IU-Bloomington has received an award for increased campus diversity and inclusion for the fourth year in a row.
The Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from Insight Into Diversity magazine measures a college or university’s achievement in and commitment to broadening diversity and inclusion on campus, according to the magazine’s website.
Insight Into Diversity considers the school’s diversity initiatives, first-generation and underrepresented student retention and completion and hiring practices for staff and faculty.
“We’re deeply honored to receive the HEED recognition for our work to diversify the campus,” said John Nieto-Phillips, IU’s associate vice president for the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs.
Along with the award, Nieto-Philips said IU Bloomington was honored as a Diversity Champion for successful programs and initiatives. Out of 98 HEED winners, only 13 schools were given the Diversity Champion distinction.
These initiatives include investing in services for first-generation students and underrepresented students, creating diversity plans for faculty in every school within IU and making a campus diversity council for students and staff.
“There have been a number of people working for a long, long time to make the Bloomington campus more welcoming and more diverse and more inclusive,” Nieto-Philips said.
Still, there is room for improvement. Minority students only made up 22.3 percent of enrolled students at IU Bloomington, according to Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs’ 2017-2018 diversity report.
Doug Bauder, director of the LGBTQ+ Culture Center, said those who criticize diversity at IU should instead step up to help make campus more inclusive.
“There are still students who get harassed on this campus and there are nasty incidents,” Bauder said. “Unless we address it and are honest ourselves about it, it’s not going to stop.”
Nieto-Philips said while it’s understandable that people want faster progress in diversity, it is also important to consider how diverse the campus had become over the last 10 years.
“We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go,” Nieto-Philips said.
Bauder said while the HEED Award is worth celebrating, awards are only ever one part of the story.
“While it’s worth pausing and being grateful, there’s always more to do,” Bauder said.
He said a combination of student passion and administrative experience has created much of the University’s success in increasing diversity. Students bring passion about social justice and honesty about how the University can do better while administrators supply knowledge and experience to help make programs work, Bauder said.
“It reminds me why campuses have been a hotbed of progressive movements as long as I’ve been around,” Bauder said.
Even though IU has won the HEED Award for the fourth year in a row, Nieto-Philips said the University’s work is not done. He said the University is continuing to encourage events and programs, particularly summits for students, as well as intensifying diverse faculty recruitment.
While receiving the HEED Award is an honor, Nieto-Philips said the award isn’t IU’s goal in terms of campus diversity and inclusion.
“The end goal is not to receive an award for our efforts,” he said. “The end goal really is to see the results of our efforts.”
