Faculty of Color Success Committee

Charge:

Throughout its almost three years of deliberations, the Faculty Success Task Force recognized that the experiences and often the expectations for women faculty and faculty of color (BIPOC - Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) might diverge significantly from the traditional pathways that have served as the basis of institutional and unit level policies and practices. Thus, expectations for faculty success at Texas Tech University should account for some of these differences. Accordingly, concerning faculty of color, the Faculty of Color (FOC) Success Committee of the Faculty Success Advisory Committee is charged with considering more inclusive policies and practices specific to the recruitment, success, and retention of faculty of color.    

Focus Areas

The FOC Success Committee has decided that since this group focuses on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) and faculty success, its efforts will strongly focus on Belonging, grounding its approach in the rich body of scholarship on DEIB. Diversity refers to quantitative measures and visible and nonvisible characteristics that make people who they are. In contrast, inclusion refers to the variety of diverse persons present when institutional decisions are made; the quality of the institutional campus climate; the type of institutional nurturing mechanisms designed to support a multitude of cultural differences; and institutional access to holistic resources and opportunities that allow Texas Tech University people feel seen, heard and welcome. Equity means that everyone receives equal and equitable opportunity and access to what they need to achieve, contribute, and belong, and belonging refers to feeling accepted, bringing your identity and authentic self with you, and ultimately, gaining full membership. Given that diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging overlap and are intertwined and the multivariate intersectionality and complexity of DEIB, the FOC Success Committee views belonging, the feeling of being accepted, as the cornerstone of DEI. Furthermore, belonging is a strong indicator of and a means of support for faculty of color success. Thus, belonging has emerged as a primary focus of this committee.  

 

Members: