to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at the College. It also includes a separate description of work that has been undertaken that was not envisioned in December 2020.

2021 Key Priorities

Examine the equity of student access, participation, and satisfaction for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) students throughout the work and offices within the Division of Student Affairs. (Division of Student Affairs)

Progress indicator: Use data collected through the Office of Institutional Research, Analytics, and Consulting’s (IRAC) surveys and College systems to assess student satisfaction, experiences, and services and to understand how this differs by diverse identities. (Begin summer 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: Student Affairs has begun to lay the foundation for this work to commence in earnest over the summer, starting with an initial inventory of available data from departments, offices, and the Office of Institutional, Research and Consulting (IRAC), as well as a wish list of data we would like to have moving forward. Next steps include finalizing our data inventory and wish list and identifying key indicators of student access, participation, and satisfaction. In tandem, IRAC is building a survey data model that will enable student affairs to much more easily observe longitudinal trends around BIPOC students and their experiences, both for this initiative and as part of our ongoing divisional assessment moving forward.

Develop and sustain DEI programming for all students throughout their time at Bowdoin with a focus on racial justice and on anti-Black racism. (Division of Student Affairs)

Audit current DEI programming in the Division of Student Affairs.
Continue to build out first-year DEI programming beyond Orientation.

Progress indicators:

Understand the current state of DEI programming across student affairs and how students navigate their engagement with DEI work beyond the classroom. (Summer 2021)
Build out further programming to address gaps. (Fall 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

This past spring semester, student affairs developed a framework for evaluating the current state of DEI programming based on the premise that DEI programming is instrumental to achieving our vision for student belonging and cocurricular education. This framework includes a taxonomy of programming, definitions, and goals. Each department and office conducted an inventory of their programming using this framework, and the results are reported in a draft Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programming Audit report. Over the summer, student affairs will finalize the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Audit report and our internal findings, as well as develop a communications and engagement roadmap for the 2021–2022 academic year.

To date, 93 percent of students have participated in the DiversityEdu foundational courses. The incoming class of 2025 will also take the DiversityEdu courses by the end of the fall semester. All students who have completed the DiversityEdu course will have access to the course materials and modules through January 2022 so that they may revisit the material any time.

The inclusion and diversity team in student affairs is continuing to expand first-year orientation programming using last year’s pilot pre-orientation session, Black Lives Matter: A Learning Opportunity. This program will be available to all incoming students one week before the move-in date. The team is also creating a Social Justice Leadership Institute (SJLI) in order to streamline workshops and education around social justice topics into a single format. SJLI will serve as the foundation for anti-racism education for all student leaders, including those in residential life, inclusion and diversity, the McKeen Center, and the Bowdoin Outing Club. There will be significant outreach to first-year students this year to participate in the program.

Review the student experience in navigating the process of applying for and receiving student aid and develop a plan to further support students in this process. (Office of Admissions and Student Aid)

Progress indicator: An analysis of the student aid experience will be developed. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: Our work to review and understand the experience of applying for and receiving aid remains ongoing. To date, we have:

identified opportunities to further support students who are selected by the government for the federal verification process; and
we have gathered information and continue to seek opportunities to clarify student aid awards so that students and families can better understand both the grant aid from Bowdoin and any contributions that are due each year from students or families.

Begin a pilot program to accept community college transfer students. (Office of Admissions and Student Aid, Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs)

Progress indicator: Commit to an American Talent Initiative pilot to develop a pathway for the recruitment, selection, and enrollment of low-income transfer students from community colleges, and develop a coordinated plan for enrollment. (Spring 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: Bowdoin joined the Transfer Scholars Network (TSN), which is coordinated by ATI and was highlighted in the public program launch in the spring of 2021. Participating in TSN requires specialized communication and admissions support. As part of Bowdoin’s annual transfer admission process, admissions will recruit and review applicants who have been nominated by TSN.

Also, in spring 2021, the Bowdoin faculty voted to remove the blanket prohibition on the transfer of community college credit. Requests for community college transfer credit will now go through the regular transfer credit channels.

