Accomplishments and initiatives
Staff members across Business Operations, Facilities, Nevada Dining, and Residential Life have collaborated with internal and external partners to better support all students living on-campus through the following interventions:
Access and inclusivity in the residence halls
- Updated the housing application with an easier process for gender-inclusive housing
- Broadened gender-inclusive housing options in all residence halls
- Developed an Asian Pacific Islander Living Learning Community, to be launched Fall 2024
- Developed a Black Scholars Living Learning Community, launched Fall 2021
- Developed an Indigenous Living Learning Community, launched Fall 2021
- Developed a Latinx Living Learning Community, launched Fall 2019
- Developed a Gender, Sexuality and Identity Living Learning Community launched Fall 2017
- Developed a Gender Inclusive Housing Community where the entire floor in a residence hall is for students seeking this type of housing (the location was recommended by student leaders)
- Worked with the University to transition single-stall public restrooms from single-sex to gender-neutral in two buildings
- Developed a housing rate structure driven by equity as a way to provide more access to students who want to live on campus, but can't afford it
- Included use of laundry machines in rent
- Shortened housing application and increased description to provide more transparency by removing the security deposit and pre-payments and implementing a $300 down payment, making it easier for students to apply for housing, access a payment plan or have the down payment deferred to fall semester
- Partnered with RHA to assess the physical accessibility of all halls with preliminary results including receiving construction estimates that are included in a newly developed 10-year capital improvement plan
- Updated the policy/practice about using government ID to check out items at service desks - students no longer need to show a government-issued ID
- Updated housing application to address concern about using a student’s legal/dead name when that is not their preference
- If students sign up for a payment plan on or before the Friday prior to classes starting Fall and Spring semesters, Residential Life, Housing and Food Services covers the $50 administrative fee.
Student support
- Partnered with Admissions and Records to import a student's “preferred name” from PeopleSoft into the housing database.
- Created an Incident Response Team that meets regularly and is positioned to develop action plans to support impacted students/staff when incidents occur locally, regionally, nationally or globally.
- Supporting a Diversity, Social Justice and Inclusion Committee of student, graduate and full-time staff to provide educational opportunities for residents living on campus.
- Provided space during student staff training where affinity groups could caucus to better explore their identities and their impact/influence on other identities.
- Coordinated with an external vendor to conduct an "Inclusivity Audit" where students, staff and faculty internal and external to the department participated in qualitative and quantitive data collection strategies; Ten recommendations for action emerged from this audit, upon which the department is currently working.
Professional development and staff support
- Developed performance-based multicultural competency and cultural humility rubrics for all position descriptions that will be used during the performance appraisal process
- Implemented a three-level professional development framework for full-time/graduate staff with topics related to identity, communication, power and privilege, and supporting minoritized identities; each level including 8-10 topics and being launched one a year - the end goal is that over a 1-2 year period of time, all current and incoming staff members will have completed about 30 sessions (in-person, hybrid, and online learning) related to diversity, equity and inclusion
- Provided website and social media links to anti-racism resources in weekly meeting minutes shared with all student, graduate and full-time staff
- Intentionally recruited full-time staff through affinity-based publications and job board; posting positions in multiple affinity-connected resources beyond University expectations
- Updated a director-level position with inclusive responsibilities to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are centered in department-wide efforts
- Created a coordinator position dedicated to diversity and equity within the department
- Implemented a set of inclusive 'dress code' guidelines to support staff as we balance westernized, colonizing perceptions of what is considered "professional" with staff members' identities, backgrounds, culture, and available resources
- Specific opportunities for the Residential Life team:
- Online seminars for student staff centered around social equity and identity development
- Trauma-informed supervision training
- Common reads centered around social justice to increase knowledge of various topics for graduate and full-time staff
- Online discussion posts for student staff members centered around “how to be an anti-racist”
Call to action
The accomplishments listed above serve as a starting point for the work needed to create a more inclusive and accessible on-campus housing environment. If you join our team, you will be a tremendous asset in helping us further aspects of social justice and inclusion for us to better and proactively support minoritized students and staff. Below is a list of action items members of the department feel need to be completed in order to be even more inclusive. Some items are currently in-process but most have yet to be started as the projects above were considered a higher priority at the time. As a member of our team, we will rely on you to provide feedback, identify additional strategies we need to address (or create), and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to keep moving our department forward.
Access and inclusivity in the residence halls
- Create housing scholarships for students who otherwise wouldn't be able to live in more expensive residence halls and Living Learning Communities (LLCs)
- Develop accessible virtual tours of the residence halls
- Conduct research-in-practice related to digital identity development and digital learning theory; and implement student/learner centered solutions to support students across identities
Student support
- Collaborate with Indigenous nations in the West (where our students come from or could come from) to host annual or more frequent connections/celebrations
- Develop a mentoring program where students of color can be connected with someone of a similar identity in a leadership role or has more experience living on campus
- With the crisis response team implemented, start proactive education and support to students/staff of marginalized and minoritized identities
- Develop an Indigenous Elder-in-Residence program (or not living on campus) available for connections, relationship building, support for students and consultation to decolonize practices across division
Professional development and staff support
- Hire more staff who hold historically marginalized identities, marketing all positions through affinity-specific venues.
- Develop professional development opportunities to educate supervisors on skills for supporting someone who shares different identities than you.
- Develop a retention plan for students, graduates and full-time staff of color.
- Collaborate with the Disability Resource Center to designate an accessibility and universal design advisor to the office, working with all functional areas for recruitment, selection, training and development opportunities.
- Explore with the Division of Student Services and Human Resources the possibility of merit increases or bonuses for staff who demonstrate significant learning and/or impact related to diversity, equity and inclusion.