ADVANCE Adaptation: Utilizing Practices to Leverage Institutional & Intersectional Formative Transformation (UPLIIFT) at Eastern Washington University

Eastern Washington University, Cheney WA

Investigators

Abstract

The Eastern Washington University ADVANCE Adaptation project UPLIIFT will induce positive, sustainable, systemic change by implementing evidence-based practices that will foster equitable experiences for all EWU STEM faculty. The project will develop a sustainable, data-driven, systemic change model that removes structural barriers and builds equitable workspaces and policies. Guided by significant institutional data, UPLIIFT seeks to document and reveal the campus climate for STEM faculty, to mitigate bias in faculty recruitment processes, and to build institutional data collection and analysis efforts related to faculty recruitment and workloads. Toward these aims, the project seeks to implement a modernized climate survey that includes intersectionality with questions that address issues related to differential climate experiences of faculty with intersecting identities. It will adapt evaluation and dissemination strategies around its Search Advocates’ program for bias mitigation in faculty recruitment and enhance Search Advocates’ understanding of intersectional issues. Furthermore, it will institutionalize data collection to inform hidden workloads and establish a Faculty Work Activity Dashboard. The project will be assessed and advised by an Internal Steering Committee and External Evaluator. The project can serve as a model for other regional, comprehensive, predominantly undergraduate universities with teaching focuses and unionized faculties. The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE “Adaptation” awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education as well as non-academic, non-profit organizations. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.