Two diverse young women work together off of a laptop.

For campus staff, your roles are varied and multiple: from supporting the campus infrastructure to developing research programs and performance spaces. Your experiences are vital to helping us cultivate a culture of belonging at KU. Academic and non-academic staff support students, staff, and faculty across the university. It is vital that all staff lead and facilitate engagement in their units to promote cultural diversity and belonging as a shared experience on our campus. We encourage staff participation in developing and implementing unit-level action plans.

You might find it helpful to:

  • Encourage use of the DEIB Toolbox usage by unit-level leadership, staff and student employees, and researchers.
  • Explore our staff conversation starters for envisioning, planning, assessment, and action.
  • Engage in staff-specific workshops to engage DEIB-related activities, education, and support networks in your unit.
  • Create a committee in your unit and/ or work with your unit-level Equity Advisor to help create and/ or implement your unit-level action cycle.
  • Align your annual goals for your position with the equity and inclusion efforts you engage in your unit.
  • Volunteer to work on the DEIB action cycle plan in your unit. Ask your chair or your Dean if you have an action plan and how you can participate.

 

How to get started?

Every unit on campus is charged to envision and operationalize a plan to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion. We want every student, staff, and faculty member to be a part of tracking the progress we are making together to make sure that each Jayhawk feels valued. By lifting the broad range of cultural and lived experiences in our everyday life at KU—as an integral part of defining what excellence and belonging look like—we can work together to lift each Jayhawk to their highest level of excellence on campus.

 

Becoming part of the change

  • Ask your supervisor about the DEIB Plan for their unit. Ask what efforts are being made at the department/center/administrative level to ensure all employees feel engaged and valued.
  • Join staff organizations that are working to make equity central to their campus mission and practice.
  • Stand in support of your fellow employees who may experience differential treatment because of the identities they hold.
  • Remember your mandatory reporter status if you witness unequal treatment in your unit.
  • Use our toolbox resources for staff to deepen your understanding of experiences that are different from your own so that you can experience the intellectual diversity of KU.
  • Subscribe to the DEIB newsletter for reports on our progress and work to lift all Jayhawks.
  • Ask your unit supervisor if they have an Equity Advisor in the unit.
  • Consider forming a staff committee on equity and inclusion in your unit that can share staff needs with the unit-level leader and/or Equity Advisor.

 

DEIB Resources for Staff