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To Our Adelphi Family,

Many of you have read and thanked us for ourÌýÌýdenouncing hatred and racism, and emphasizingÌýpast, current and future actions being taken by our community to create equitable, diverse and fair opportunities for all students, faculty and staff.

We appreciate your commitment to continuingÌýthis critical work and know that this type of change does not happen overnight. Since 2015, we have demonstrated time and time again that we will not rest until injustices are corrected and eliminated.

We continue to work in partnership with students, faculty and staff to develop actionable antiracism plans that work toward dismantling racial inequities and demonstrating our authentic commitmentÌýto racial justice.

To expand upon our last email and actions ahead, our community’s relentless fight for equity and an end to racism can be organized into four action buckets:

1. Expanded Task Forces, Working Groups and Spaces Dedicated to Action and Community
2. Growing Our Professional Community to Reflect the Diversity of Our Students and Our Diverse Hiring Practices
3. Improved Recruitment, Retention and Graduation of Diverse Students
4. Increased Training and Resources for Faculty, Staff and Students

Each of these areas is expanded upon below.

1. Expanded Task Forces, Working Groups and Spaces Dedicated to Action and Community

• • An Academic Diversity ImplementationÌýTeam,Ìýco-led by the Office of the Provost and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, has been created and will be responsible for implementing and benchmarking University-wide actions related toÌýcurricular enhancement andÌýthe hiring, mentoring, retention, teaching, scholarship and tenure of a diverse faculty body—growing and giving our diverse faculty members the support and resources they need to thrive at Adelphi. More information about this group will be shared this coming Friday as part of a special dedicated edition of the Provost’s Weekly Update.
  • Under the leadership of our Center for Student InvolvementÌýin theÌýDivision of Student Affairs,Ìýwe have launched anÌýEquitable Adelphi Action Team—a student-centered council that will provide the University with recommended action steps and suggested strategies for how our community can address and combat racism and other forms of oppression, implicit biases and microaggressions. SeeÌý, shared by Vice President of Student Affairs, Dr. Bakari.
  • All schools and colleges of the University will have an active School/College Diversity Council by August 2020,Ìýfacilitating evidence-based strategic diversity plans in each individual area,Ìýexploring curricular enhancement andÌýcontinuing to inform theÌýUniversity’s overarching commitment to becoming a model of diversity,ÌýequityÌýand inclusion.
  • The Faculty of Color NetworkÌýisÌýexpected to grow in size and activity. This group of leaders activelyÌýengages faculty of color with the broader academic life of Adelphi’s campus.
  • We will continue toÌýmeet frequently with the Garden City and Nassau County police, as well as Garden City’s Village Board of TrusteesÌýto discuss issues of concern and areas for partnership, including the creation of an equitable community surrounding our Adelphi campus.
  • Additional plannedÌývirtual forums will continue to serve as a safe space in the months ahead to comeÌýtogether as a communityÌýto review progress and necessary pivots on these very action plans designed to eradicate racism. For more information on upcoming forums, emailÌýaudiversity@adelphi.edu.

2. Growing Our Professional Community to Reflect the Diversity of Our Students and Our Diverse Hiring Practices

• • Launched in 2015,Ìýimplicit bias training remains a requirement for all faculty and executive/senior-level search committeesÌýto complete during theÌýhiring process. This has already resulted in the growth of diversity among new faculty by 50%, and among all faculty by 23%. It has also transformed ourÌýExecutive Leadership team from all-white to 43% nonwhite, as well as 57% women—includingÌýthe first black woman, the first black man and the first Asian American woman. Additionally, our first black man has been elected as vice chair to the University’s Board of Trustees.ÌýExpansion of this process to all hiring at Adelphi, including staff positions, will continue the positive growth in our diverse and talented community of professionals.Ìý
  • The Diversity Certificate Program, which has attracted more than 1000 employee participants to date, will be completed by our executive leaders, deans and department chairs.ÌýAdvancing education on racism, microaggressions and inclusivity, the certificate program is also being expanded to several local school districts.
  • We are working with our unions toÌýincorporate diversity and inclusivity training as part of the required professional development.
  • Anne Mungai, PhD, associate provost for strategic initiatives and graduate studies,Ìýwill expand her work focused on issues surrounding faculty diversity in coordination with our colleges and schools.