Increase the number of BIPOC students participating in the investments office intern program and create opportunities for investments office staff to speak to BIPOC students about the internship program, as well as about careers in the finance industry. (Investments)

Progress indicators:

An increase in the number of BIPOC student applicants and hires for the program. (June 2021)
Will have hosted at least one virtual open house, with the team available for one-on-one conversations with interested candidates. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: The Investments Office held events to generate BIPOC student interest, applications, and hires for its internship programs. These included a break-out session about careers in finance for the Office of Career Exploration and Development’s (CXD) “Sophomore Bootcamp” and working with THRIVE students from all class years and student affinity groups (e.g., Bowdoin Women in Business, Smart Woman Securities, the Black Student Union, Latin American Student Organization) to promote its internship opening. The office also held an information session for THRIVE students to discuss some of the professional paths available to students interested in the field and held an open house/town hall for students interested in applying for the investment internship. Additionally, staff have mentored several BIPOC students in connection with their non-Bowdoin summer internship plans.

Develop and move toward adopting a model of Inclusive Excellence* (IE) for Bowdoin and advance inclusive curricula and pedagogies within academic departments and programs. (Office of the Dean for Academic Affairs)

Provide faculty development support for the shift from the “Exploring Social Difference” distribution requirement to the new “Difference, Power, and Inequity” (DPI) distribution requirement.
Infuse Bowdoin academic policies and practices with expectations for IE.
Explore funding for multi-institution curricular collaboration to develop course(s) to address US-based anti-Black racism.

Progress indicators:

Bowdoin will have twenty-five DPI courses developed and approved for the 2021–2022 academic year. (June 2021)
The academic dean, in consultation with the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEP), will revise the faculty position allocation guidelines. Academic affairs will have revised the request for the departmental annual report, the faculty recruitment guidelines, the departmental external review guidelines, and the annual faculty professional activities form. (Summer 2021)
Each office in academic affairs will develop work plans and metrics to further the practice of IE (January 2021), which will be reviewed and revised, if necessary, for implementation. (Summer 2021)
Assess grant opportunities for multi-institution curricular collaboration. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

Bowdoin has twenty-five approved DPI courses, fifteen of which will be offered in the fall of 2021. We have implemented a system of ensuring that courses meeting the DPI requirement are infused from their initial development with the requirement’s guiding principles, and that all DPI courses share core learning outcomes.
Changes have been completed to many academic policies and practices have been developed and deliberated, with inclusive excellence embedded throughout. These include processes for the allocation of faculty positions, faculty recruitment, external department/program reviews, and annual faculty and departmental/program reports. Each changed policy or procedure is now in effect and has been communicated to faculty and campus offices and all changes are now in effect.
Each office within academic affairs has developed work plans and metrics to further the practices of anti-racism and inclusive excellence. The deans provided feedback to each office, and they have undertaken a round of revisions. Several follow-up strategy meetings took place in Spring 2021; the remainder will take place in Fall 2021. The following serve as abbreviated examples of the work underway: the Bowdoin College Library has created a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Working Group that supports and advances the library’s efforts broadly, and anti-racism initiatives specifically, in regard to library services, collections, spaces, digital and physical resources, and staffing; the Bowdoin College Museum of Art has developed an anti-racism task force to reshape collections and exhibitions practices; the Office of the Registrar introduced revised transfer credit policies to CEP for consideration by the faculty and is examining other policies to eradicate inequities and unnecessary barriers for students; and the Kent Island Scientific Station has begun to develop a history of the island that includes local indigenous history and traditional ecological knowledge.
We postponed the assessment of grant opportunities for multi-institution collaborations in favor of pursuing grant opportunities through the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Humanities for All Times initiative. We anticipate submitting up to two applications for support through this initiative, which is designed to link the study of the humanities with efforts for social justice. The goal of the initiative is “…to increase humanities enrollments among a broad and diverse undergraduate population by clearly articulating the distinctive aims and methods of humanistic analysis and demonstrating the importance of such analysis for the social-justice objectives to which so many students are rightly committed.”

