The Faculty and Staff Experience
Employee Hiring, Training and Departure
- Recruit and hire for diversity and inclusion in all aspects and areas of the University, expanding the existing faculty cluster hiring process and exploring new staff recruitment strategies.
- Overseen by: Elizabeth Garcia, Executive Director, Office of Equity and Diversity; Michelle Maldonado, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs; Patricia Tetreault, Vice President of Human Resources
- Item Status: Work in progress.
- Updates:
- Human Resources and OED worked together to identify community-based recruitment for staff. Recruiting materials have been translated into Spanish for job fairs.
- Human Resources and OED are identifying and investing in additional position advertising sites to reach a larger number of potential applicants and generate more diverse applicant pools.
- Human Resources is part of a pilot program for a new tool to improve applicant data analysis to inform future advertising strategy.
- A Strategy Toolkit to Recruit an Excellent and Diverse Faculty was created by a subcommittee of the Council for Diversity and Inclusion.
- A Strategy Toolkit for an Inclusive Recruitment Process for Staff & Administrators was created by Human Resources and OED.
- Human Resources is working with the Diocese of Scranton on outreach to Hispanic/Latinx communities. The University sponsored the Misa Pontifical Y III Encuentro Diocesano Hispano.
- Human Resources promotes accessibility to some benefits information through the addition of Spanish language versions of certain benefits communications with the goal of expanding these resources.
- Several Academic and non-Academic Departments are implementing diversity hiring initiatives:
- Leahy College:
- Speech Pathology: Growing its capacity to model and support diversity through strategic recruitment, hiring, and retention practices that increase representation and improve retention of diverse populations across the spectrum of the University community, with special emphasis on hiring for diversity amongst our faculty and staff.
- Nursing- The Department made efforts to create a more diverse faculty with recent hires.
- CAS College:
- Chemistry-Contributed to growth of its capacity to model and support diversity through strategic recruitment, hiring, and retention practices that increase representation and improve retention of diverse populations, with emphasis on hiring for diversity amongst our faculty and staff.
- Biology- Continued to self-educate and expand the diversity of their applicant pool for faculty searches. Biology faculty have been active participants in reading groups and discussions on antiracism, implicit bias, and related issues. Several participated in the PILLAR Program. The Department Committee on Diversity in Hiring organized two days of workshops on hiring practices in STEM.
- Kinesiology-Continues to grow their capacity to model and support diversity through strategic recruitment, hiring, and retention practices that increase representation and improve retention of diverse populations across the spectrum of the University community, with special emphasis on hiring for diversity amongst our faculty and staff.
- Leahy College:
- Engage with the local Scranton community to expand awareness and access to off-campus community resources for newly hired faculty and staff.
- Overseen by: Patricia Tetreault, Vice President for Human Resources; Gerald Zaboski, Senior Vice President, Office of the President
- Item Status: Work in progress.
- Updates:
- Human Resource and the Office of Community Engagement & Government Affairs continue to work together to identity community group for staff recruitment.
- A new “location” page is available through the “About Us” section of the website. Future updates to the site will increase information about DEI-related resources in the regional community.
- Develop and implement strategies to monitor new employee connections to campus early and often during their first year.
- Overseen by: Elizabeth Garcia, Executive Director, Office of Equity and Diversity; Michelle Maldonado, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs; Patricia Tetreault, Vice President of Human Resources
- Item Status: Work in progress.
- Updates:
- The Office of Equity and Diversity and the Office for Human Resources has started a 90-day touch point meeting with new hires to obtain feedback and to provide additional resources, support, information, and a creation of a community.
- Human Resources, the Office of Equity & Diversity and Academic Affairs hosted a reception for staff new hires.
- Expand anti-racism and other training for faculty and staff though both University- developed and external opportunities, addressing training gaps that emerge through needs assessments and other analyses. Determine appropriate methods to address non- compliance with employee training requirements.
- Overseen by: Elizabeth Garcia, Executive Director, Office of Equity and Diversity; Michelle Maldonado, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs; Patricia Tetreault, Vice President of Human Resources
- Item Status: Year 3.
- Updates:
- Increase and encourage employee participation in diversity, equity and inclusion activities, both on campus and through external professional development, experiences, conferences, and workshops, including more widespread participation in the AJCU Anti- Racism Examen across campus units
- Overseen by: Elizabeth Garcia, Executive Director, Office of Equity and Diversity; Michelle Maldonado, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs; Patricia Tetreault, Vice President of Human Resources; Daniel Cosacchi, Vice President for Mission and Ministry
- Item Status: Work in progress.
- Updates:
- As noted above, faculty and staff have several opportunities for professional development as a result of programming, trainings, development days, etc. offered by the University, in addition to some funding for external workshops and conferences.
- Deans and Vice Presidents have identified folks who are interested in DEI professional development opportunities for their faculty and staff. The DEI Strategic Plan budget includes funds to promote additional professional development.
- Mission and Ministries has committed to expanding its offering of the AJCU Racial Examen across campus units, and to start developing other DEI related Examens for faculty, staff and students.
- The Division of Mission and Ministries held lunch time discussions on Hinduism and Latin American Liberation theory for faculty and staff.
- The Office of Equity and Diversity introduced Scranton Inclusive Books for Employees (SCRIBE) in 2023. The book club reads one book a semester and hold a book club for discussion. The books to date include “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, “Solito. A Memoir” and “The Radium Girls”.
- The Office of Equity and Diversity with the support of the Center for Teaching Excellence and Staff Senate offered training on Integrating Trauma-Informed Pedagogical Practices into Faculty Course with Dr. Nicole Bedera, and Impact of Sexual Trauma in the Life and Living of Individuals with Neurodiversity with Dr. Michelle McKnight. OED also provide Lunch and Learns every semester on a variety of DEI topics for faculty and staff.
- The Center for Teaching Excellence offers training for faculty under Tara Hamilton-Fay’s leadership. In addition to other professional development opportunities, CTE and OED offer Race and Ethnicity Awareness Training (REAT) for faculty and staff, and a new DEI cultural competency personal development program will be PILOTed during the 2024-2025 academic year.
- Evaluate the current employee exit interview process to assure it is comprehensive and completed in a systemic and equitable manner.
- Overseen by: Patricia Tetreault, Vice President of Human Resources
- Item Status: Work in progress;
- Updates:
- Human Resources has updated the staff exit interview questionnaire to expand the conversation on campus culture and inclusivity.
- Human Resources will continue to review the method and format of data collection to improve reporting and assessment.
- Human Resources will work with Academic Affairs to explore the opportunity to include separating faculty in the exit interview process.