3. Improved Recruitment, Retention and Graduation of Diverse StudentsÌý

• • Our Enrollment Management teamÌýcontinues toÌýthoughtfully design and improve its diversity recruitment plan,Ìýinclusive of efforts withinÌýpredominantly underserved communities of black and brown students throughout the five boroughs, Nassau and Suffolk counties, and other pockets throughout the country.ÌýThese efforts have been effective, increasing the diversity of our student body by 20% from Fall 2015 to Fall 2019.Ìý
  • Our University remains committed to programming and support for historically underrepresented communities,Ìýincluding growing the success of our semiannual, on-campus 400-plus attendee College Awareness Day, expanding our bilingual financial aid materials and information sessions, and increasing involvement in community-based panels and presentations on college readiness and access for underserved schools and students.
  • While Adelphi does not meet 100% of student need,Ìýas we do not have the resources available to provide full aid packages to all students,Ìýwe have placed an increased effort onÌýraising funds for the President’s Student Success Scholarship and Multicultural ScholarshipsÌýto help close financial gaps for many of our diverse students.
  • Financial literacy remains an important component of the college search, enrollment and retention process.ÌýWe are committed to educating students on reasonable college debt and the loan process from the outset, offering hundreds of one-to-one counseling sessions with newly admitted students annually.ÌýSimilarly, we redesigned, simplified and will continue to modify as needed, the financial aid package for better understanding among our students and families.
  • Efforts to improve retention and graduation rates, particularly among ourÌýdiverse student groups, are ongoing.ÌýEarly results have demonstrated improvements in the four-year graduation rate of our black students, increasing from 39.3% in Fall 2015 to 51% in Fall 2019.ÌýWhile this does show improvement, we must continue to do more to retain and graduate our talented pool of diverse students. This is why the University is undertakingÌýthe implementation of a Student Success Coaching Model, designed to help students from a proactive and holistic standpoint of multidimensional coaching.
  • Offering and expanding our diverse array ofÌýÌýwill promote retention, community and support among students with similar interests and passions.ÌýThis includes an extensive list ofÌýhistorically culturally based fraternities, sororities and social fellowships governed by the Multicultural Greek and Fellowship Council. Among these are historically black Greek letter organizations that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council and Divine Nine.
  • An evidence-based practice, proactive mentoring is known to improve the retention and outcomes for students of color. And so,ÌýAdelphi continues to grow ourÌýUniversity Mentoring Program to help ensure academic success, especially for students of color who may be the first in their families to attend college.

4. Increased Training and Resources for Faculty, Staff and StudentsÌý Ìý

• • We are adding to ourÌý, both on and off campus, for our students of color. Our own institutional resources, coupled with national resources, aim to provide culturally sensitive treatment and promote awareness for issues encountered by students of color.
  • Our University Libraries, in collaboration with our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is working toÌýbuild our collection of books and resources highlighted specific to the antiracism educational efforts,Ìýmany of which are now featured inÌýÌýof our website. Additionally, both teams are in partnership to develop a LibGuide that will profile the work of our faculty on the topic of racism and inclusion.
  • During our June 3 discussion of racism with our community, ourÌýOffice of Diversity, Equity and InclusionÌýcalled for submissions of creative and scholarly work by our black and brown community members, especially those works that discuss the subject of racism.ÌýThis will help enhance our collection of resources for our community on this topic.
  • Selected as a Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center through a competitive process by the Association of American Colleges and Universities,ÌýAdelphi will serve as one of only 24 institutions of higher education nationwide to work toward the goal of erasing structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity on campuses, in our communities and for our nation around the pillars of the TRHT Framework: narrative change, racial healing and relationship building, separation, law, and economy.

These four pillars and the subsequent action plans underneath will continue to be monitored against benchmarks set to achieve racial equity goals—many of which exist as part of our strategic plan, goal 3—Become a Model of Diversity and Inclusion.ÌýMonitored through our annual implementation plan and measured through our annual scorecard, our results to date were last sharedÌýÌýthis past fall.

We continue to call on you as members of our community to be collaborative and productive members of these conversations and actions.ÌýTo join in the efforts listed above, please reach out to any of us as executive leaders or to our Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion atÌýaudiversity@adelphi.eduÌýor 516.877.3182.

Together, we will work to eliminate injustices, end systemic racism and advance racial equity within our own community and those that surround us.

Sincerely,

Christine M. Riordan,ÌýPhD, President
Steve Everett, DMA,ÌýProvost and Executive Vice President
Jim Perrino,ÌýExecutive Vice President of Finance and Administration
R. Sentwali Bakari, PhD,ÌýVice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students
Kristen Capezza, MBA ’12,ÌýVice President for Enrollment Management and University Communications
Jacqueline Jones LaMon, JD,ÌýVice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Maggie Yoon Grafer, ’99, MA ’08,ÌýChief of Staff and Associate Vice President for External Relations