Recruit, hire, develop, and retain BIPOC employees: Each division of the College will examine its practices aimed at creating pools of BIPOC candidates for open positions and will enhance the career development and retention of BIPOC employees. (College-wide)

Progress indicators:

Hiring practices and policies will be adopted that lead to expanded BIPOC candidate pools. (June 2021)
Plan created for improving the career development and retention of BIPOC employees. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

A Best Practices for Recruiting and Onboarding guide was developed and released to help hiring departments and search committees attract and retain diverse employees.
A prospective employee network with the New Mainers communities in Brunswick and Lewiston has resulted in three New Mainers being hired at the College.
A one-year agreement with HBCU Connect means that all of the College’s job openings will be posted on HBCUCONNECT.COM.
A New Hire Connection Program has been piloted that is designed to support BIPOC employees as they begin their careers with the College by offering a “connector” who provides guidance and facilitates introductions to community members.
As a result of ongoing efforts to develop best practices in hiring:
- five of the seven new faculty members hired this year are of color;
- we have added six new staff of color at positions that are one to three levels below the senior staff, and
- in athletics, six new coaches are individuals of color.

Expand DEI education and professional development opportunities and funding for such opportunities available to Bowdoin faculty and staff that complement campus-wide programming and are specific to their work at the College. (College-wide)

Progress indicator: An increase in faculty and staff offerings and participation in DEI education and workshops. (Ongoing)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

Partnering with DiversityEdu, the College has finished the first of its college-wide educational efforts. DiversityEdu offerings were intended to ground the campus community in a baseline understanding of engaging with diversity at Bowdoin and the issues surrounding equity and inclusion facing various identities. Recognizing that campus constituents have differing levels of expertise, this foundational work created a common starting point and language for discussion. To date, more than 95 percent of each of the faculty, staff, and trustees have participated in the DiversityEdu foundational courses. The incoming class of 2025 and any new employees hired since February 2021 will also take DiversityEdu courses before December 2021. Everyone who has completed the DiversityEdu course will have access to the course materials and modules through January 2022 so that they may revisit the material any time.
Benje Douglas, associate vice president for inclusion and diversity and director of Title IX, has offered seven workshops (246 participants) to Bowdoin departments and offices to give participants the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and further their understanding of specific DiversityEdu course material.
The College will soon provide access to a virtual learning library to all faculty, staff, students, and trustees. Some examples include:
- diversity-competent mentoring
- cultural appropriation versus appreciation.
The College is working with the Racial Equity Institute (REI) to offer its “groundwater training” focused on racial justice and structural racism. To date, two virtual sessions have been held, and in-person sessions are planned for the fall and early winter.
The development and alumni relations staff participated in three DEI workshops presented by the Aspen Leadership Group and have developed new programming oriented toward engagement with alumni of color.
The athletic coaching staff participated in a series of workshops with Jen Fry, a leading racial and social justice educator.

Update all campus job descriptions to reflect DEI responsibilities and determine DEI metrics to be used in performance evaluations for all employees. (College-wide)

Progress indicator: Job descriptions will be updated, and DEI metrics will be added to all performance evaluations. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: This work will begin over the summer and continue through the fall.

Coordinate and integrate the DEI work of offices and departments across campus. (Office of Inclusion and Diversity)

Progress indicator: An approach for coordinating and integrating DEI work across the College will be developed. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: The Office of Inclusion and Diversity (OID) has been expanded and reimagined to increase the number of people focused on advancing the DEI work of the College.

At the beginning of the academic year, Benje Douglas added DEI responsibilities to his Title IX portfolio as associate vice president of inclusion and diversity, reporting to both Michael Reed, senior vice president for inclusion and diversity, and Janet Lohmann, senior vice president and dean for student affairs.
In January 2021, Professor Dharni Vasudevan moved into the Office of Academic Affairs as the associate dean for faculty development and inclusion. She reports to Jen Scanlon, senior vice president and dean for academic affairs, with a dotted line to Michael Reed.
Eli Orlic, senior vice president and special assistant to the president & secretary of the College, began spending a significant portion of her time engaged in the work of OID and, similarly, Mary Baumgartner, vice president for communications and public affairs, will continue to work with OID as she has for the past academic year.

