Recommendations
In the summer of 2021, the Higher Learning Commission, SIUE’s institutional accreditor, approved the university’s Quality Initiative (QI) proposal. As a demonstration of SIUE’s enduring commitment to centering anti-racism, the ARTF’s recommendations form the basis of the QI, and are being implemented during the QI period (2021-2024), with plans to persist beyond this window.
SIUE began planning for the QI in Fall 2019 with the work of the University Quality Council (UQC), which designed and distributed a campus-wide survey to gauge what members of the university community (e.g., faculty, staff, students) saw as the most pressing themes that warranted our collective attention. According to both the survey data and information gathered at a series of listening sessions, campus stakeholders identified the following pertinent themes: improving graduation and retention rates, enrollment as a university-wide priority, student well-being and mental health, and diversity and inclusion.
As the University progressed through its QI planning efforts in the spring and early summer of 2020, we did so against the backdrop of a global health pandemic and amid protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota while in police custody, all of which was filmed. Both events laid bare the persistence of structural injustice and systemic racism in U.S. society and prompted deep reflection about the University’s responsibility to dismantle racism as a system. It became clear that the focus of our QI should not only align with our ongoing strategic planning efforts but also affirm anti-racism as an institutional priority. It was thus decided that the University’s QI would be an institutional change effort focused on improving retention and graduation rates of Black students. The QI acknowledges structural racism as a predictor of educational and career outcomes among Black students and builds a multilevel program designed to enhance their daily experiences by reducing incidence, prevalence, and impact of minority stress and cultural trauma perpetuated by the institution. In an effort to close equity gaps, interventions will directly address students and indirectly address faculty and staff concerns as they may be currently impeding progress toward the goals stated below:
- Support Black students along the educational pipeline by developing a pathway for their enrollment at SIUE.
- Improve retention and graduation rates of Black students at SIUE by achieving year to year increases in retention, and by increasing the six-year graduation rate.
- Develop and nurture pathways to graduate and professional school and/or employment for Black students graduating from SIUE.
- Provide ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion education, training and resources, through various modalities, to support self-awareness and professional development.
- Enhance efforts to recruit and retain Black faculty and staff.
