Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE) |
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“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.”
– Dr. Maya Angelou
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April is Celebrate Diversity Month! |
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Celebrate Diversity Month was started in 2004 to recognize and honor the diversity surrounding us all. In the spirit of diversity, we recognize April as Autism Awareness Month, National Arab American Heritage Month, and Genocide Awareness Month. As we do every month, we encourage you to use the Diversity Awareness Calendar to explore how these ethnic, cultural, and significant events may affect students, colleagues, and friends in the PAFA community. By celebrating differences and similarities during this month, we hope that our community will gain a richer understanding of each other. |
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The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing the value of our individual differences. These can be along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies. Here at PAFA we embrace an institutional culture that understands that the greatest sum of our individual differences is more valuable than any singular node of identity. |
An approach that embraces diversity
- Focuses on developing an environment that maximizes the potential of all employees by valuing diversity interpersonally and institutionally,
- Includes categories broader that those addressed by affirmative action (ethnicity, race, gender, disabled status, and veteran status)
- Recognizes and profits from the increasing diversity of the workforce
- Empowers all voices to contribute and avail themselves of all the community has to offer, including opportunities for learning, participation, advancement and others
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We also posit an understanding of diversity that goes beyond individual differences. Diversity is a very rich and complex concept that captures the breadth and depth of the human experience. This is why when we think of diversity we also think about equity, inclusion, belonging, accessibility, justice, agency, innovation, and engagement. Diversity is a type of sociocultural intelligence that develops the interpersonal abilities needed to interact with individuals across the dimensions of diversity. It is a personal + professional leadership competency and an intelligence that emerges both over time and involves observing, reflecting on, and interacting with individuals in ethically responsible ways. |
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At PAFA we understand diversity as the "collective sum of the individual differences, lived experiences, heritage, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self- expression, unique capabilities, and talent that our faculty, staff, and students invest in their work and learning represents a significant part of not only our culture but our reputation and PAFA’s achievement."
- PAFA's Diversity Statement
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The 'Four Layers of Diversity' wheel shows the complexity of the diversity filters through which we all process stimuli and information. This leads to our assumptions, drives our own behaviors and ultimately impacts others.
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For a more comprehensive list of diversity markers please see the "34 Types of Diversity in the Workplace" We also encourage you to explore the Diversity 101 Toolkit for more resources and readings.
This month we will be updating our Equal Employment Opportunity data in order to have an accurate snapshot of our community.
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34 Types of Diversity in the Workplace
We're taking a deeper dive into the distinct characteristics that make each and every one of us unique from one another. While diversity encompasses the spectrum of infinite dissimilarities that distinguish individuals from one another, there are...
Read more
builtin.com
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PAFA is truly a unique place. Our community is made up of 322 students, staff, and faculty who represent multitudinous axis points along the dimensions of diversity from Gardenswartz & Rowe's "Four Layers of Diversity." We see expressions of this individuality and multiplicity through the art our community makes, their approach to leadership, their wealth of experience and knowledge, their service to the community, and their engagement in the world.
For these reasons, our efforts to understand the diversity that surrounds us necessarily extends beyond race and ethnicity. Diversity is as much about bringing new viewpoints to education as it is about elevating voices that can help create a more inclusive atmosphere in both content and environment. This approach to diversity helps to foster a deeper sense of engagement and emotional connection to the work we do. PAFA's primary strength is our community--the people who work, study and otherwise help fulfill our mission. When our community is engaged and empowered we have the potential to realize the best version of this institution. Understanding the range of diversity will help our community develop the type of sociocultural intelligence needed to become diversity leaders in the art community and world.
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"It is the harmony of the diverse parts, their symmetry, their happy balance; in a word it is all that introduces order, all that gives unity, that permits us to see clearly and to comprehend at once both the ensemble and the details."
-- Henri Poincare
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OISE's Commitment to Diversity |
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In Fall 2020, the HR Team rebranded itself as The Office of Institutional Safety & Equity (OISE). As stated earlier, the people make PAFA and OISE is invested in the people. We strive to do more than manage the dynamic people that make up our community; we want to help develop their human capacity for potential, growth, and impact. Drawing on best practices in our respective fields, we also think conscientiously about the space and the climate that our colleagues and community work in,
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and the policies that shape their experiences at PAFA. OISE is the institutional arm that works through the internal engagement of the people to achieve our shared vision for PAFA. OISE is a dedicated space for members of the PAFA community to find resources for safety & security, employee benefits, leadership & capacity development, and institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion.
