Impact, Accountability, and Organizational Change

** ## Initial Inclusion Committee and Advisory Group Proposal I think the following framework would allow the library to flexibly/responsively distribute DEI workload to avoid burnout, encourage bottom-up solutions, and make it easier to outreach to and solicit feedback from our constituents. 1. The formation of a library Inclusion Committee, composed of at least one member representing each library unit: Teaching and Learning, Collections and Course Support, Administration and Leadership Team, Public Services (and Circulation Assistants), Library Technology (and Technology Consultants). 2. The formation of a representative Constituents Advisory Group of 10-15 representative students, student staff, faculty, campus administration, and other community members. There is some precedent for this now on [Tacoma Campus](https://sites.uw.edu/uwtacomalibrary/2023/03/15/uwt-library-student-advisory-board/). 3. Each Quarter, each Library Unit sets one DEI focused objective within that unit’s area of responsibility and implements strategies intended to produce the desired outcome. 4. The unit’s Inclusion Committee member serves as a unit representative to the Inclusion Committee, coordinating, assessing, and presenting their unit’s objective, and coordinating cross-unit objectives. 5. The Inclusion Committee meets quarterly with the Constituent Advisory Group and Library Leadership at an Advisory Group Meeting to present each quarter’s objectives and outcomes, and invite feedback and guidance on setting future objectives. 6. The Inclusion Committee meets regularly for mutual support, cross-unit coordination, and to build relationships and institutional knowledge to support larger objectives. 7. The Inclusion Committee tracks and publishes the ongoing AR/DEI work on the Library website and performs other relevant outreach. ### Some more thoughts: Each quarterly unit objective should address some aspect of the AR Audit Report recommendations, but it should not be a massive undertaking. It might be as simple as “hosting a [specific] DEI Training” and the measurement might be the number of staff who attend. Or “review and update [some set of] policy documentation”, and the measurement is a pre/post evaluation by the Constituent’s Advisory Group, or even “X number of gendered pronouns replaced”. When choosing an objective, the unit will take into account emergent needs in their unit over the next quarter (hiring, staff training, observance days/weeks, acquisition cycle, instructional priorities) and the scope of a given objective will reflect the unit’s availability (eg. due to the academic calendar, unfilled positions, etc.). Larger cross-unit (or longer-term multi-quarter) objectives are possible as well, where necessary, based on organizational needs and approval. The Inclusion Committee recruits and serves as the point of communication with the members of the Constituents Advisory Group. The Inclusion Committee meets quarterly with available members of the Library Leadership Team, the Director, and a student/constituent advisory group to present their unit’s data about the previous quarters’ project, outcomes, lessons learned, ask for feedback, and present their unit’s next quarter’s objectives. These meetings could be open to outside attendees and made available to constituents via a quarterly email and other venues such as the WON. The Inclusion Committee is charged with maintaining feedback mechanisms to elicit general constituent suggestions, as well as polling and outreach for feedback on initiatives. They are responsible for sharing that feedback with stakeholders, the Constituent advisory group, and Library leadership. Inclusion Committee would supplement or replace the AR Commitments on the website with public documentation of each quarter’s unit goals and assessments each quarter. This way it’s constantly being updated, and shows specific concrete implementation details and invites feedback. The biggest challenge I expect is the difficulty of internalizing a practice of setting unit level objectives: learning to set smaller goals, measuring those, and accepting modest outcomes, and continuing to try. Other challenges include recruiting and retaining the constituents advisory group. Some incentive ideas: stipends, meeting Service Learning requirements for UWB/CC. By putting rotating participation in the Inclusion Committee, and accountability to the Constituent Advisory Committee into job descriptions we begin to institutionalize the structure that supports the ongoing process of incremental and accountable change. ### Narrative Example: Autumn 202x Mal has volunteered to be the newest Inclusion Committee member, representing the Public Services (and Circulation Assistants) unit. At an initial committee meeting, the committee chair outlines the committee lifecycle and schedules this quarter’s committee check-in meetings. #### Member Work After the welcome meeting, Mal reviews a Public Services owned spreadsheet with past suggestions for Public Services related unit objectives. Mal selects a few that seem relevant to the upcoming quarter: one about improving mentorship opportunities for Circulation assistants, one about increasing engagement with first floor displays, and one about reviewing the Circulation Assistant Training materials. Mal sends these possible objectives to members of the unit, with a request for feedback and additional suggestions; and schedules a meeting for the unit to decide on the Autumn objective for Public Services. #### Unit Meeting At the unit meeting the ideas above are discussed, and the idea about the displays is popular, but it