UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi discussed her vision for continuing to enhance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) at Penn State and responded to questions from faculty members at a town hall event hosted by the Penn State Faculty Senate on Nov. 18.
Bendapudi was joined by Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Justin Schwartz and Jennifer Hamer — Penn State’s interim associate vice provost for Educational Equity and a professor of African American studies and women's, gender and sexuality studies, who was recently appointed as a special adviser for institutional equity. Julio Palma, faculty senator and associate professor of chemistry at Penn State Fayette, moderated the event and was joined by Kristin Thomas, faculty senator and assistant teaching professor in recreation, park and tourism management, and Marinda Harrell-Levy, associate professor of human development and family studies.
In addition to outlining her specific goals and metrics for advancing DEIB across the University — which have the support of the Penn State Board of Trustees and include closing gaps in graduation rates for underrepresented students; diversifying Penn State’s faculty at all levels; and strengthening professional development and advancement opportunities for staff from underrepresented backgrounds — Bendapudi also addressed questions regarding the University’s former plans to launch a Center for Racial Justice. While the center has been removed from consideration, Bendapudi affirmed that Penn State remains dedicated to scholarship and research into anti-racism and racial justice as part of a holistic approach to DEIB. Her goals include a deliberate, data-driven focus on improving outcomes for students, faculty and staff, all of which are an inherent part of Penn State’s academic, research and land-grant missions. Bendapudi also pledged to work to create a sense of belonging for all on Penn State campuses.
“The whole area of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging — particularly the focus on racial justice and racial equity — has been part and parcel of who I am and my professional commitment for over two decades,” Bendapudi said, stressing that she is dedicated to including faculty, students and staff in the ongoing dialogue about how to build a more diverse and equitable institution. “When we talk about racial equity and racial justice, these are longstanding concerns, and I am committed that we continue to have these conversations.”
The decision to not move forward with launching the Center for Racial Justice was a difficult one informed by conversation with various groups across the University, Bendapudi said. She acknowledged the announcement wasn’t handled in the best way and vowed to continue building shared understanding and collaboration with the community moving forward, noting that trust is built over time and through concrete action.
She said that her objective will be to take concrete action by making strategic investments and building stronger connections among areas where important DEIB-focused work is already underway to enhance the reach and impact of these efforts. Extensive scholarly work into racism and racial bias is taking place across the University — including at the Center for Education and Civil Rights, the Rock Ethics Institute, the Africana Research Center and the newly-launched Antiracist Development Institute at Penn State Dickinson Law. Schwartz shared that Penn State, including through the work of the Antiracist Development Institute, is increasingly a national leader in this space, leading workshops on how to incorporate anti-racism into curricula for institutions of higher education across the country.
Schwartz also noted that important work is already underway to integrate DEIB and anti-racism values across the University’s curriculum internally, with many units undertaking important equity-focused work that can be enhanced through Bendapudi’s approach to inventorying and investing in existing programs. “We have great work in many places looking at how we infuse our curriculum with these core values,” he said. “We have so many great things happening at the department level, college, and campus level; we need to learn from each other.”
As a first step toward strategically building up existing DEIB-focused programs across Penn State’s campuses, Bendapudi has appointed Hamer as a special adviser to lead a University-wide effort to inventory and evaluate the spectrum of DEIB recommendations, initiatives, programs and scholarly research occurring across each Penn State campus. This inventory will serve as the basis for action by the University to invest in and elevate these efforts in a strategic, holistic manner. Bendapudi said that she plans to share an initial report about this work with the University community in early 2023. Bendapudi did not attach a dollar amount to the investment the University plans to make to existing efforts, saying that she must wait to see the results of Hamer’s work and assessment into the programs or scholarly work that is making real progress.
“My plan is to be very inclusive of faculty, staff and students. What I have to do is design a way that includes voices that are often invisible or quiet,” Hamer said. “The way I will approach this work is by asking, ‘how do we center equity in everything we do — in terms of our search and hiring practices; onboarding for faculty and staff; orientation for students, in the classroom?’ It includes everyone, every single office. I want to be clear that equity will center my approach to this work.”
This work to inventory DEIB efforts across the University will also directly support Bendapudi’s specific DEIB-focused goals for Penn State, which will use a metrics-driven approach to help make concrete, demonstrable progress across the University.
Bendapudi affirmed she will be monitoring the outcomes of these actions and hold herself and the University accountable to advancing the goals outlined. As part of the commitment to measurable outcomes, Bendapudi said that she has asked the Office of Planning, Assessment and Institutional Research (OPAIR) to develop a DEIB dashboard to clearly communicate the current status on key diversity metrics, allowing the University to better track its progress moving forward. These plans to create a public DEIB dashboard reporting Penn State’s progress on specific metrics is aligned with recommendations from the Faculty Senate in recent years, Bendapudi noted.
The DEIB goals she has outlined include not only removing barriers to access for underrepresented communities, but also a deliberate effort to close gaps in four- and six-year graduation rates for students across different backgrounds and identity groups. Diversifying faculty across every level and rank and creating more communities of support to enhance faculty’s sense of belonging is also a key goal, as is creating equitable professional development opportunities and pathways for advancement for staff, especially staff members from underrepresented backgrounds. Tools including the confidential Living Our Values Survey will be used to measure faculty and staff feelings of belonging to continue identifying areas of opportunity and improvement, to help the University continue to make progress into the future.
All of these efforts combined reflect the University’s dedication to educating students from all backgrounds and graduating students on time to best set them up for lifelong success; to recruiting and retaining world-class faculty who bring a diversity of thought, perspective and experience to classrooms at every Penn State campus; and to creating a culture of inclusion in which all students, faculty and staff are supported and feel a sense of genuine belonging within the Penn State community.
Throughout the town hall, Bendapudi acknowledged that this has been a difficult time for many in the Penn State community, and thanked all participants and audience members at the event for their passion and dedication to the important topics of racial justice and DEIB. She said she looks forward to continuing to have these important conversations and reporting outcomes of the University’s DEIB-focused efforts to the Penn State community.
“I have been committed to this work, committed to racial justice and committed to DEIB my entire career,” Bendapudi said, pledging to continue this work and continue engaging the University community. “I know there are problems; I acknowledge that. But I also genuinely believe that we can do this and there is so much good to build on. It will take all of us. We are here because we believe in Penn State.”