TO:

FROM:

DR. SUSAN IVERSON

YOUNG

SUBJECT: EQUITY PROJECT AT NOTRE DAME COLLEGE

DATE:

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Notre Dame College is an institution currently undergoing many changes and

hoping to implement many more changes in the future as well. Some of
these changes include restructuring existing departments and the possibly
adding additional offices. This embracement of change has highlighted a
problem at Notre Dame College. The problem is the lack of a Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion office or personnel. There is no person(s) dedicated to
these topics at Notre Dame College and topics that may fall under this
umbrella are being completed by random persons at various levels
throughout the college with varying efforts and results. Although it is a good
sign that there are efforts throughout campus the miscommunication issues
between unlike departments present at Notre Dame College prevents
consistency. Furthermore, without appropriate personnel who understand the
concept of equity thoroughly the institution has no current understanding of
what inequities its students may be facing.
The possibility of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office being created is an
opportunity to influence the development and purpose of this office to be
equity minded and examine the institutions practices to discover the
unequal educational outcomes for minority group students rather than to
fall victim to simply being an area to simply celebrate the representations of

differences in the student body (Bensimon, 2005, p. 103). This

opportunity is hard to ignore. As a current graduate student taking a
multiculturalism class I think I am in a good position to utilize my newly
garnered knowledge based on current literature to assist in developing a
modern Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office. I have been tremendously
affected by this course and believe that its materials can be applied to Notre
Dame College to assist them in developing an awareness that racial and
ethnic patterns of inequalities exist at the institution (Bensimon, 2005, p.
105).
What I propose is in the creation of Notre Dame Colleges future Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion office infused in the spirit of current literature to fashion
an equity-focused office that can be utilized to examine the institution and its
practices that produce unequal outcomes and work to change the institution
from within. This will take many forms including creating a Directors job
description that adequately demonstrates the positions, offices and
institutions dedication to equity as an outcome. Furthermore, developing a
mission of the office is fairly important as well as providing several baselines
of data regarding educational outcomes for students at the institution which
do not currently exist. Through communication with the actors involved with
the creation of this office, I will be able to identify the institutions needs and
strive to combine those needs with the wider need for equity at the
institution.

References
Bensimon, E.M. (2005). Closing the achievement gap in higher education: An
organizational learning perspective. New Directions for Higher
Education, No. 131 (99-111). Wilmington, DE: Wiley Publications