TFRE May 2021 Update

Learn more about the Task Force on Racial Equity's structure, recommendation process, BOV presentation and book club.

Structured for Inclusiveness, Multi-Faceted Input and Involvement 

The task force is divided into tiers to ensure the work is done at multiple levels. 

The leadership team of the Task Force includes four co-chairs, a Leadership Council and Working Group Co-Chairs. The leadership team depends heavily on the ideas, work, concerns and commitments of each Working Group member.  These members populate eleven Working Groups.  

At each level the Task Force includes students, faculty, administrators, alumnae and community members. President Alger convened the task force and wanted to ensure the community members were part of the membership.

For more information on the people involved and the purpose of each Working Group visit the TFRE Membership webpage.  

Lifecycle of a Recommendation

The work within the JMU Task Force on Racial Equity (TFRE) begins and ends with the Working Group (WG). This is true not only in spirit, but also literally. WG's are empowered to independently develop recommendations, yet can also receive ideas for recommendations from a variety of sources, e.g. 2021 Diversity Conference attendees, other DEI leaders and participants, other task force members, future surveys or town halls, etc. All of these groups include our JMU students. The Working Groups have already begun to address some of the most challenging aspects of our campus and some of the complex barriers experienced by students, staff, and faculty. We also know it takes a team approach to make the desired change. For that reason, a Co-champion concept has been introduced.

Champions for the Cause

Upon receipt of the recommendation, and based on the nature of the recommendation, the President assigns the recommendation to one of the Vice Presidents, who then designates it to a member of their management team who will be responsible for implementation. This manager is referred to as the Implementation Co-champ and it is their responsibility to reach out to the corresponding WG Co-champ. The purpose of the initial meeting is to introduce each other to the ideas and explore the logistics related to the implementation.

Trust and Accountability

Each recommendation has been carefully thought through by the WG and approved by the President, therefore each recommendation is prioritized accordingly. Establishing initial contact among the Co-champs is a critical step in the process as it opens a line of communication that will eventually lead to a working partnership between the two. This relationship is founded on the principle of transparency and trust. Meaning, the Implementation Co-champ can ask any clarifying questions and the WG Co-champ can reach out at any point to get an update on the status of the implementation plan.

Below are examples of the most recently submitted recommendation topics.

Recommendations under review (most recent submissions):

• PreK Youth Directory
• Glossary of DEI Terms (campus knowledge and understanding)
• Variety of recommendations engaging procurement and SWAM businesses
• Imagery and racial equity language
• New Student Experience

Recommendations under development (most recent submissions):

• Mobil App for Connecting Students with Campus Resources
• Expanded community posting for Classified Staff Positions
• Community Resource Letter for New Staff Hires

You may submit an idea for a recommendation by emailing: racialequitytaskforce@jmu.edu. 

Task Force Presented at the April BOV Meeting

Four representatives of the Task Force on Racial Equity’s Leadership Council—Dr. Joanne Gabbin, Executive Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center who serves as a liaison to the PreK-12 Engagement Working Group, Karina Kline-Gable, Lecturer in Foreign Languages and College of Arts and Letters Faculty Diversity Liaison who serves as a liaison to and Co-chair of the Student Co-Curricular Life Working Group, Rick Larson, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources, Training, and Performance who serves as a liaison to the AP faculty working group, and Charles May, Ole School Alumni Representative who serves as a liaison to the Awareness and Communications Working Groups—spoke during a panel presentation to the Board of Visitors during the April meeting.

The panel was facilitated by Dr. Jennifer PeeksMease, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, and Consultant to the Task Force leadership team, who invited the Leadership Council members to speak about why they became involved in the task force, their approach to their role in the task force, and their hopes for the Task Force.  Their words offered insight into their personal commitment, inspiring visions, and acute awareness of both the challenges and possibilities faced by this uniquely large and action-oriented Task Force.

If you’d like to learn more about the hopes and values of all 13 members of the Leadership Council, you can find that on the Task Force on Racial Equity membership page.

Reading, Reflecting and Moving to Action

From Equity Talk to Equity Walk as a Guide

JMU’s Task Force on Racial Equity, seeking to utilize established best practices to move toward racial equity, took on the task to read, study, discuss and implement principles of the book, From Equity Talk to Equity Walk.

The book was recommended by Task Force National Advisor, Dr. Tia Brown McNair who is co-author of the book, which is a guide for racial equity practitioners. 

On a fulltime basis, Dr. McNair is Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities.  

The Task Force held two facilitated book discussions, an author discussion and a follow-up final session to suggest issues for the Task Force to address.  

Task Force leadership, DEI Legacy Leaders at JMU and JMU Departmental DEI Diversity Chairs were invited to the two facilitated sessions organized and planned by JMU’s Talent Development Department. 

President Alger joined the Author Conversation with Dr. McNair and Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon on April 20^th. Bensimon is Director of Bensimon & Associates, continuing her lifelong commitment to normalizing racial equity-helping higher education leaders and professionals improve outcomes for minoritized students. As Founding Director of the Center for Urban Education, Dr. Bensimon developed The Equity Scorecard, a process for using inquiry to drive changes in institutional practice and culture. 

During the conversation authors suggested additional resources.  A link was provided for The Steve Fund “dedicated to the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color.”  The other reference is a syllabus review guide from the Center for Urban Education, “an inquiry tool for promoting racial and ethnic equity and equity-minded practice.

To round out reading and applying lessons from the book, all previous participants were invited to brainstorm possible recommendations to refer to the Task Force.  Those suggestions are being compiled for review with the Task Force Chairs and Leadership Council. Broad categories include disaggregating and sharing data, determine reasons for equity disparities and to consider racial equity when examining resources and offering opportunities.