Operationalizing Our Promise

2025 Comprehensive Plan for Equity, Diversity, Justice and Inclusion

Since August 2018, GSE has been developing a college-wide comprehensive plan and concomitant statements, activities and action steps to address the issues of equity, diversity, justice and inclusion. We have relied on SUNY’s commitment, UB’s Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Plan, GSE’s Mission and Vision, and our 2020-2025 document Realizing Our Collective Promise: Strategic Goals, Objectives and Actions, as well as best practices from across the nation to model, inform and create this proposed GSE plan. Specifically, this focused plan excavates and explicates Goal #1 of the GSE strategic vision in order to create lasting and meaningful institutional change.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this comprehensive plan is to create a more equitable, diverse, just and inclusive GSE community, where all feel welcomed, included, supported and have equal access to networks for advancement, mentoring and research. This plan also provides a framework for faculty, staff, students and our community partners that allows us to prioritize, create, engage and implement actions that are essential to reaching our goals and honoring our commitments. The plan will assist GSE in moving towards the goals of building and retaining a more diverse faculty, whose composition reflects the pool of applicants nationally. Moreover, the plan will also assist GSE in recruiting, supporting and retaining a diverse student body. Finally, the plan will ensure that the institutional structures as represented by policies, practices and curriculum are evaluated and updated to center issues of equity, diversity, justice and inclusion.

This work will not always be easy nor will it be accomplished overnight, but it is absolutely essential. With this comprehensive plan for diversity, we commit ourselves to the sustained effort, unrelenting focus and dedication necessary to combat inequity and injustice within our school, the work that we produce, the students that we teach and the communities in which we engage. We view this plan as a living document that will be housed on the GSE website and will be reviewed and updated annually, by the Dean, the Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Affairs and Chief Diversity Officer, and the EDJI Committee. Moreover, ongoing evaluations of goals, strategies and timelines will be designed to create accountability for our efforts.

The goals and strategies below operationalize the ‘what needs to be done’ and ‘how we will do it’ components of the GSE comprehensive plan.

Strategic Goals and Strategies

1.

Strategic Goal One Ensure that the GSE commitment to equity, diversity, justice and inclusion is visible and embedded at all levels of GSE

2.

Strategic Goal Two Identify, recruit, attract, hire, mentor/coach and retain a highly-talented and diverse and culturally competent faculty and staff with a particular focus on recruiting those from underrepresented minoritized groups

3.

Strategic Goal Three Attract, enroll, retain, mentor, and graduate a highly-talented and diverse student body with particular focus on URMs

4.

Strategic Goal Four Expect and require all members of the community to engage in curricular, co-curricular, and research activities that improve diversity, equity, and multicultural competence within GSE and through our community engagements

5.

Strategic Goal Five Build and maintain a welcoming, inclusive, and equitable climate for all GSE faculty, students, staff, and administrators

6.

Strategic Goal Six Increase alumni engagement to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and multicultural competence within the GSE community

Our Mission

With a focus on local-to-global impact, the Graduate School of Education is an inclusive community engaged in ground-breaking research and teaching across education, human development and information science that improves educational, social and economic opportunities for individuals and communities.
 

Our Vision

As an integral part of a premier, research-intensive public institution committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, the Graduate School of Education will be recognized worldwide for outstanding and transformative research and teaching linked to educational, social and economic opportunities and outcomes at the individual and collective levels.