2020 E&I Awards Announcement

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing policies put in place to prevent the spread of the virus made it necessary to postpone the 12th Annual Equity & Inclusion Conference. Life has changed, but our commitment to enhancing an inclusive climate across campus has not. It is more important than ever to celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion and look forward with anticipation of what’s next. To echo President Pinto's approach to the present and the future with hope and optimism, the Division of Equity, Inclusion & Community Impact is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2020 Marian Spencer Equity Ambassador Awards and the 2020 Equity & Inclusion Grants. 

Named for the celebrated civil rights activist and UC alumna, the Marian Spencer Equity Ambassador Awards are designed to showcase members of our campus community whose efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion have had a positive impact on the university — advancing belonging, agency, cultural competence, and accountability within and across the campus community. Recipients for the year 2020 are:

The Equity & Inclusion Incentive Grant program seeks to support collaborative efforts between colleges and units that align with the Inclusive Excellence pathway in Next Lives Here – our University’s Strategic Direction. To advance those ideals, we seek to enhance belonging, agency, cultural competence, and accountability within and across the campus community. We define those constructs in the following ways:

Belonging: The degree to which one feels supported, connected, valued and respected.

Agency: The ability to use one’s personal power to impact positive change.

Cultural Competence: The awareness, knowledge and skills to interact comfortably across difference.

Accountability: The obligation of individuals to acknowledge their behaviors and decisions, accept responsibility for them and correct them, if necessary. The expectation for managers and leaders to ensure those in their charge comport themselves accordingly. 

Our Equity & Inclusion Incentive Grant recipients for 2020 are: 

Presented by Dr. Tyrone McKinley Freeman, associate professor in the IUPUI Lilly School of Philanthropy, this project is the beginning step of a strategy to engage African American alumni to bring them back to their alma mater through philanthropy. The event enhanced belonging (assisted Black alumni in understanding why they are an important community within the University of Cincinnati ecosystem), agency (how they are able to leverage their gifts and talents to increase opportunities for students), and cultural competence (learned strategies for working with the UC Foundation, an organization that Black alumni have not traditionally been connected to).

The purpose of this conference is to highlight and empower UC's Asian student community in an intentional and impactful way. Asian identity is one that is extremely diverse, containing numerous subgroups (i.e. East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, just to name a few). For that reason, events like the Asian Student Conference and the Lunar New Year Celebration may miss the mark on impact. Additionally, because Asian Pacific American Heritage Month occurs in May when the school year has ended, it is difficult to highlight our Asian students. This conference would add another element to the things we do for our Asian student population and would enhance their sense of belonging and their sense of agency. It would also serve to increase cultural competence and accountability of the campus community towards the Asian identity. 

This event aligns with the strategic direction of Next Lives Here as an example of the University of Cincinnati’s commitment to enhancing professional development for staff enrichment. This is a day of learning, collaboration and networking, and will feature the talent of our own staff community. The event is planned and supported by the efforts of staff volunteers and will serve as a premier learning event for UC staff while highlighting the unique expertise of UC employees. The Staff Professional Development Day will present programs designed to motivate, challenge, strengthen and enlighten staff and to align professional skills with organizational needs. The day will also include a community service project. This event will foster a sense of belonging among staff while enhancing a sense of agency and accountability. 

The purpose of this project is to advance excellence for Cincinnati’s African American/Black Interpreters workforce. The African American/Black Interpreter Collaborative is a Community of Practice that aims to co-create a critical mass of qualified African American /Black interpreters through activities that allow them to share social/cultural/professional capital, build cultural competence within the profession. The Collaborative aims to: Provide a training and mentoring program that prepares more African American/Black interpreters to take and pass the RID National Interpreter Certification tests; create a community of practitioners where members feel a sense of belonging; support each other in individual goals; educate their colleagues — the racial majority of practitioners — to become more culturally competent; create systems for resource sharing and networking and; promote and support the next generation of African American/Black Interpreters. 

Navigating a large university campus presents challenges for everyone. Those challenges are compounded when there are visual, hearing or other impairments that impede an individual’s ability to navigate the campus environment. As the university continues to address these challenges and lead higher education in its commitment to an inclusive environment, we have an opportunity to leverage technology to improve campus accessibility. The UC Inclusion App was developed to provide an interactive environment that fosters targeted and immediate communication pathways. The app offers a robust wayfinding engine that currently supports campus navigation. The current project builds on those features by adding indoor wayfinding resources for in-building navigation; installation of Beacons at identified locations to mark accessible entrances and pathways; ability to manage a personal profile to set your accessibility preferences; a reporting module to immediately submit accessibility challenges to the appropriate personnel and; the ability to leverage mobile devices to include location and photos. 

The Division of Equity, Inclusion & Community Impact is pleased to support these individuals who push forward conversations and develop programs and projects that enhance a culture of inclusion, appreciation and support.