Dr. Dennis Mitchell, Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement at Columbia University, visited Dr. Edna Chun’s Capstone class on June 2 for a highly engaging guest lecture on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. Dr. Mitchell described the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 as a catalyst and noted President Lee Bollinger’s call to action on antiracism issued on July 21, 2020.
In his comprehensive talk and dialogue with the Capstone students, Dr. Mitchell shared the eight areas of focus of the University’s forthcoming antiracism plan and the intensive collaborative work underway across the campus. He particularly emphasized the importance of staff as the most diverse cohort at the University and the effort to increase increasing their representation in decision-making and enhance the support and development resources available to them.
Questions from the HCM graduate students included ways to sustain diversity efforts, faculty cluster hiring, and supplier diversity including community resources. In response, Dr. Mitchell emphasized the importance of a climate of inclusiveness and overcoming the natural inertia that can cause campus cultures to revert to the norm. To overcome this tendency, he stressed the value of accountability mechanisms such as through the work of DEI officers in each school, the DEI officers’ workgroup, and the diversity strategic plans developed by each school. Further, he described the partnership of his office with the School of Social Work to offer a mini-institute on addressing anti-Black racism. The program of three ninety-minute sessions already has been delivered to University leadership as well as 70 faculty, and will be expanded further throughout the University.
Among the many leading-edge diversity initiatives discussed, Dr. Mitchell described Columbia’s cluster hiring initiatives that has incentivized the hiring of scholars from historically underrepresented groups in STEM and of scholars with expertise on race and racism. He shared information on seed grants including those on faculty research on race and racism as well as student mini-grants. And he further emphasized the partnerships with community groups and shared the comprehensive list of partnership organizations.
Dr. Mitchell’s inspiring talk and discussion with the Human Capital Management graduate students provided clear examples of integrated, sustainable DEIA practices that reflect the University’s commitment to continuous learning and meaningful change.
