Racial Equity Advisory Council Leads Third Year With Retreat, Tool to Track Progress
On Jan. 9, the council will work with the Office for Faculty Advancement and the Office for Institutional Equity to facilitate a day-long retreat for more than 250 academic and administrative leaders. REAC will play a central role in delivering information and resources for the retreat, which will serve as a forum for leaders across academic and work areas to share successes and obstacles they have experienced in advancing racial equity.
A report card on racial equity
The council will also test a new report card in early 2023 to provide an annual snapshot of the progress units and schools across the university and health system are making in advancing racial equity.
The proposed tool, called the Duke Annual Report on Racial Equity (DARRE), is currently being piloted in one school, one administrative unit, and one unit in the School of Medicine.
If adopted for wider use, it would complement existing efforts to track progress on racial equity to gather more uniform data on demographic representation, attrition, hiring practices, advancement opportunities, and more, so units are being assessed in similar ways and progress could be demonstrated over time, said Kimberly Hewitt, Duke’s Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer in the Office for Institutional Equity.
“The goal is to populate this instrument with as much central data as possible, to really minimize the burden on units to supply information beyond what they are already tracking,” said Hewitt, who is also a co-chair for REAC. “We want to make it as easy as possible for units to participate, and to see where they are and be able to identify a clear trajectory toward progress in the areas they are still working to transform.”
Focus on race
Although REAC’s work touches on inequalities related to gender, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status, its focus is on correcting inequities borne specifically by Black students, faculty and staff. This is because race is often the determinant factor for inequitable outcomes, Hewitt said.
“As we discuss work around racial equity, we want to be sure people understand that by addressing equity based on race, this will improve equity across all communities,” Hewitt said. “We know the greatest disproportionality exists around race, and that if we address that fundamental issue, we will increase equity across all groups, whereas the reverse may not be true if you are focusing more broadly on diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Racial equity work is underway in many areas across Duke. REAC’s mission is aligned with many institution-wide actions, such as the renaming of a dormitory that honored a white supremacist former Trinity College trustee, and naming a West Campus building in honor of alumna Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, one of Duke’s first Black undergraduate students.
Advancing racial equity at Duke has also included establishing university-wide courses to facilitate student and faculty discussion on race, and funding new research on racism and the history of the American South. Many additional efforts are based on collecting and analyzing data as senior leaders seek to understand the experiences of students, faculty and staff, and how those vary based on race and other demographics. More details on these actions and future work are available on the REAC website.