will need significant coordination with the Teaching and Learning unit, so it is set aside for Winter. Someone suggests that there are upcoming Academic Success Fairs happening on both campuses, and increased student outreach is possible. This is chosen as the objective. To accomplish their goal of increasing student outreach, unit staff decide to collect BIPOC-created comics suggestions for the Graphic Novel collection. This will raise awareness and the suggestions may steer growth in the collection. Success will be measured by the number of suggestions collected and any increase in circulation statistics of the existing collection. Some responsibilities within the unit are assigned, and some project planning happens asynchronously within the unit. #### Member Work Mal checks in with Rachel, the Unit Representative from the Collections and Course Support unit to see if there are any concerns with promoting the collection and gets the go ahead. #### Committee Progress Meeting At the next Inclusion Committee meeting, Mal announces the Public Services objective: “Student Outreach” and the assessment measure: “increased awareness and use of graphic novels”. Someone from the Teaching and Learning unit mentions that they are currently supporting a class on comics, and the instructor might want to participate to promote their course. Mal also mentions the idea about bringing in a guest speaker in Winter for an event centered around the first floor display, and Rachel agrees that would be a great cross-unit project, Rachel offers to take the suggestion back to their unit for discussion. The Library Technology unit announces they have decided to revise their Laptop loan policy, Instruction has made plans to increase student appointments. Administration are reviewing their vendors to spotlight MBEs. Collections will be increasing their efforts promoting E-Book loans. A quarterly Advisory Group meeting is scheduled for the end of the Autumn Quarter with LT and the Constituent Advisory Group members invited. #### Unit Work After the Committee meeting, Mal reaches out to the instructor, who helps shape the feedback form and asks to review the collection suggestions once they’ve been collected. A circulation assistant offers to create a small comic style zine that lists a few popular BIPOC created titles which are already in the collection. Unit staff sign up to operate the booth. During the student fair, suggestions are collected and tracked. Students who submit suggestions are entered into a drawing for a small gift certificate from a local comic book store. Afterwards, a story about the project is published on the Campus Library website, with the suggested BIPOC titles, and a scanned version of the zine. Graphic Novel fulfillment data is gathered from Alma, along with the number of title suggestions, and the number of viewers of the article on the website. #### Advisory Group Meeting At the quarterly Advisory Group Meeting Mal presents the objective and the outcomes from the previous quarter. The overall fulfillment rate of graphic novels hasn’t increased, but there were many good title suggestions, which the instructor has planned to include in their next Comics course by adding a section on BIPOC creators. An Advisory Group member asks whether the suggested items will be acquired and the group recommends that acquisition be considered an important future objective. Leadership Team agrees and suggests a funding source. Rachel notes this for future follow up with the Collections Unit and promises to report back about that issue at the next Advisory Group meeting. #### Committee Work The Inclusion Committee updates the Campus Library website with the objectives, assessments and details from the Advisory Group Meeting. Committee members reach out to the instructor to invite their participation in the next cohort of the Constituent Advisory Group. | | | | | | |---|---|---|---|---| ||Unit|Committee|Constituent Advisory Group|Leadership| |Participants:|Teaching and Learning Collections and Course Support Administration and Leadership Team Public Services and Circulation Assistants Library Technology and Technology Consultants|One member representing each unit (5)|Members including: Students, Student Staff, Faculty, Other campus staff, Regional Community UWB & CC representation BIPOC and gender representation (consortial representation?)|Leadership Team, Associate Dean, (ODI?)| |Responsibilities:|Choosing Unit objective, Choosing Assessment metrics Implementing Objective assessing outcomes|Recruiting advisory group members Reporting Unit objectives and outcomes each quarter, Coordinating cross-unit objectives, Facilitating Unit meetings and collaboration, Requesting feedback from advisory group Publishing objectives and outcomes on the library website Maintain and monitor standing feedback mechanisms (anonymous and collaborative) and share with LT and CAG|Providing feedback on Unit objectives and outcomes Providing direction on next quarter’s objectives, Available for assessment questions from units Familiarity with audit report|Charge Committee Including committee in job descriptions and NOVs Providing feedback on Unit objectives and outcomes Providing direction on next quarter’s objectives Provide approval on cross-unit objectives or long-term objectives| |Meeting frequency|As needed|Monthly|Quarterly|Quarterly| |Rotation Frequency||Annually|Annually|| ## Assessment Framework: ### For each recommendation, evaluate according to the following criteria: 1. Has progress been made? 2. Is it institutionalized? 3. What “role” or committee holds responsibility? 4. Where is the responsibility defined? 5. Is it clearly defined? 