VCU news

By Mike Porter

This month, students, faculty and staff can help shape Virginia Commonwealth University’s next Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Action Plan by completing a diversity and inclusion survey or by participating in VCU’s first Diversity and Inclusion Cafes.

The pair of surveys launched today will allow the VCU community to offer feedback about existing diversity and inclusion efforts and help inform future efforts. One survey is geared toward university faculty and staff and the other toward students. Students will also be asked questions about unwanted sexual contact and assault.

We look forward to you taking part in this important work and helping to make VCU a model of diversity and inclusion in higher education.

The surveys remain open until April 29. Those who complete a survey, which takes about 30 minutes, will be entered into a drawing for prizes. All responses are anonymous and will be kept confidential. An aggregate of responses from each survey will be reported to the university community this fall. Visit the Division for Inclusive Excellence website for additional information about the surveys.

Conversations about diversity and inclusion will also be conducted at a pair of Diversity and Inclusion Cafes on April 18 and 19. The cafes are facilitated small-group discussions and are modeled after the World Cafe, a global movement to support conversations that matter in corporate, government and community settings around the world. Click here for details and to register for one of these cafes.

In an April 5 email announcing the surveys and cafes to the university community, VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D., thanked university members for their commitment to a more diverse and inclusive university.

“We are committed to creating and sustaining a welcoming climate for diversity where individuals of differing perspectives, life experiences and cultural backgrounds are welcomed, valued and supported,” Rao wrote. “We look forward to you taking part in this important work and helping to make VCU a model of diversity and inclusion in higher education.”

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