Faculty Affairs and Academic Programs
CREATE (Creating Relevant Equity Advisor Tools to Empower) at UCI
2021-2022
Project Principal Investigator
Rodrigo Lazo, Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Project Abstract
Organizers propose a meeting for Comparing Relevant Equity Advisor Tools to Empower (CREATE) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The project will convene an initial hybrid meeting of strategic leaders – faculty peer consultants, equity advisors, and others – from across the system to discuss key issues and actions for improved academic climate and faculty retention. CREATE at UCI will build on a faculty-peer consultancy model that has been foundational to equity advisor-faculty change programs across the system and nationally and instrumental during its 20-year history at the University of California, Irvine. A hybrid one-day spring event in 2022 aims to generate longer-sustaining strategic planning and actions among a broader group of equity advisors and faculty and staff leaders. The project provides opportunities for these group and network members also to engage on their respective campuses during a two-year duration, convening initially in the hybrid in-person and virtual meetings at UCI and then enacting and tracking levers for change over virtual connections in the subsequent years. A first step includes using the CREATE at UCI forum to dialogue and prioritize actions specific to four key themes that would substantively improve faculty academic perceptions of belonging, engagement, and advancement. Activities will build synergy from equity advisors and other leaders to refine specific actions through a systems lens to: (1) translate inclusive excellence strategies into practice, (2) extend an equity advisor model effectively as a lever for change in earlier pathways to the professoriate, (3) promote holistic and meaningful measures of climate, and (4) enhance the accountability of equity advisors and their institutions related to programming, creating cultural consciousness, and adoption of best practices for advancing equity and inclusion for diverse faculty. Products from this strategic alliance will include a training video and published proceedings with strategic outcomes.