CIDE 2019-2010 Recommendations
CIDE is a presidential advisory committee composed of faculty, students, staff, and an alumna representative. CIDE’s charge includes proposing initiatives that will enhance public dialogue on gender identity, ethnicity, religion, race, diversity, and other topics critical to the future of the College and facilitating campus conversations on race, equity, and inclusion. Each year, CIDE develops recommendations for improving College practices, policies, and programs. In 2019-2020, CIDE formed three working groups. Following are the short and longer term recommendations submitted by each group.
Project Together
Purpose: Explore pathways to a universal commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access for Scripps College.
Short Term Recommendations
- Revise the Principles of Diversity (see attached) and display prominently on the Diversity and Inclusion website.
- Conduct a review/inventory of all College activity regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion to assess current IDEA activities and initiatives.
Longer Term Recommendations
- Explore leadership models within divisions that promote accountability and pathways for professional development for all divisional members regarding IDEA capability.
- Build out and execute a Staff Development Plan for IDEA.
Decolonizing Scripps
Purpose: To assess and propose ways that Scripps College is creating, can or should create, meaningful relationships with Indigenous people and communities in order to acknowledge and learn about: 1) the ongoing effects of settler colonialism; 2) the diverse and vibrant histories, cultures, and politics of Indigenous people today; and 3) existing or desirable practices of reparation and restoration.
Short Term Recommendations
- Draft and implement a land acknowledgement for Scripps, in collaboration with Tongva community members and Indigenous students, faculty, and staff. Recommendation for CIDE member to continue to work on this project.
Longer Term Recommendations
- Provide not only financial support, but also the academic and social support needed to ensure the success of Indigenous students.
- In order to increase the number of students from Indigenous communities, more focus on specific recruitment strategies would be beneficial.
- Create a position at Scripps that will support both the academic and co-curricular areas of NAIS, equivalent to the current Assistant Director of Native American Initiatives position as Pitzer and Pomona
- Propose Scripps NAIS minor.
- Collaborate with the other colleges to support a cluster hire of – and development of active recruitment strategies for – Native American and Indigenous faculty across several fields, including NAIS, toward the eventual establishment of an intercollegiate NAIS department.
- Establish an intercollegiate NAIS department.
- Create collaborate relationships, spaces, and learning opportunities for students and community at Scripps, similar to those already in place at Pitzer and Pomona.
- Fundraising support for NAIS scholarship and general initiatives to enhance the College’s connection to Indigenous communities.
- Scripps webpage created and led by Native/Indigenous faculty, staff, and students that documents the ongoing histories, cultures, and experiences of Native communities as well as the College’s placement on Tongva land.
Wellness
Purpose: Focus efforts on highlighting existing wellness resources and possibly integrating additional app-based resources for the Scripps community – including students, faculty, and staff.
Short Term Recommendations
- Augment existing wellness resources with subscriptions to apps such as Evolve21, Calm, Super Better, Talk Space, and Head Space
Scripps Centennial Plan: Alive with Promise
After a year of community conversations asking ourselves where Scripps College should be in 2026, when it turns 100, the strategic plan was crafted and launched in 2018. Inclusive Student Success (ISS) is one of the four themes of the plan. ISS recognizes that Scripps students reflect an ever-expanding range of identities, experiences, and backgrounds and that Scripps must not only embrace those differences, but position every student to realize the full benefits of a Scripps education. Four initiatives were launched under ISS – Advising 360, Bridges to Community, Presidential Scholarship, and IDEA 2.0 – see below.
IDEA 2.0 Strategic Plan Initiative
As part of the Scripps College Strategic Plan, Imperative IDEA 2.0 seeks to “build a stronger, more inclusive community in which members understand, appreciate, and learn from each other’s differences of identity, experience, and access to resources. IDEA 2.0 will cultivate a greater sense of belonging and enable our students to build more diverse, accessible, equitable communities in their lives after graduation.” This is accomplished through:
- Understanding, appreciation, and learning: Provide the campus community with opportunities for understanding, appreciation of, and learning about diverse identities and experiences through training, professional development, access to tools and job aids, departmental support for continuing education.
- Access and Equity: Creating, evaluating, and revising College’s policies, procedures, and practices to support campus diversity and inclusion while mitigating structural bias and discrimination.
- Diversity: Enhancing current practices for admissions, hiring, and recruitment along with defining goals for a representative community.
- Inclusion and belonging: Cultivating a climate that contributes to the retention of and ability to thrive for the diverse Scripps community; this includes mentorship, sponsorship, and access to promotion and/or recognition.
Next Step Recommendation
In order to assess how Scripps College is currently performing IDEA functions, the IDEA 2.0 Implementation Team recommends convening a team to conduct an institutional review. We recommend a team of faculty, staff, and students advised by VP and Secretary of the Board, the IDEA 2.0 Implementation Team, and Director of Assessment and Institutional Research, who will be tasked with using research and best practices to conduct an audit and comprehensive report of what divisions and departments currently program and support IDEA functions along with the funds that support the work. With this data, a clear picture of Scripps’s current IDEA landscape will guide IDEA 2.0’s next steps.
Build
The above principles and ideas have been central to our IDEA Initiative efforts and successes at Scripps College in recent years. What distinguishes those efforts is that they have been led by dedicated individuals who have given of their time and expertise to effect change. IDEA 2.0 seeks to move from a model of individual initiative to institutional, campus-wide change. This change model is intended to address the systemic issues, and to avoid overtaxing and depending on individuals (often marginalized themselves), who drive culture shift mostly through working above and beyond their role. This structural change will allow Scripps to name, build on and replicate successes throughout the College that might otherwise remain disjointed and siloed; often affecting only a subset of students, faculty, and staff. Enacting IDEA capacity building throughout Scripps College necessitates institutionalizing drivers for accountability, resources, and leadership that is present throughout the entire College. The review of current IDEA functions is meant to guide existing opportunities for growth, connection, and improvement for creating these institutional drivers.