By Leah Wilkinson
Bellarmine students and faculty met Tuesday evening and discussed ways in which the university is planning to make adjustments to be more inclusive.
This was a follow-up meeting to both the Oct. 8 meeting, in which students expressed their concerns over bias and discrimination issues they’ve experienced on campus, as well as the Oct. 10 and Oct. 17 listening sessions. Students’ feedback allowed faculty to prepare the plan shared Tuesday.
Faculty members created and introduced students to a list of “action items,” which were split into six categories: training; policy and progress review; infrastructure and representation; communication; academics and faculty; resources and support.
“[We] will be having more meetings with our identity-based RSOs specifically to get opinions on some other resources that the OII can start purchasing, to have in what we’re calling our resource pantry, to better serve students,” said Joe Frazier, director of the Office of Identity and Inclusion.
Bellarmine President Dr. Susan Donovan said there will also be an American Council on Education fellow, who is currently the associate provost and chief diversity officer at the University of Kentucky, working on Bellarmine’s campus for one week during each month for the rest of the school year.
Frazier said the hope is that the resource pantry will include everything from chest binders to textbooks and calculators, so students can feel prepared both inside and outside the classroom.
Starting next month, all Bellarmine faculty and staff will be required to attend training sessions to prevent future incidents of bias and discrimination.
EverFi is the independent company designing the faculty and staff training. It is the same company that created Bellarmine’s Title IX training.
“We don’t see this as the ‘end all’ of training, but this is the most immediate,” Donovan said.
Senior Brianna Spikener asked, “When the training doesn’t work, then what?”
Donovan said the university would go to the supervisor of that employee, whether it be a department chair or dean.
Faculty are also working to modify course evaluations by adding a section asking if students felt comfortable in the class, “getting to the climate issues,” Donovan said.
Junior Kelze’ Riley wondered if the mandatory faculty and staff training would include student employees.
“We are in the process of developing [training] for all student employees on campus,” said Dr. Helen Grace Ryan, vice president of student affairs.
Ryan said the university will track microaggressions similarly to how it tracks misconduct.
Bellarmine’s bias response team evaluates various incidents involving biases and decides appropriate protocol to move forward.
The team has been in place since 2017 and includes those in residence life and academic affairs, as well as the President’s Advisory Board on Equity and Inclusion. The team is now giving students the opportunity to join.
This will give students a chance to provide their perspectives and input.
“I think the important thing for students to realize is that [it’s difficult] to report on someone [whom they are] in class with, but you should not be limited by time if you decide to wait until the end of that course or until grades are in,” Donovan said.
“It’ll still be dealt with, and then we’ll work with department chairs and deans on matters.”
Students can report another student’s case, too.
“One of the things that came up in our listening and action sessions is that people didn’t know that they could report issues that were brought to them. Anyone can file [a bias or incident form] on behalf of someone else,” Frazier said.
The bias incident form is now known as the “student concern report,” which can be found on Engage.
New marketing and communications plans are going better to showcase the scenario of “anyone can report.”
“When students come in to Bellarmine and we do our Title IX training, we let them know who our mandatory reporters are and who our mandatory reporters are not, so if they feel like they want to talk to somebody, they know who they can talk to [who doesn’t] necessarily have to mandatorily report,” Ryan said.
Ryan said she wanted to make sure students are educated about to whom they can speak in confidence.
Faculty members also mentioned other areas in which the university is wanting to grow.
One area is UDH. Faculty members said they hope to have more meals dedicated to a variety of cultures, including more meals for heritage months and a better accommodation of dietary needs as they relate to different cultures.
Another area of concern is more gender-neutral restrooms, which the university could add as early as next semester.
Students also shared their concerns over the lack of disability-friendly doors on campus, as many of the doors at accessible entrances don’t work properly.
“They’re not the best,” junior Markita Oliver said.
“We have a campus master planning process that followed the strategic planning process, and I’ve asked them that we have a physical disability review of all of the spaces,” Donovan said.
At the end of the meeting, Donovan expressed her appreciation for students’ cooperation and willingness to share their experiences.
“I want to express my gratitude for everyone for coming today, for your frankness and your candor, and I think we can work together on these,” she said.
Faculty members said they hope to make these changes quickly, but some will take longer than others.
“As we did benchmarking, we were seeing that lots of institutions are wrestling with this and these exact same issues of [lots of students feeling like] there’s work to be done,” said Dr. Patrick Englert, associate vice president of student affairs.
Ryan agreed there are universities across the country dealing with the same issues.
“I texted eight different vice presidents of student affairs and asked them ‘Do you have a bias process that you feel works well for you?’ and I didn’t get one person that responded to me [in] a positive way, so it’s something that we all have to work on,” Ryan said.