The Office of the Provost has published its first progress report on an action plan that aims the university toward meeting the transformative recommendations by the Task Force for Racial Equality.
The report covers progress across 25 action steps through the end of calendar year 2020. Major highlights include:
Georgia State Police: GSUPD is in the process of reviewing and making changes to its standard operating procedures, including revising its use-of-force policy to prohibit chokeholds and neck restraints, implementing an internal affairs tracking system to provide early warning of bias, and providing officers with training for mental health first aid and crisis intervention. The university has also invested in a de-escalation/use of force simulator to train officers. GSUPD is working to shift the culture of policing at Georgia State to consider a broader range of responses to infractions. Minor offenses increasingly are referred to the Dean of Students or are otherwise mediated outside of criminal charges.
Student Affairs: Georgia State this past fall included a diversity, equity and inclusion module in its first-year experience courses taken by 2,500 students. This spring, the university’s Panther Involvement Network, a portal used for students to search for and participate in student organizations, is being revised to add a social justice pathway. This will allow students to organize their activities to document their focus on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion on a co-curricular transcript. Georgia State is also preparing to launch a student campus climate survey, expected for fall of this year.
Human Resources: Training to address numerous issues related to diversity, discrimination, and equity has expanded, including training as part of new employee orientation and to addressing hiring practices, discrimination, and cultural competency. Faculty and administrator search committee chairs undergo mandatory implicit bias training. This winter, HR will implement new software to help identify diverse talent at Georgia State for opportunities in leadership and will expand a pilot program to improve succession planning. The university continues to take steps to diversify Georgia State faculty through the Next Generation of Faculty initiative, and is using the results of a comprehensive faculty survey to improve strategies for diverse faculty recruitment, retention and engagement. Mentoring programs have started in the colleges, schools and institutes, and better tracking of hiring and retention is underway.
The work continues on the action plan, and a second progress report will be published by the Provost’s Office following the conclusion of the spring 2021 semester.
To read the progress report, select the button below.
— Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager, Office of the Provost