Student Housing and Dining Services Strategic Plan2021

Initiative: Embrace Diversity and Strive for Inclusive and Organizational Excellence

This initiative encompasses the following strategies:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Objectives

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Objectives

In the 1980s, then the Student Housing department established a “UCD Student Housing Commitment” as a reflection of departmental policy as a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. This “Commitment” sparked the campus conversation and eventual development of the UC Davis Principles of Community. This statement can be found hanging in the Housing Administration Building today.

In 2019, Student Housing and Dining Services created a new unit, Inclusion and Organizational Development (IOD), to continue embracing diversity and striving for inclusive and organizational excellence. The goal for this new unit was to provide training and development opportunities that promote a workplace culture of respect and appreciation for diversity to drive innovation, improve effectiveness, and inspire departmental excellence for staff and students. A director was hired in fall 2019 to lead this new unit.

To achieve this strategic initiative, we will pursue the following objectives:

• Advance our mission to create, develop and maintain a diverse and inclusive work environment. As stated in UC Davis’ strategic plan, “To Boldly Go,” Goal #3: Embrace diversity, practice inclusive excellence and strive for equity. Make UC Davis a place of excellence for learning and working by supporting a culture that values the contributions and aspirations of all our students, staff and faculty; promotes wellness and a culture of sustainability; and cultivates the open interchange of ideas.
• Build relationships, connections, and community within the various units and individuals within Student Housing and Dining Services.
• The Leadership team employs team building, strategy sessions, problem solving, emergency response, and draws upon concepts from Brene Brown's book Dare to Lead, and the CliftonStrengths assessment tool, to build trust and staff cohesion. In addition, SHDS secured the services of UC Davis Organizational Excellence, to lead group sessions to build trust, improve working relationships, and develop strategies to address complex and challenging work problems more efficiently as a team.
• Improve recruitment process to increase diversity of candidate pool and update and refine interview questions to identify individuals who align with our core values. UC Davis has updated the annual evaluation process to require a Diversity and Inclusion goal for every employee.
• IOD and Human Resources collaborate to create appropriate goals for staff with various roles and at different levels within the department.
• Diversity education is incorporated into all aspects of the student development residential curriculum including their dining experiences at the global Latitude Restaurant and Market.
• In support of institutional efforts to achieve inclusionary excellence, SHDS has developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Strategy. The DEI strategy is a mechanism to align systemic policies and practices with our IOD mission and goals. We strive to promote a workplace culture of respect and appreciation for diversity to drive innovation, improve effectiveness, and inspire departmental excellence. We purposefully implement services and programs aimed toward this goal while simultaneously focusing on the experiences of staff and students to uncover and address systemic inequities. We approach diversity, equity, and inclusion as an ongoing journey of observing and addressing the deep rooted dogmas imbedded in the fabric of our organization.
• SHDS established a department-wide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee in fall 2020, coordinated under the Director of Inclusion and Organizational Development, that works in an advisory capacity for the implementation of the DEI departmental strategy. As a collective body, this group will guide processes and procedures to conduct current state analysis, research data on best practices for professional development, and make customized recommendations on achieving DEI priorities. Throughout the year, the committee will work collaboratively to offer recommendations to the director and the SHDS Leadership Team.
• The DEI committee will:
  • Use data gathered from strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) process and demographic data to examine the employee life cycle from an inclusionary lens.
  • Evaluate specific existing processes, practices, and policies to identify systemic challenges to DEI goals.
  • Create a DEI train-the-trainers model for professional staff development Identify metrics, key milestones, and check points to track strategy progression.
  • Provide an end of year document about actions items accomplished and next steps.

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This strategic initiative is aligned with the following goal(s) in UC Davis’ strategic plan, “To Boldly Go”:

• Goal 3: Embrace diversity, practice inclusive excellence and strive for equity. Make UC Davis a place of excellence for learning and working by supporting a culture that values the contributions and aspirations of all our students, staff and faculty; promotes wellness and a culture of sustainability; and cultivates the open interchange of ideas.