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Office employee

A college in which students govern appointments,

course selection, and many other key decisions

A role in which trained specialists identify and address unconscious biases in hiring practices

A workspace at the university in which staff gather to complete a sequence of tasks that are designed to solve problems

College Students

Deep Springs: Student-led program

A college in which students govern appointments,

course selection, and many other key decisions

Deep Springs is a small college in California, located on a cattle ranch, in which, to a large extent, the students shape the organization.  To illustrate

 

  • the committee that selects professors comprises students

  • the chosen professors submit proposals that outline the courses they would like to teach—and the student body selects the courses

  • students are assigned the responsibility to think critically about how to improve the organization and practices in each class

  • students coordinate and shape the conversations during classes

 

To achieve these goals, students elect three positions: a student trustee, who can vote at the Board of Trustees, a labor commissioner who can assign workload to students, and a student president who liaises between the dean and students.

 

Further reading

  • Hil, R., Thompsett, F., & Lyons, K. (2022). Over the horizon: Is there an alternative to neoliberal university governance? Social Alternatives, 41(1), 63–69.

  • www.deepsprings.edu

MGH Institute of Health Professions: Equity advisors

A role in which trained specialists identify and

address unconscious biases in hiring practices

The MGH Institute of Health Professions, a health professions graduate school, introduced a role called equity advisor.  Equity advisors observe hiring practices, such as job advertisements, interviews, selection committees, and reference checks, to identify—and to correct—behaviors, activities, or judgments that could disadvantage one race or ethnicity.   They might, for example, question the use of a psychometric instrument that disadvantages a particular race (Cahn et al, 2022).  Or they might recognize the panel unfairly shifts the questions slightly, depending on the sex or age of the applicant.

 

These advisors receive eight hours of training online and in person.  They learn a range of topics, such as

 

  • examples of discriminatory job advertisements.  Even references to “PhD in a relevant field” might unfairly disadvantage particular demographics

  • suitable rubrics and interview questions that boost the fairness of job interviews

  • unrecognized benefits of diversity and inclusion to the university

  • techniques to navigate challenging conversations about diversity and inclusion

 

Staff on selection committees indicated they appreciably valued the insights and role of these equity advisors. 

 

Further reading

  • Cahn, P. S., Gona, C. M., Naidoo, K., & Truong, K. A. (2022). Disrupting bias without trainings: The effect of equity advocates on faculty search committees. Innovative Higher Education, 47(2), 253-272.

  • Liera, R. (2020a). Equity advocates using equity-mindedness to interrupt faculty hiring’s racial structure. Teachers College Record, 122(9), 1–42.

  • Liera, R. (2020b). Moving beyond a culture of niceness in faculty hiring to advance racial equity. American Educational Research Journal, 57(5), 1954–1994.

Image by Redd
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Cape Peninsula University of Technology: Change laboratory

A workspace at the university in which staff gather to complete a sequence of tasks that are designed to solve problems

Cape Peninsula University of Technology established a change laboratory, a physical workspace, in which staff learn to apply a sequence of tasks to solve problems that affect their lives.  This sequence of tasks is specifically designed to translate a problem that staff may be experiencing into a more effective approach to complete work.  In this workspace, staff are prompted to complete the following activities.  

 

  • First, staff are exposed to a provocation or controversy.  In one example, staff watched a video in which an executive, several years ago, decided to broaden the knowledge of vocational students.  Staff then watched a more recent video of an executive who feels this plan has not been realized. 

  • Second, staff discuss the problems this example provokes.  The institution obliged staff to follow strict procedures but also to demonstrate creativity—a contradiction.

  • Third, staff identify two dimensions that underpin these contradictions, as the top half of the accompanying figure shows.    

  • Fourth, staff consider historical changes that can explain some of these contradictions.  In this example, the institution encouraged a shift from technical training to broader education but did not help staff cope with this change

  • Fifth, staff complete a template, as the bottom half of the accompanying figure shows, to underscore the tensions between the implicit rules, absence of tools, or division of labor and the object or aim.  This figure shows how the reliance on routines may have reinforced the hierarchical decision making, compromising the flexibility that staff and students need to embrace

  • Finally, staff consider opportunities to resolve the contradictions, represented by the crosses.  In this instance, they invoked the notion of knot-working: in which the membership of decision-making committees shifts continually, depending on the matters that need to be discussed.   

 

Further reading

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