President's Equity Council

The Cal State East Bay President’s Equity Council is a high-level strategy and advisory group that will assist the president in identifying key priorities and strategies to ensure the university continuously improves and authentically lives by its values of embedding and fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the university.

The Council is a representative group of faculty, staff, and students whose positions as well as personal and professional knowledge and experience touch on various aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work. Lead by President Cathy Sandeen and the University Diversity Officer, Kathleen Wong Lau as Co-chair, the Equity Council receives information and input from other DEI connected groups at the university, for example the Faculty Diversity and Equity Committee (FDEC) of the Academic Senate, Office of Diversity, Associated Students, Inc, and Faculty and Staff Affinity Groups, Affinity-based student success units, among others. The Council does not replicate the work of these groups, but serves as a coordination and accountability body that fosters synergies and meaningful impacts across all DEI efforts to achieve stated goals.

Committee Members

Timeline

Year 1 (Defining and Building)

During 2021-22, the Council will be chaired by the President and will focus on the following:

• Define a limited set of actionable DEI priorities based on existing data and inputs, including equity gaps in graduation rates, DEI components of the recent (2021) Climate Survey, Faculty and Staff demographic data, and other existing surveys and datasets.
• Provide input and advice on an institutional DEI commitment statement.
• Provide input and advice on an institutional structure for DEI work at Cal State East Bay.
• Provide input and advice on DEI accountability measures and responsible parties.
• Develop a process and templates for academic and functional units to articulate their own DEI priorities, aligned with university-level priorities.
• Provide input and advice on the design of a new central website that clearly communicates Cal State East Bay’s commitment to DEI, priorities, accountability and resources (one place to access DEI information).
• Develop and present an “Equity Summit” (or other name TBD) for the Cal State East Bay Community (to be an annual event) that will review work and accomplishments from the previous year and outline priorities for the coming year.

Subsequent Years (Ongoing)

Beginning in 2022-23, the Council will be co-chaired by two members of the Council selected by the president and will focus on the following:

• Review progress on identified priorities.
• Identify any new or emerging DEI challenges.
• Establish a limited set of actionable new or continuing institutional priorities for the year.
• Collect and review data, as needed, relevant to priorities.
• Review relevance of accountability measures and make adjustments as needed.
• Identify any necessary updates or improvements to the DEI portion of the website.
• Meet with the President twice per semester, or as needed, to provide input and advice on institutional DEI efforts.
• Plan the Cal State East Bay Equity Summit for the year.