November 24, 2021

SAFS Equity Assessment Report Available

After over a year of organizing, planning, and implementation, SAFS has completed its first ever School-wide assessment of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The full, written report of the equity audit/equity assessment was released to the SAFS community on November 2, and a week later, on November 9, WhitworthKee Consulting presented their findings to SAFS and answered questions from students, staff, and faculty. The PDF of the report, the recording of the presentation, and notes from the presentation are available on the SAFS DEI Sharepoint.

Broadly speaking, the equity assessment found that the SAFS community values diversity, equity, and inclusion, but the School’s actions do not always live up to stated values and desires. There are opportunities to do more community building within and across peer groups, create and/or strengthen policies to advance equity and prevent discrimination, and improve the recruitment and retention of individuals from groups that are underrepresented in STEM.

Based on the recommendations from WhitworthKee, we are continuing the conversation around the equity assessment and what it means for SAFS going forward. Representatives from the Equity and Inclusion Committee have been meeting with peer groups to gather feelings, reactions, and ideas related to the assessment findings and possible next steps for SAFS. After the first round of these discussions concludes in December, the EI Committee will compile questions, comments, and suggestions to share out with SAFS and will create opportunities for further input and discussion.

Our next, most concrete step is to revise the SAFS DEI Strategic Plan. This should be underway by the start of 2022. The findings and recommendations from the report will directly influence the goals, strategies, and action steps we outline in the Strategic Plan and will help us enact meaningful policy and programmatic change here at SAFS.

If you have questions or comments related to the SAFS equity audit or DEI efforts in general, you are welcome to reach out to the Diversity Specialist (safsdeij@uw.edu), contact your EI Committee representative(s), or leave an anonymous comment in the EI Committee Dropbox.