OISE is responsible for:
- Promoting PAFA’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging;
- Working with campus partners to foster a respectful environment;
- Leading PAFA’s COVID-19 response and safety processes;
- Victim advocacy and support;
- Title IX education;
- Overseeing compliance with federal and state laws;
- Recommending, writing, and interpreting institutional policies.
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DEIB Programs & Initiatives |
In August 2020 PAFA hired its first Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB), Dr. Rónké Òké. Under the direction of Dr. Òké, OISE has been able to provide a rich array of programming to our community and bridge the knowledge and diversity gaps that exist in the institution (see the Belonging Report). These initiatives have been integral to shaping the institutional culture here at PAFA and meeting our strategic diversity & inclusion goals (see PAFA's Strategic Plan). Thank you to everyone who has been able to support our programming. We highlight a few below:
- Post-Election Speaker Series
- Reimagining the Post-Pandemic World (a faculty-centric discussion)
- Syllabus Statements & Inclusive Course Design
- DEI Workshops facilitated by CCP
- Inaugural MLK Day Celebration
- Black History Month Series
- WOMENSCAPE: PAFA's Women's Leadership Conference
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Diversity Awareness Calendar |
In January 2021, OISE relaunched the Diversity Awareness Newsletter & Calendar. The purpose of this calendar is to celebrate and raise awareness of religious obligations, ethnic and cultural festivities, and significant events that may affect students, colleagues, and friends in the PAFA community. The calendar allows us to build awareness -- 365 days a year!
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Commitment to S.A.F.E. spaces |
The benefits of organizational diversity are not fully met if an organization does not have an inclusive culture where all employees feel welcomed as part of the group. For these reasons OISE has adopted the acronym S.A.F.E. as way to capture the institutional climate we are striving to foster at PAFA.
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"You have a destination that doesn't include acting like this moment isn't inhabitable, hasn't happened before, and the before isn't part of the now as the night darkens and the time shortens between where we are now and where we are going."
— Claudia Rankine
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The end-goal of diversity is a nuanced attitude and orientation of cultural respect and identity affirmation. Such a task requires leaders to balance diversity as a concept of acknowledgement, while also working to engage issues of diversity in ways that promote understanding, inclusion, equity, and accountability. This allows our diversity goals to be achieved with individual, collective, and institutional accountability, supported by concerted action. We all know that change does not happen overnight nor does it happen in silos. Change impacts the whole organization and all of the people in it. The type of change we want to be, see in the world, and have at PAFA requires time, and we are beginning to see the fruits of our collective efforts.
From the quality of our programming, to the museum exhibitions, to the engagement of our student body, to the new faculty and staff who add to the intellectual and pragmatic fabric of our art-making practices, to the recent updates in policies and protocols, the past 3 years have seen a great flurry of activity in the right direction. As we compare the present moment to our historical institutional memory, we hope our community is also beginning to recognize a shift the culture and climate, one that breaks with the experiences many have witnessed over the past 10+ years at PAFA. As OISE continues to rollout our diversity change agenda, we want to continue to encourage our community to engage in our work and support the change initiatives, policies, and programs driven by this team and members of our community. We will continue to offer a supportive infrastructure as we drive organizational success and outcomes and embrace this new way of working together.
We strive to do more than simply thread DEIB through every institutional level; we want to make sure that the institution and the organizational structure support our diversity efforts. As we continue to work collaboratively, across departments, to bridge the communication, leadership, engagement, and knowledge gaps that oftentimes constrain DEIB efforts, we will continue to gauge the diversity stress and appetite of PAFA. With the members of our community, we will lead with a greater sense of accountability. The work is not OISE's or BELONGING's alone; it is the work of the people who make PAFA.
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Implicit Association Test (IAT)
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) detects the strength of a person's subconscious association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. It measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report.
Read more
implicit.harvard.edu
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For the past decade (2008-2018), diversity and inclusion has been an area of focus for PAFA curator's collection plans and exhibition program. As we celebrate diversity we also want to highlight the diversity in our permanent collection.
With over 16,000 works, the museum is especially interested in supporting women artists and artists often overlooked by the mainstream art world—artists of color, artists from regional, smaller art communities, and artists from the LGBT communities—with the belief that we can then tell a comprehensive and wholesome story about our cultural richness.
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We challenge you to check PAFA’s Diversity Awareness Calendar monthly and attend monthly OISE sponsored events. The purpose of this calendar is to celebrate and raise awareness of religious obligations, ethnic and cultural festivities, and significant events that may affect students, colleagues, and friends in the PAFA community.
Being an ally for a S.A.F.E. Community at PAFA
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