Recommendation 4: Inform faculty, students, and staff that Trinity’s Anti Harassment

Recommendation 4: Inform faculty, students, and staff that Trinity’s Anti-Harassment Policy provides a mechanism for reporting and responding to acts of discrimination by faculty, students, and staff. The policy explanations will be provided during new students, new faculty, and new staff orientations, with the policy and reporting form to be made easily accessible.

Rationale: Trinity University’s Mission and Values Statement states:

“At Trinity, each and every person matters—every student, every alumnus, every member of the staff and faculty. Every individual is treated with thoughtful care and compassion. Trinity respects and nurtures each person’s unique talents, spiritual growth, skills, passions, leadership, and potential.”

In reality, Trinity often falls short of this aspirational statement and this seems especially true for students, faculty, and staff of color as well as some other underrepresented populations at Trinity. To ensure that Trinity achieves its stated mission and values, it is necessary to document the experiences of students, faculty, and staff of color as well as some other underrepresented populations at Trinity on a regular basis. This will provide the accountability data needed to assist Trinity in its challenges towards achieving its stated mission and values.

Conducting an appropriate and efficient survey with the identification of actions to be taken in response to the results of the survey will demonstrate that Trinity truly believes that “each and every person [at Trinity] matters” validating its stated mission and values.

Stakeholders: President, Vice Presidents, Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni

Recommended Actions

Charge the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to develop regular (per semester or annually) assessment methods that document the experiences of black students, faculty, and staff on Trinity’s campus as well as some other underrepresented populations. The assessment methods should include plans for utilizing the results to continuously make improvements.

Performance Indicators

Create and launch a survey that will be taken at the end of each semester or each academic year. The goal of the survey should be to both document the experiences of black students, faculty, and staff as well as some other underrepresented populations and provide enough information to develop plans for making positive changes to the campus environment.

Responsible Parties

Institutional Research and Effectiveness, Director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Develop processes and structures that enable individuals to be recognized and rewarded for “living” Trinity’s value of intentional inclusion toward the elimination of structural inequities. Special recognition and rewards will be provided for individuals who develop appropriate processes and university structures to eliminate identified barriers to intentional inclusion President, Executive Leadership Team, TSEC leadership representatives

Suggested Timeline:

● The first survey should be conducted in May 2021. ● The analysis from that survey should be completed and shared with the campus at the beginning of FY22. ● The special recognition or reward for “living” Trinity’s value of intentional inclusion will be first offered at the conclusion of the academic year 2023.