Additionally, OID has evolved the Diversity Advisory Research Team (DART) into DEI Partners. This cross-campus group of administrators and staff includes those with specific DEI responsibilities for their offices and departments and people who possess significant DEI knowledge and expertise. Members of DEI Partners will meet twice a month for the following purposes:

to share details on the DEI work being conducted in their respective areas and find opportunities for collaboration and coordination across campus, and
to leverage the expertise of the membership through group examination of specific initiatives for the institutional advancement of DEI work.

DEI Partner members are expected to disseminate information to their respective constituents.

Increase the engagement of BIPOC alumni and families in the life of the College, including events, volunteer leadership, affinity groups, programming, and other activities. (Division of Development and Alumni Relations)

Progress indicators:

Identify and remove the barriers to BIPOC alumni and parent event attendance. (December 2021)
Explore the use of a survey to solicit feedback and ideas on alumni engagement. (December 2021)
Ensure that event programming is consistent with Bowdoin’s current DEI initiatives and programs. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

Alumni relations, in collaboration with other campus offices, has focused significant attention on developing expanded programming for Black History Month, Asian Heritage Month, and Pride Month.
A number of small-group gatherings for BIPOC alumni have been held, including one with President Rose.
Summer student send-off events are being planned with greater attention to hosts and locations to increase the number of BIPOC alumni participants.
Development and alumni relations (DAR) has not conducted its own survey, although the DAR directors have met twice with the Office of Institutional Research, Analytics, and Consulting to learn about existing student and alumni surveys and available data.

Increase the number of BIPOC volunteers in support of Career Exploration and Development (CXD), Bowdoin Regional Admissions Volunteer Organization (BRAVO), Health Professions Advising, and other programs and departments.

Progress indicator: Increased engagement of BIPOC alumni and families in programming and activities. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: The Office of Family Giving and Engagement will launch new programs in the 2021–2022 academic year that are designed to serve Bowdoin parents and family members who are not able to visit campus or support their students through understanding their child’s experience at the College. The response to the spring 2021 appeal for support for CXD was strong, with the youngest, most diverse graduating classes overrepresented. BIPOC alumni are serving on the organizing committee for Leaders in All Walks of Life: Fifty Years of Women at Bowdoin celebration, joining small-group calls related to alumnae volunteerism and philanthropy, and serving as program speakers and participants for events during the coming year.

Develop a plan to increase the number of BIPOC alumni volunteers at the College.

Progress indicator: A plan to expand the BIPOC volunteer network will be developed. (July 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

Bowdoin has hired its first director of multicultural alumni engagement.
Each leadership gift officer (LGO) has added between ten and twenty BIPOC alumni to their portfolios and committed to increased one-on-one attention for those alumni when traveling.
Alumni relations has provided significant support in FY2021 to two alumni groups: the Black Alumni Network led by a group of alumni from the 1970s and BIPOC alumni of their era and the Bowdoin Multicultural Alumni Network (BMAN) group led by younger alumni.
Greater staff outreach is already resulting in more BIPOC alumni serving as class agents and other volunteers.

Identify opportunities to increase the diversity of our suppliers. (Division of Finance and Administration)

Progress indicators: Expand the College’s vendor pool to include more BIPOC- and women-owned businesses. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

A procurement resource landing page has been developed with links to businesses registered as BIPOC- or women-owned.
The College has joined the National Minority Supplier Development Council, which offers the most comprehensive registry of businesses that are at least 51 percent minority-owned, operated, and controlled.
$17 million of operating reserves has been invested in money market funds with fee structures designed to benefit Black-owned banks serving communities of color in the mid-Atlantic and southern states.

Seek BIPOC freelancers and contributors and work with them on a regular basis. (Office of Communications and Public Affairs)

Progress indicator: Increase to 25 percent the number of BIPOC freelancers and contributors we have in our network and increase the number of assignments awarded to them. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

For the Winter and Spring/Summer issues of Bowdoin Magazine almost 20 percent of the contributors are BIPOC.
The Office of Communications and Public Affairs has hired far fewer freelancers in 2021 due to COVID. In the few instances when we have worked with freelancers, we have worked with people with whom we’ve worked in the past, so we have not expanded our BIPOC freelancers and contributors or been able to increase the number of assignments awarded to them. We expect to be able to make greater progress as we emerge from the pandemic.

