Chancellor's Award for Advancing Equity Committee Guidelines and Membership

Criteria

Nominees will have established specific procedures, practices and/or initiatives that advance equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging at WSU Vancouver in relation to any one of the following Goal 4 objectives. The award committee will rate each nomination based on the criteria below. It is crucial that you submit thorough nominations that describe how the nominee meets the award criteria. A good nomination is one that provides as much relevant information about the nominee as possible per nomination category/categories. The committee for the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity will score nominations on the criteria listed below. Please note: It is not necessary for the nominee to meet each of the criteria listed below.

  1. Ensure equitable opportunities and outcomes for all student populations. May include, but not limited to the following:
    • Practices/initiatives that support equity of student outcomes in outreach, recruitment, retention or graduation.
    • Partners with culturally specific organizations to increase student access and understand the needs of underrepresented students.
    • Identifies/obtains grant funding to increase capacity for services to underrepresented students.
  2. Ensure equitable recruitment, retention and promotion of employees across demographic groups. May include, but not limited to the following:
    • Participates in ongoing professional development related to equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
    • Creates and/or participates in employee resource groups to support faculty and staff from historically underrepresented demographic groups.
    • Participates in efforts to assess practices, processes and policies in recruitment and retention of employees.
  3. Cultivate and maintain a campus climate that fosters belonging, safety, and opportunity to thrive for all employees and students. May include, but not limited to the following:
    • Participates in efforts to recognize campus as being located on tribal homelands.
    • Actively participates in BaCE program and applies resources and tools from the program into practice.
    • Engages in campus activities that support efforts to increase accessibility, equity, inclusion, justice and/or belonging.
  4. Employ an equity lens in decision-making, creating and revising of policies, processes and/or practices. May include, but not limited to the following:
    • Intentionally uses the equity impact assessment tool in endeavors of unit, team and position.
    • Applies an equity lens in daily practices, including processes, decision-making and program/initiative development.

Committee members

  • Student member: Keyonah Kirkland, elementary education
  • Staff member: Elisha Hardekopf, director and facilitator for the Building a Community of Equity program
  • Faculty member: Gunjan Gakhar, associate professor for the College of Arts and Sciences
  • Cabinet member: Obie Ford III, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Chair: Shameem Rakha, associate professor for the College of Education, coordinator of the B.A. in elementary education program, campus director for faculty equity and belonging
  • Previous year recipient: Thabiti Lewis, professor for the College of Arts and Sciences and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs

Committee guidelines

  • CAAE Committee members may not submit a nomination or be considered for the Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Equity during their tenure of service.
  • Nonpermanent members of the CAAE Committee will serve for one award term. Staff and faculty committee members may renew committee membership for an additional one term.

Procedure for selecting the winner

  • WSU Vancouver students, staff and faculty may submit nominations of full-time WSU Vancouver faculty and staff.
  • Nominations will be accepted via online submission form or may be directed to the committee chair in hard-copy form via intraoffice mail. Nominations must be received by end of business on the last day of the advertised nomination period.
  • The CAAE Committee will use a number of avenues to solicit nominations and bring awareness to the nomination process, including, but not limited to: CEDI; CSEJ; BaCE Committee; Accessibility Council; Campus FYI; FYI, VanCougs; ALC; Associated Student of WSU Vancouver; CILA; Cabinet and more. The supervisor of each nominee will be consulted by the chair of the CAAE Committee for additional input into the nomination.
  • Eligible CAAE nominees will be notified of their nomination and recognition of those nominees will appear in Campus FYI.
  • Nomination letters will not be given to the nominees by the CAAE Committee. The nominator may choose to send their letter to the nominee on their own.
  • Members of the CAAE Committee will independently review each eligible nomination and score each nominee based on the award criteria.
  • The CAAE Committee will meet to discuss the scores and make a recommendation to the chancellor.
  • The chancellor will select the winner based on the committee’s recommendation and a review of top nominations.
  • The CAAE Award winner will be presented with the award at a spring campus event.
  • The CAAE Award winner will be notified prior to the formal presentation.