Trainings and Toolkits
UB is committed to achieving inclusive excellence in a deliberate, intentional and coordinated fashion, embedding it in every aspect of our operations. We aspire to foster a healthy, productive, ethical, fair, and affirming campus community to allow all students, faculty and staff to thrive and realize their full potential.
Below we offer toolkits to assist faculty and staff in their efforts to enhance inclusive excellence across campus.
Best Practices for Conducting Diverse Searches to Hire Faculty & Staff
Diversity is essential to excellence in the University setting. This series of four videos illustrates why creating a plan for conducting a successful search is critical, as well as the importance of building an awareness of implicit bias and how to minimize its effects. Total running time: 20 minutes.
Recruiting a Diverse and Excellent Faculty: Best Practices for Search Committees
Excellence—embracing and exhibiting the highest level of quality in research, teaching and service—can be achieved only when diverse perspectives are engaged. This workshop, conducted by Anne M. Etgen, Professor Emerita of Neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, illustrates why we recruit faculty for diversity and excellence, obstacles to achieving faculty diversity, how schemas affect the careers of women and underrepresented minorities, and what we can do to address these issues. Supplemental materials are provided to assist search committees during the faculty search process. Total running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Cultivating an Inclusive Mindset
This in-person workshop will teach about bias, recognizing its origins and exploring what biases drive you. It will dive into the actions we can take to work towards inclusion in our minds and our environments. Personal identity, how our minds can trick us into reinforcing our beliefs, and actions we can take to counter these forces will be explored.
Free Speech, Hate Speech and Academic Freedom
One of the greatest challenges for universities is the occurrence of hateful speech and conduct. Although many of these incidents have been student-initiated, these expressions are not isolated to colleges and universities, and they reflect broader societal post-election tensions. Many university teachers feel unprepared to “referee” emotionally charged political disputes between students in (or outside of) classes. Indeed, many instructors are concerned about the perception of political bias in their lectures and classroom comments, and about how to address the post-election climate (if at all) in class. This toolkit provides some helpful information and guidelines to assist faculty members with these challenges.