6. Is there an assessment mechanism? 7. Is there a community feedback/accountability mechanism? 8. Has progress been communicated? 9. What are some possible next steps? 10. Is it Engaging? (Action or Information?) 11. Who is it engaging? 12. How will they be impacted? What effects will it have? 13. How long will the action have an effect? ## Final DEIA Implementation Working Group Recommendations The DEI Implementation working group recommends piloting the following structure and process for setting and completing DEIA goals. These recommendations are partially inspired by and align with some practices from adrienne maree brown's [Emergent Strategy](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01ALLIANCE_UW/1juclfo/alma99162364625001452) (2017) and Tema Okun's [White Supremacy Culture - Still Here](https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/) (2021). These practices emphasize the following: small steps, trust, based on the lived experience of people, shared goals, collaborative development, process as much as product, collective accountability, and realistic work plans, proposals, and time frames. ## DEIA Committee - Standing committee made up of 5-7 library staff members, including student representation and/or student participation and involvement. - Committee responsibilities - Provide leadership, guidance, and feedback on embedding DEIA comprehensively and sustainably into the Campus Library’s infrastructure. - Make recommendations on DEIA training opportunities. - Facilitate and collaborate on educational opportunities (article discussions, webinars, etc.) for library staff. - Collaborate on outreach opportunities and identify areas for strengthening connections to students and campus partners - Coordinate and lead quarterly DEIA projects decided by units or cross-units. - Schedule routine DEIA accountability check-in meetings once per quarter, open to all staff, but outside of regular All Staff Meetings. - Membership is recommended to include representation from all units of the library. - DEIA & Student Engagement Librarian (permanent member) - Access Services - Budget & Operations (LibAdmin) - Collections Strategy & Course Support Services - Digital Scholarship & Collections - Library Technology Services (LTS) - Teaching & Learning Services (Librarians) - Representation from smaller units is important so that collaborative processes can address all aspects of the library's functions. - In order to balance workload capacity and evolving needs of all library units, the Committee should be encouraged to experiment with ways to keep participation flexible and sustainable - Any student employee participation would be flexible and optional. This could include asynchronous work done during their regular work hours. If they were available to attend any committee meetings, this would be additional paid time (pending approval from Library Administration and their supervisor). - Rotating membership - Commitment of 1- or 2-year membership. - After the first year, membership will be staggered so that each year there are some continuing and some new members. ## Quarterly Goal Setting Framework (pilot) - **Unit Activities** - Each unit may identify 1-2 actionable goals to implement and plan out a timeline for implementation. Timelines will vary but units could plan and work towards quarterly milestones that are intentionally small, manageable, and realistic. - Goals may be selected from or inspired by the Anti-Racism Audit Recommendations, but are not limited by them. (The DEIA committee should continue to update and share the [AR Audit spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Ekbg-P5l5D2An9DW5GSMgYD5lsShOfd3yBVu0oQpz_o/edit?usp=sharing) in order to show in progress or completed work). - Goals may also align with the [Library's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategic Direction](https://library.uwb.edu/strategicplan#equity). - Unit representatives will give regular updates to and receive feedback from all library staff at accountability check-in meetings once per quarter. - Units will share documentation related to goals in a central space so that all library staff can view them. - **Cross-Unit Collaboration** - Multiple units may choose to collaborate on a goal together. - Some goals will need participation and assistance from other units. - Some goals could be dependent on budget approval and/or technology assistance. - **DEIA Committee Support** - Provide a template for goal planning. (See [Goal Planning Template Example A](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cHgsBVhNPM7WQgvHf9RLQop09csDx5OO-tma4K4L7Po/edit) and [Goal Planning Template Example B](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x5MmVaaF187Y7A8aGUFYkVY3paQpKbjItjv5zl_FhMU/edit) for potential example templates.) - Offer workshops to support goal development processes, and assistance with using the goal planning template. - Host regularly scheduled accountability check-in meetings once per quarter. - Facilitate cross-unit collaboration. ## Connecting to Students & Campus Partners The following are recommendations that could be discussed and developed with the DEIA & Student Engagement Librarian, DEIA Committee, and Events & Outreach Team. - Create a map of student organizations on campus (completed, see [UWB & Cascadia Student Organizations](https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Fbgw9pkC4QV6taYQVQOGV0Qg-Fh38jwVRjeRuNgyUE/edit)). - Document how we already connect with students and partners. - Identify areas where connections with students and partners could be strengthened. - Look toward creating a formal accountability structure. Last Updated: 7/22/24