Establish an anti-racism partnership with IT organizations at peer institutions and use this partnership as a platform to pursue work in these areas, including shared workshops and collaborative recruiting, retention, and development efforts. (Information Technology)

Progress indicators:

We will have hosted at least three related workshops, working sessions, or other experiences through this partnership. (June 2021)
Feedback from Bowdoin IT staff and other participants in these experiences. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

Bowdoin is part of a partnership with the chief information officers at Amherst, Davidson, and Williams Colleges through which we have begun to plan for shared DEI learning experiences between our respective organizations.
The first DEI-related workshops offered through the new partnership with peer institutions will occur in the fall, later than initially planned.

Establish relationships across an array of organizations to pursue IT’s anti-racism goals, including historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Explicitly seek opportunities to pursue this work in Maine with Educate Maine and other state-focused organizations. (Information Technology)

Progress indicator: We will have had at least ten preliminary partnership conversations. (June 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021:

The initial result of this external partnership work is the Next Leaders Fellowship, a year-long cohort-based experience designed to identify, develop, and advocate for information and technology professionals from BIPOC backgrounds. Bowdoin is serving as the institutional home for the planning group with nine other institutions, including two HBCUs, one institution with a strong focus on serving Indigenous communities, and a small group of corporate partners. The group is working to launch the fellowship this fall, with the first cohort experience beginning in the spring of 2022.
The preliminary progress indicator has been exceeded, with more than sixteen planning calls held through May.

Develop an enhanced public mechanism to communicate and provide feedback on comprehensive college-wide DEI work. (Office of Inclusion and Diversity)

Progress indicator: Redesigned website, including a feedback form, launched with comprehensive information on DEI activities across the College. (February 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: This spring, OID began the work of refreshing the Office of Inclusion and Diversity website to more fully communicate the scope of campus-wide DEI work. The website now includes a section on the key work that will be done across the College during calendar year 2021 to identify and make changes in policies, practices, and operations that will move us toward our goals of enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work of the College. It also now includes expanded content about resources and affiliations, educational opportunities, a feed of DEI-related events and news stories, a feedback form, and an archive of DEI-related community messages.

Report on ongoing DEI work through announcements, interviews, stories, and other content on the Bowdoin website, in Bowdoin Magazine, in social media posts, and, where appropriate, through external media relations. (Office of Communications and Public Affairs)

Progress indicator: A broader range of perspectives and stories told in communications channels to represent the DEI work across the College. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: The Office of Communications and Public Affairs has worked to identify and publish stories that represent a broader range of perspectives and experiences in all of our owned channels. Specific examples include:

Over 50 percent of the content in the winter and spring/summer 2021 issues of Bowdoin Magazine represented a diverse range of perspectives and stories.
There has been frequent and active promotion of DEI programming and work on the Bowdoin College social channels (DiversityEdu, Racial Equity Institute, vigils, speakers).
Approximately 30 percent of stories published on bowdoin.edu represented a diverse range of perspectives in the first six months of 2021 vs. approximately 20 percent in the first six months of 2020.

New priority added Spring 2021: Intentionally represent the College and the College community in ways that are accurate as it relates to the diversity of that community. (Office of Communications and Public Affairs)

Progress indicator: Ensure that we are accurately representing the diversity of the Bowdoin community in our communications, recognize that some members of our community are not comfortable being represented in our photos and videos and make sure we are sensitive to their concerns, and avoid “tokenizing” members of our community. (December 2021)

Progress indicator update as of June 2021: We have been intentional about making progress. We met this spring on Zoom with a group of students to hear their views on these subjects and to discuss our process for choosing images used online and also those hung on the corridor wall beneath Sargent Gymnasium. We have also been paying close attention to the selection of stories and images published on the website, in Bowdoin Magazine, and in the monthly e-news to alumni and parents. That said, we have heard objections from time to time about the mix of images used on College social media channels and occasionally about an image posted as the “moments” banner on the College website homepage. Some have argued that an image does not accurately reflect the true BIPOC experience at Bowdoin. Others see galleries of photos or social media posts as overrepresenting or misrepresenting the BIPOC community. While we have not employed a formula to guide the postings, we have been listening to these viewpoints, and we are continuing to work on raising awareness about them with our photographers, writers, and other staff. We will continue to monitor progress, to listen carefully to feedback, and to work intentionally on consistently achieving the proper balance.

