Institutional DEIJ Plan Starter Kit

In this section, you will learn how to:

• Assess your institution’s readiness
• Select an appropriate planning time horizon
• Build and organize your planning team
• Ground DEIJ planning with an organizational framework

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Questions to ask before starting an institution-wide DEIJ planning process

Demands for quick action to address racial justice are growing in urgency. But without due diligence, the planning effort may lose momentum or point your institution in the wrong direction.

Use the questions below to determine whether your campus is ready to proceed with institution-wide DEIJ planning. Your answers will indicate whether you need to build a stronger foundation for success or whether the essentials are in place to get started.

• Leadership support and buy-in:
  • Does our DEIJ planning initiative have vocal support from departments and units across the institution?
  • Does our executive leadership see the strategic value in DEIJ planning and progress?
• Institutional strategic plan:
  • Is DEIJ a key component of our institution’s most recent strategic plan?
  • How will the DEIJ plan align with and build off the strategic plan?
• Key stakeholders and resources:
  • How can we recruit stakeholders from across the institution so that responsibility is not placed solely on our Chief Diversity Officer?
  • What mechanisms do we have to engage our surrounding community in the planning process?
• Data infrastructure:
  • Can we access high-quality data as needed to support DEIJ strategic decision-making?
  • Does our institutional culture embrace the use of success metrics to measure impact and progress toward strategic goals?

Use the “Six Thinking Hats” exercise to understand diverse perspectives

Goal: To familiarize participants with the variety of stakeholder perspectives on campus in order to identify the best-fit stage/process that each role should be plugged into.

Learn more about the exercise

In this section, you will learn how to:

• Assess the current state of DEIJ at your institution
• Uncover hidden sources of data
• Engage students through fair process
• Hold unit-level listening tours
• Evaluate local community needs
• Conduct a SWOT analysis

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Use this SWOT Analysis Toolkit to set the direction for your DEIJ plan

Completing both internal and external scans produce a varied and potentially large set of outputs to synthesize in a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. Ultimately, this exercise will help set a direction for your DEIJ plan.

Explore the toolkit

What to look for in a SWOT matrix

Ensure that the three considerations below are part of your discussion process when voting on top priorities.

• Taken as a whole, the matrix comprehensively expresses the institutional DEIJ environment
• Items have strategic, not merely tactical significance
• Items are easy to understand and concisely expressed

In this section, you will learn how to:

• Review key components of an institutional DEIJ plan
• Avoid these common language mistakes in your DEIJ plan
• Develop actionable goals and objectives
• Enhance action steps with the SMART goals framework
• Define success metrics

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7 key components of an institutional DEIJ plan

While there is no single ideal structure of a DEIJ plan, each should address seven essential components to demonstrate commitment to and ensure progress toward institutional goals. These elements, uncovered in a review of 50+ plans, are outlined below.

1. Making the case for DEIJ progress
2. Finding a common language
3. Understanding the plan development process
4. Developing actionable goals and objectives
5. Embedding accountability measures
6. Defining success metrics
7. Establishing ongoing communication processes

Outline campus-wide goals with the SMART Goals Framework

DEIJ strategic plans include a number of top goals and priorities that institutions wish to achieve. However, these goals often lack clear definitions, implementation steps, and success metrics.

EAB recommends that planning committees consider the SMART goal framework when outlining campus-wide goals. This tabletop exercise will help planning committees better understand SMART goals and draft more accountable plans.

Learn more about the framework

In this section, you will learn how to:

• Operationalize strategic initiatives
• Establish an ongoing communication process
• Share out DEIJ successes and progress

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Operationalize strategic initiatives

Institutions are being asked to go further than ever to foster equity and dismantle systemic racism, but too few have the accountability systems in place to facilitate follow-through and drive meaningful progress on their DEIJ plans. In addition to SMART goals, accountability measures like project owners and timelines are critical to moving from rhetoric to meaningful action.

Examples of DEIJ project owners

American University

• In phase two of its Plan for Inclusive Excellence, AU holds cabinet-level leadership accountable and delegrates responsibility to different unit-level owners.

Arcadia University

• Arcadia assigns not just an office, but specific faculty, staff, and administrators to be accountable for each action item.

University of Denver

• University of Denver’s plan includes a list of sub-goal level collaborators to facilitate intrainstitutional collaboration.

Examples of DEIJ timelines

American University

• AU breaks down its goals into immediate steps and long-term objectives that will be tackled each academic year.

Southern Utah University

• SUU outlines a specific time period for each action based on a standard scale they have defined as immediate, short, medium, and long.

University of North Alabama

• UNA commits to completion target dates for each of its action steps.

Explore the peer examples