Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown University is organized into six priority areas of:
PEOPLE Double the number of tenure-track faculty and graduate students from historically underrepresented groups (HUGs)—Black, Latinx, Native, Women in STEM and Asians in Social Sciences. Continue to diversify undergraduate student population and staff. Build community and provide mentoring to enhance retention and advancement of HUG faculty and staff.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Expand the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. Become an academic leader in the field of Native and Indigenous Studies. Integrate issues of race, ethnicity, and identity into existing fields of study in ways appropriate to the subject matter. Support hiring, scholarship, and programming on issues of diversity, including intellectual pluralism.
CURRICULUM Expand programs supporting HUG students in the sciences. Increase the number of first-year and sophomore seminars related to issues of power, privilege, inequality, and social justice. Increase mentoring for low-income students. Provide seed funding for scholarship and curriculum development on diversity-related issues. Create a curriculum reform committee to examine whether existing initiatives aimed at “encouraging Brown students to engage intellectually with questions of diversity and inclusion” are working.
COMMUNITY Establish a center for first-generation college students. Provide additional financial supports for low-income undergraduates. Improve mental-health services. Expand resources for centers that support students of color, LGBTQ students, and women. Expand mentoring opportunities for students. Offer a robust menu of diversity training opportunities for faculty and staff. Beef up diversity training for the Department of Public Safety. Expand Brown’s positive impact on Providence and the surrounding region.
KNOWLEDGE Improve data collection regarding historically underrepresented groups. Disaggregate the data to create a clearer picture of where certain groups are underrepresented—for example, East and South Asians in non-STEM fields and women in STEM fields.
ACCOUNTABILITY Increase community awareness of Brown’s historical connections with the slave trade and its commitment to restorative justice. Improve Title VI communications. Create departmental plans for diversity and inclusion. Include progress on diversity in external reviews. Strengthen the oversight of diversity and inclusion initiatives, including hiring a new position in the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion to support these efforts.
