1:30pm - 2:45pm Breakout Session II

Leading Structural Change: From Conception to Implementation

Dr. Crystal Renée Chambers

While diversity, equity, and inclusion are admirable goals, how can we get from declaring their value to making substantive structural change amid a DEI-hostile political environment? Universities have long been at the forefront of social justice activism, beacons for society writ large. In this session, we will be using a collaborative work, Beyond Kumbaya, in which we dispel beliefs that uphold the status quo and contemporary resistance, discuss the use of statistics and other data for making substantive change, and the necessity of building coalitions to create structural change in policy and practice, using a reflective case study methodology. This case study focuses on how one university develops policies and procedures to create a more diverse, egalitarian, and inclusive campus atmosphere via institutional research and introspection.