School of Business: Our Commitment to DEI

April 2022

The faculty and staff of the School of Business are firmly committed to creating an inclusive environment, inside and outside the classroom, for all members of our community. We have taken and continue to take clear steps toward achieving  this goal. We welcome feedback from any member of our community about additional opportunities for achieving this goal or about the ongoing initiatives we are working on. Please contact Professor Liz Felski, our Student Advocate, at felski@geneseo.edu

Our initiatives focus on the curriculum inside the classroom, extracurricular activities,  educating all community members about DEI, communicating about DEI in our messaging and continuing to learn about and implement best practices in this area.

Ongoing Initiatives 

Strategic:

  • Commitment to DEI initiatives is embedded in our Mission, Value Statements, and Strategic Plan. As such it will receive attention and be evaluated on an ongoing basis.
  • DEI activity was added to the faculty “flight plan” document that faculty fill out annually.
  • Several Brown Bag discussions focused on DEI in courses, the School, and among faculty.
  • The School added a fifth competency goal to all programs focused broadly on issues of social responsibility.

Curriculum:

  • School Curriculum Committee inventoried entire SOB curriculum to identify areas where we have DEI material included in classes; benchmarking of other schools’ work in this field was also completed. Areas of strength and weakness emerged and recommendations made, which will be rolled into various Committee Charges.
  • DEI material was explicitly added to the experimental Introduction to Business class in Fall 2022, with partnership from PwC experts in this area and the campus VP for Diversity. Four classes were devoted to this topic, and a survey was administered to understand what students learned from this material.    
  • The required PD events administered through the GOLD program were modified to include a module focused on DEI and students are required to take at least one workshop form the module.

Co-curricular

  • Each SOB club was required to send a least one student officer to the PwC training on DEI, held at the beginning of the fall semester, following guidance form the EOP office that integrating students of color into existing SOB clubs, and making those clubs more welcoming, was the best strategy to try initially.
  • Accomplished alumni from underrepresented minority groups were recruited to speak to students. This commitment around speakers will be quantified as an ongoing initiative.

External

  • BAC Positive Societal Impact committee is focused on DEI. They are working on scholarships for students, awards for faculty and speakers in the area of DEI. Ongoing initiative and commitment.
  • Dean continued to work with SUNY Business School Deans on the SUNY-wide initiative around DEI in Business Schools. 
  • The Dean participated in AACSB workshops on Diversity in Business schools.