Report: Chancellor’S Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Community

REPORT: CHANCELLOR’S COMMITTEE ON DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND COMMUNITY COMMITTEE ON Diversity Inclusion AND Community REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS& VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY i TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary . iii Summary of Recommendations . ix Acknowledgements . 2 I. Introduction: Building on Our Past and Forging the Path Ahead . 3 Committee Members . 4 Committee Charge . 5 Committee Procedures . 5 Methodology . 5 Phase 1 Subcommittees: Laying the Groundwork . 7 Phase 2 Subcommittees: Draft Recommendations . 7 II. Voices of the Vanderbilt Community . 8 III. A Vision for a Diverse and Inclusive Vanderbilt in 2030 . 9 IV. Diversity and Inclusion: What It Is, Why It Is Important, and How to Achieve It . 12 V. Vanderbilt’s History in the Context of Diversity and Inclusion . 19 VI. Detailed Recommendations . 29 Culture and Climate . …29 Students and Faculty . 32 Teaching and Curriculum . 38 Staff . 41 Community Engagement and Research Centers . 44 Administration, Governance, and Accountability . 50 VII. The Way Forward . 55 Recommendations in Context of Academic Strategic Plan . 55 Implementation, Prioritization, and Timeline . 57 Cost Estimates and Cost Considerations . 65 VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In August 2015, Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas Hispanics, and Native Americans in the physical and biomedi- S . Zeppos announced the goal of a more diverse and inclu- cal sciences . And in 2008, as Lehman Brothers filed the largest sive Vanderbilt community as the university’s top priority . bankruptcy in US history in the wake of the near-total collapse He empaneled this committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and of the economy, Vanderbilt boldly recommitted to the promise Community with the charge of developing a holistic vision of affordable access to education through its signature finan- of diversity and inclusion on campus with actionable items . cial aid program, Opportunity Vanderbilt . These recommendations will build upon existing strengths and Today, the struggle for diversity and inclusion has even boldly move Vanderbilt toward greater diversity, inclusiveness, greater salience, in ways that affect us all at Vanderbilt every and community connectedness equal to Vanderbilt’s aspira- day and in ways that inform how we must prepare our stu- tions “to shape the future of higher education and to foster the dents to succeed and lead in the world . Indeed, on the Sunday creation of knowledge that together improve the human con- just prior to this report’s delivery to the Vanderbilt chancel- dition,” as well as fulfill Vanderbilt’s commitment to “ensuring lor, articles appeared in the New York Times reporting: the diversity of all forms in the pursuit of excellence in learning unintended negative impact of some family leave policies on and discovery ”. 1 women faculty;3 racial and gender biases in the face-recog- Diversity and inclusion have represented both promise nition apps that are used for everything from advertising to and challenge for Vanderbilt since the time of the university’s policing, arising from a lack of diversity among those who founding . The only major philanthropy of the northern indus- train artificial-intelligence algorithms;4 the impact on electoral trialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, the university was founded in politics of demographic changes in the relationship between 1873 as a gift to the Reconstruction era South with a hopeful race and religious practice;5 the disparate impact on perfor- vision of inclusion: that the university would “contribute to mance evaluations for managers of different genders and races strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections who promote equality in the workplace;6 the counterintuitive of our common country ”. Yet at the same time, just two miles psychology behind the health impacts of various representa- away, the Fisk Jubilee Singers had already set out on their tions of female beauty in advertising;7 the previously untold world tour to raise funds to save the only university in Nash- story of the Black slave who actually taught Jack Daniel how ville that would admit newly freed Blacks . to distill whiskey;8 and new neuroscience and psychology This same promise and challenge has remained with us research that helps explain differing reactions to victims of over the nearly 150 years since . Indeed, as described in the sexual assault .9 history section of this report, Vanderbilt has continuously These are the types of issues that Vanderbilt must be poised struggled with diversity and inclusion—sometimes clumsily, to confront . These are the types of challenges that our schol- sometimes quite shamefully, but at other times bravely . For ars must help