Race & Equity Priority Working Group In Educational Leadership Department

Department of Educational Leadership formed a working group, "Race & Equity Priority Working Group," in spring 2021 to raise faculty members' awareness and proactively address institutional policies and practices that perpetuate racial inequity and unfairness in the department and beyond. The working group initiated five sub-committees, each focusing on RPT policies, faculty workload, mentoring, curriculum, and course evaluation. Twenty-one EDLD faculty members participated in one of the four sub-committees and developed 11 tangible actions plans. In fall 2021, the working group initiated the faculty work activity dashboard initiative to check and ensure equitable distribution of faculty teaching and service load. Based on the working group's recommendation, the department leadership shared the policies related to faculty teaching load to raise overall transparency and communication. In spring 2022, the Race & Equity Priority Working Group continues to work on the faculty work activity dashboard initiative while creating a more systematic professional development structure for junior faculty members.