Admissions Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Action Plan

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  3. Admissions Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Action Plan

The Enrollment Management and Admissions division strives to build a diverse student body, and believes, as stated in the University Diversity Statement, that “students, faculty and staff from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, identities and heritages, when working together, are more likely to produce the leaders our society needs.” To achieve this, we have taken steps to attract a diverse student body, including: we’ve begun allowing students who wish to submit SAT/ACT scores to use a self-reported process to avoid paying fees; we’ve removed gender from our inquiry forms and created multiple options for providing information based on how one identifies; we’ve hired a regional counselor in NYC to focus on growth and enhancement of our diversity initiatives; and we’ve eliminated the application fee for all applicants. In addition, we have set the following goals:

Cultivate

  • Admissions will showcase the campus’ DEI work at each phase of the funnel via activity calendars, yield event invitations, COD (showcase), magazine.
  • Admissions counseling staff will each attend at least one program sponsored by a multicultural/social justice group on campus.
  • Counselors will be encouraged to seek professional development via trainings/webinars/NACAC and NASFA sessions for counselors and financial aid. Seek appropriate options for operations staff as well. Goal is 1-2 opportunities per year.

Expand

  • Using the model created in Athletics, create a welcoming and inclusive recruitment experience for people of color.
  • Diversify the student ambassador program and student volunteers by opening up the application process directly to clubs that focus on the diversity of student activities.
  • Task each professional staff member in admissions and FA to set an annual goal specifically designed to improve their personal awareness or comfort level with DEI issues and challenges.
  • Add a DEI component to all ambassador training. Ambassadors should be able to speak to multiple experiences on campus.
  • Once students self-identify, create a series of helpful tips designed to assist first-generation students in finalizing their college searches.
  • Continue to refine and enhance (and ultimately grow) the Laurentian Pell Program. May entail a new name and marketing.
  • Create a recruitment piece that allows us to share a complete listing of all events and student organizations.
  • Create a newsletter for CBOs and multicultural high schools directly addressing the work being done on campus. Aim to increase the number of CBOs who send us applications from the current 58 to at least 70 this year.
  • Expand current multi-cultural events like MVP and COD to look at more frequent offerings and more transportation availability.
  • Offer to host FA nights for our key CBOs or any other kind of programming they'd like us to do.
  • Track recruitment in predominantly minority high schools and seek to grow it. For the 2021-2022 academic year we received applications from 349 high schools that have populations of 50% or higher students of color. Seek to enhance this strategy and make it an ongoing priority.
  • Assess our PDS, LPP, KDS scholarship offerings to ensure they are easy to understand and to apply for, which includes building on the redesigned KDS interview structure implemented in Spring 2021
  • Monitor photography choices in all publications to ensure equitable representation of our BIPOC population.

Foster

  • Invite representatives from at least five multicultural student groups to meet with our staff and talk about their campus experiences to broaden our collective understanding.
  • Build training materials that include all aspects of engagement of current students for the ambassador program
  • Schedule bias recognition training for the admission counseling staff as part of training for application reading.
  • Assess current office culture via a survey instrument and to seek improvement as necessary.

Connect

  • Invite current diverse multicultural/social justice clubs and organizations to meet with us and ask any questions of us they'd like to know in addition to sharing their priorities with us.
  • Increase the diverse multicultural/social justice aspect of all social media messaging to reflect the full campus community.
  • Work with BLI leadership to develop a mentoring program for African American students. Add the option for mentors to write letters of recommendation advocating for their mentees.
  • Add yield activities to connect current students and faculty of color in the recruitment process.