find solutions to, and this is the world that our example, Vanderbilt would admit its first Black student a year students must be equipped to competently operate within . It will before Brown v. Board and would admit the first Black student require all of us—faculty, staff, students, and administrators— athlete in the entire Southeastern Conference .2 across all identity categories and all disciplinary backgrounds— Vanderbilt’s commitment to diversity and inclusion has from computer science to political science, from history to steadily grown, and by engaging more of the Vanderbilt and psychology, from medicine to divinity—to lead the way . Nashville communities in this work, Vanderbilt has begun This report works from the premise that never before in our to stake out a leadership position on diversity, inclusion, and history has Vanderbilt had so much capacity and collective will access . For example, the Vanderbilt School of Medicine and to do just that . We return to the Commodore’s original hope for Medical Center, which has had an office focused on diversity a university that leads as it heals and unites . We speak in this since 1991, now has underrepresented minorities making report with urgent and critical self-analysis because we at Van- up 20-25% of its entering class and was the first hospital in derbilt have been given much, and so of us much is expected . Tennessee to be designated as a Healthcare Equality Leader by Let us acknowledge our past but turn purposefully now to focus the Human Rights Campaign . Twenty years ago, the Vander- on the hard, important work of forging that path ahead . bilt Carpenter Program became the first divinity program of This report and recommendations are the result of the its kind, focused on the intersection of religion, gender, and committee’s intensive, year-long effort to broadly consult sexuality . Vanderbilt’s joint graduate programs with Fisk Uni- students, staff, and faculty across the many communities and versity have made Fisk the nation’s leading awarder of master’s organizational units that comprise the university through degrees in physics to African Americans, and Vanderbilt is one numerous venues and conversations . The report outlines the of the nation’s leading awarders of PhDs to African Americans, methods by which the committee engaged the Vanderbilt VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY iii REPORT: CHANCELLOR’S COMMITTEE ON DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND COMMUNITY community and the larger world of higher education in order derbilt’s aspirations toward excellence, and finally provides a to present a set of proposals that are uniquely targeted to summary of the report’s high-level recommendations . A map- Vanderbilt University—our past history, our present, and our ping of the recommendations to the Academic Strategic Plan, ambitions for the future . a suggested prioritization and implementation timeline, cost This Executive Summary condenses the report’s hopeful estimates, and markers of success, are presented in Section VII vision of what Vanderbilt can become in the next 15 years, in the main body of the report . addresses the question of why diversity is integral to Van- A. Toward a Vision of a More Diverse and Inclusive Vanderbilt By renewing our collective commitment to creating a diverse creating richer learning environments and more productive and inclusive Vanderbilt community, we believe that Vander- contributors to society .14 bilt will be poised to meet the aspirations, needs, and challenges Indeed, a robust research literature has emerged on the articulated in Vanderbilt’s Academic Strategic Plan specifically power of diversity—our differences of identity, experience, and Vanderbilt’s core mission more generally . In this report, we education, and training—in order to: 1) make organizations reaffirm a vision of Vanderbilt as a great institution of higher generally better able to innovate, solve problems, and increase education and scholarship . We seek a diverse and inclusive productivity; 2) lead universities to deliver better research, Vanderbilt campus that better prepares its students for ethically generate new forms of scholarship and creativity, and enhance engaging with local and global communities and creates a con- the academic success of students; and 3) make individu- text for improved research and innovation . Achieving the goal als smarter and better equipped to succeed and to lead in a of diversity and inclusion will enhance our ability to deliver on variety of contexts: in their communities, in their careers, in our mission, and position Vanderbilt for leadership, distinction, government, in places of worship, and in service . Key to these impact, and significance for decades to come . benefits of diversity is the centrality of cognitive and intellec- As a leading institution of higher education founded with tual diversity—diverse

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