June Update

In addition to the key priorities identified in The Work Ahead, the College has undertaken the DEI-related initiatives outlined below as of June 2021:

Students and Faculty

Policy- and practice-related changes include the following, each voted on affirmatively by the faculty:

The teaching criterion for tenure and promotion at the College was changed from “excelled in teaching” to “demonstrate inclusive excellence in teaching.”
The Deficiency in Scholarship Policy was replaced with a Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy to comply with best practices, use GPA rather than points system to track student progress, and allow for earlier intervention when students have trouble.
The Geoffrey Canada Scholars’ Summer Institute course has been approved for half an academic credit.
As noted above, the transfer credit policy, which disadvantaged some less privileged students by leaving them with fewer options to complete their Bowdoin degree, was modified, removing a blanket ban on transfer credits from two-year institutions and for short-term courses; the policy change also adjusted the transfer equivalency rules in students’ favor.
The document Crafting a Mentoring Plan was developed and publicized to faculty, especially department chairs and program directors, to offer guidance and set expectations related to mentoring junior faculty at the College.
The 2021–2022 Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching Faculty Fellows program will focus on the development of inclusive and equitable learning environments, with a special but not exclusive focus on developing DPI courses.
DEI workspaces are being created on Canvas (Bowdoin’s Learning Management System). This workspace allows each office, department, or program within academic affairs to have a private space to collectively build a repository of ideas, shared norms, and conversations related to the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Summer 2021 working groups: Thirteen of sixteen disciplinary and cross-disciplinary summer working groups will address anti-racist and inclusive excellence work through curricular and pedagogical study and innovation. For example, two interdisciplinary groups across STEM fields will (1) evaluate systemic level change with respect to equity in student learning outcomes and (2) develop inclusive teaching practices to enable STEM faculty to recognize how racialized power shapes scientific work within their disciplines.
Unlearning Racism in Geosciences (URGE): Four members of EOS participated in the semester-long national URGE program. The program consisted of a sixteen-week curriculum of interviews, articles, and deliverables that these EOS members discussed when they met together (virtually) every other week. The deliverables included anti-racism policies and strategies, such as those around lab and field code of conducts, hiring strategies, and policies for addressing complaints.
The working group on Self-Identified Faculty of Color and International Faculty Equity, Development, and Inclusion led a powerful three-part interactive session with the faculty as a whole involving listening and responding anonymously to testimonies of faculty of color and international faculty about their experiences at Bowdoin. Focus areas included curricular marginalization, invisible labor, mentoring, respect and belonging, and bias and accountability.
Academic affairs’ new associate dean for faculty development and inclusion has been working closely with the associate vice president for inclusion and diversity on fostering campus-wide movement on anti-racism, creating targeted programming and community building for faculty and students of color, including hosting academic affairs office discussions of the DiversityEdu work already underway and anticipating discussions of the REI Groundwater work.
Academic affairs fostered faculty development by supporting the participation of one faculty member in AAC&U’s Project Kaleidoscope, one faculty member in the HERS Institute, and seven faculty members in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity’s Faculty Success Program.
The dean for academic affairs launched a preliminary discussion in the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEP) about the College’s International Perspectives (IP) distribution requirement in terms of whether its purpose and terminology need to be updated for clarity and relevance and how it might be strengthened in ways similar to the new DPI requirement. CEP will continue this discussion in the coming year and may decide to propose revisions to the IP requirement for implementation in the 2022–2023 academic year.
Academic affairs has launched a study of grades and student demographics and has begun to share information with departments and programs.
College-wide faculty meetings now begin with an inclusion minute, in which a faculty member volunteers to share an effective practice, a challenge, or a success. The idea is to help move toward embedding inclusion into our culture and provide opportunities for reflection on individual practices.

External

The Investments Office is part of a group that is identifying, organizing data on, and then assisting BIPOC-owned investment firms.

2021–2022: The Work Ahead

2021 Key Priorities

Students

Faculty

Faculty and Staff

Alumni

External

Communications

Additional DEI Initiatives

Students and Faculty

External