Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Quarterly | July 1, 2021

An update on Fordham’s efforts to carry out the University’s action plan, Addressing Racism, Educating for Justice.

Board of Trustees

Fordham’s Diversity Fund has received $329,000 in gifts to date.

University Leadership

In addition to attracting accomplished and talented leaders, the University is committed to ensuring that the senior leadership of the University is diverse and representative of the city we serve. This year Fordham brought on board several experienced and gifted senior leaders: Tyler Stovall, Ph.D., as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; José Luis Alvarado, Ph.D., as dean of the Graduate School of Education; Anand Padmanabhan as vice president for Information Technology and CIO; Jenifer Campbell as dean of Students at Lincoln Center (a promotion from director of Residential Life at that campus); and Tracyann Williams, Ph.D., as the assistant dean for Student Success at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

Office of the Chief Diversity Officer

Teaching Race Across the Curriculum

The Office of the Chief Diversity Officer (OCDO) launched its inaugural Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) Grant Program, designed to aid academic departments in their efforts to thoughtfully and intentionally integrate questions of race into their curricula, both in core offerings and within a major or minor, and support excellence in the teaching of topics related to race in the curriculum.

The OCDO also added new resources to its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) pages:

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Fordham
• Anti-Asian Racial Violence Resources
• Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) Grant Funding

Academic Affairs

On May 6 and 7, the Department of English held a Teaching Racial Justice Symposium, bringing together English teachers and writing tutors who are committed to supporting the department’s Teaching Racial Justice Initiative, setting goals for the upcoming academic year, and learning from some of the leading scholars of antiracist pedagogy. The two half-day events, Visioning an Antiracist Writing Program and Visioning an Antiracist Writing Center, featured the panels “Directions in Antiracist Writing Pedagogy & Program Design” and “Directions in Antiracist Writing Center Work.” The symposium was one of the signature initiatives from this year’s Teaching Race Across the Curriculum (TRAC) grant program.

The Graduate School of Education (GSE), with the OCDO, co-sponsored “We’re Speaking: Giving Voice to Empirical Research on Anti-Racism and Social Justice,” a conference
highlighting the research of GSE students, on April 21. Nearly 100 students, faculty and staff attended.

Arts and Sciences

The Conference of Arts and Sciences Deans (CASD) offered capacity-building workshops on “Antiracism as Everyday Practice” to department chairs, program directors, and associate chairs, in partnership with the education and training organization ArtEquity this spring.

Fordham School of Law News

• PRIDE: Fordham Law OUTLaws Are a Catalyst for Inclusion
• Juneteenth Event Explores Race and History Through a Family Lens
• The Fordham Law Community Reflects on Pride’s Past, Present, and Future

Undergraduate Enrollment

The Office of Undergraduate Admission has been committed to the goals of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in our efforts to recruit, admit and yield the Class of 2025. As of June 30, more than 43% of the class identify as domestic students of color and an additional 7% are international. The largest percentage increases were among Black and multiracial students. In order of percentage increases they are:

• Increased representation in the incoming class of students who identify as Black by 181% to 216 students.
• Increased representation in the incoming class of students who have more than one racial or ethnic identity by 84% to 136.
• Increased representation in the incoming class of students who identify as Hispanic/Latinx by 62% to 551 students.
• Increased representation in the incoming class of students who identify as Asian by 31% to 432.

The Class of 2025 represents a 39% increase in students from New York City, and a 79% increase of students from The Bronx over last year’s incoming class. Overall, we believe the test-optional policy played a major part in enrolling the largest, most diverse, and most accomplished entering class in the University’s history, as did our close collaboration with the DEI Council.

Our efforts included a number of initiatives at every stage of the admission process including most notably:

• Developed and implemented 7 new programs for students of color throughout the college application cycle including: 2 sessions for applicants in the fall (introduction to Fordham, its community and the application process) as well as sessions for admitted students this spring (3 on academics and 2 on Student Life). Ninety-five students enrolled who attended these programs.
• Granted eligibility to National African American Recognition Program (NAARP) Scholars as candidates for our National Recognition Program Scholarship, in addition to our existing consideration of National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars. This year we have awarded the scholarship to 129 NAARP Scholars and 256 NHRP Scholars.” We enrolled 15 NAARP scholars with full-tuition awards. 1 additional NAARP student enrolled as a Dean’s scholar and 1 student is joining the class as a Cunniffe Presidential Scholar.  We have also enrolled 40 NHRP students with full-tuition awards.
• Executed outreach to students of color with a welcome email from Dr. Anthony Carter, member of Fordham’s Board of Trustees.

Student Affairs

Divisional Staff Training: Student Affairs requires all full-time and part-time staff to participate in a Divisional Training Day each semester. The topics for the training days vary, but are focused on issues related to our students and how staff in the Division of Student Affairs can best serve students. Diversity and inclusion have been the main topics for numerous mandatory Divisional Training Days with significant focus during the 2020–2021 academic year on anti-racism, including the spring 2021 Jesuit Mission and Commitment to Anti-Racism training.

Diversity Graduation Celebrations: In collaboration with the President’s Office, the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, and Senior Week committees at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, the Office of Multicultural Affairs formalized four identity-based graduation celebrations for Asian, Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ seniors. Spring 2021 marked the first year these programs were offered to the undergraduate student population in this way. While there had been some similar events for Black and LGBTQ students during spring 2019, this iteration involved student committees for each graduation celebration.

Human Resources Management (HR)

HR prepared an Affirmative Action Plan (AAP) for Women and Minorities, which sets up flexible goals to mitigate underutilization of these populations to reflect the gender, race, and ethnic profile of the labor pools from which Fordham recruits and selects.

HR revised its New Hire Orientation Seminar, which now includes a video greeting from Father McShane; a video greeting from Rafael Zapata, Fordham’s chief diversity officer; and a video greeting from Kareem Peat, Fordham’s Title IX coordinator, as well as information on the University’s DEI initiatives.

HR instituted Monthly Diversity and Inclusion E-News, which covered: